Free Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia Page A

met in silence and I knew what he was going to say. I felt it in my core.
    “Hadrian was your father’s Guardian, so it is up to you to destroy him.”

Chapter Ten

    M y ears still couldn’t believe what they had heard.
“My father?”
    For my entire life his existence had been a secret, save for a few pictures lingering around our house. I purposely kept him locked up in the back of my mind to keep from requesting explanations from my mother, explanations I knew would rip her heart open, revealing a wound I was sure had never healed. She loved him long ago. I, on the other hand, held no emotional ties to him. He was a stranger in my universe. Even now, I felt nothing.
    “Are you all right?” Concern shone in Garreth’s eyes. He was forever watching out for me.
    “Why is this up to me?” I was having trouble breathing. This was not what I had expected when I envisioned my Saturday with Garreth.
    He looked at me as we slowly began our trek back to the car. “Only a human with an Archangel bloodline can undo the havoc wreaked here. Only the pure of heart can stop this.”
    “I’m not that pure of heart. I hate Brynn Hanson, remember?”
    “Nice try, Teagan.” Garreth shook his head and laughed. “Seriously, what’s expected of you is important. Don’t you feel the slightest bit special?”
    I looked at him sideways. “Is that a trick question? Because I’m not finding anything special about this.”
    The sun no longer peeked through the trees overhead but instead cast shadows at an angle that could only mean late afternoon. Between glances at my shoes, I looked up at Garreth in hopes of deciphering something, anything. I continued walking, picking up my pace. I was anxious to get away from all this green and clear my head. All this responsibility was unnerving me.
    “I’m still trying to understand the “bloodline” thing. I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head.
    Garreth paused for a moment to find words that would help me grasp this. “It’s the essence, the spirit, that is transferred to the human being guarded. It’s not blood, nor does it mean you’re related in any way. Think of it simply as a succession, like an inheritance being passed down through generations.”
    I let it sink in. “He had something to do with my father’s disappearance, didn’t he?” Garreth opened the passenger door for me when we reached the car and I climbed numbly up onto the seat. “Maybe he knew too much?”
    “Your father certainly understood that angels, light and dark, existed. Perhaps that was reason enough for your father to be a threat. Either way, something happened to allow Hadrian to turn like he did. Perhaps it was simply a show of power to Lucifer.”
    Garreth had said the essence of an Archangel flowed through my veins like blood. That I was the only hope for the Guardians. I shook my head in despair. I was barely passing French class. What hope could I be?
    There was just enough clearing to turn the Jeep around, allowing us to head out to the main road. We were both quiet as Garreth seemed to respect my need to let my thoughts churn. He took my hand and I sighed. I didn’t want to leave him just yet, especially now that I knew we only had a few days left. What made it worse was that I sensed these last days together were not going to be pleasant; they would, in fact, be the darkest days of my entire life.
    “Is my mother in on this?” I couldn’t help but wonder if this was perhaps a family legacy.
    “No. Fortunately, she has no clue what exists outside the human world. Teagan, your father was very heroic but
you
are stronger. The power of the bloodline increases with each generation. You have to believe in yourself. At the end, your father was left to fight alone against his own Guardian, one who used everything he knew about your father as leverage to destroy him.”
    To my surprise, I felt sad and angry. How strange that I would share a bond so significant with someone I never knew and that