Free Blood of the Exiled (Witch Fairy Book 10) by Bonnie Lamer

him?”   I have infinitely more respect for her right now.
     
    She smiles sadly.   “Yes and no.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    “I did nothing against my will, but in order for you to be born, I had to be the one to Fall.”
     
    “The whole Angel of Fertility and Love thing?”
     
    She nods.   “Yes.   No other Angel would have been able to bear a child while Fallen .”
     
    My mind is having trouble accepting this at face value.   “If you knew I would be born, why did you freak out when Mom told you she was pregnant?”
     
    Misery forms a shroud around her.   “When I told you this before, I know you doubted me and with good reason.”   She looks towards the balcony and the sun that is rising.   “Even though I knew what was to come, it was still a shock when my daughter, who had been kept in relative seclusion, had managed to get pregnant.   I was both flustered and a little scared when faced with the responsibility set before me while I was Fallen .   My magic was so limited in that life and you are so important.   You needed to be guarded, protected.   I told your grandfather immediately, thinking we would work together to do this.   I thought we would whisk your mother away to somewhere you both would be safe.   I had grown to love your grandfather during our life together and I forgot his role in your destiny – to be weak of mind.   My heart was shattered when he reacted the way he did.”   She looks at me again.   “The thought of not bringing you into the world was such a foreign concept that I was dumbfounded.   I did everything I could in that form to go against him and his Witan.”   She says Witan like it’s a bowl full of cow intestines she’s supposed to suck through a straw.   Great.   Now I’m imagining what cow intestines would taste like.
     
    “But, you said you knew he was supposed to be weak-minded,” I say, remembering what Raziel had told me about the whole thing.   As part of a pact between the Angels, Witches and Fairies, his mother made this concession.
     
    Lailah smiles sadly.   “To know a thing and to experience it firsthand are two completely different things.   In our day to day lives, it was difficult to see the subtle effects.   He was a good King in the early days. He was kind and just.   The changes were slow, occurring over the course of years.   It was not until your mother was gone that I realized I had lost your grandfather as well.”
     
    I feel so badly for her.   I long ago stopped doubting her side of the story.   “You were so miserable.   Why didn’t one of the other Angels call you back?”
     
    She shakes her head slightly.   “That is not the way it works.   A choice to Fall is a commitment to live a full life, regardless of how that life turns out.   It is only if we are desperately needed that we may be called back before the end of that life.”   Like when she was called back to claim me from Hades.
     
    “That sucks,” I mutter, thinking of all the miserable years she spent with a man she grew to despise.   It says a lot about you if the Angel of Love can’t even love you.   I would have been a lot crabbier and bitter than she was when we first met.
     
    She lays her hand on mine.   “It was my destiny.   As you know, destinies are not always easy.   We must walk our paths regardless if they ‘suck’.”  
     
    It sounds so weird to hear that word coming from her that I have to laugh.   “Yeah, I guess.   Did he know?   About me, I mean.”
     
    Lailah shakes her head.   “Not really.   He knew of the legend, he knew that if the Fairy King could seduce a Princess among the Witches, he would try to return to this realm.   He did not know I was a Fallen Angel sent to seduce him, nor that he would play a role in bringing the prophecy of your destiny to life.”   She’s quiet for a moment.   “Perhaps if he had, things would have gone differently.”   I think she’s right.   From