Velvet Haven

saw chest movement, rapid and shallow, and realized the bird was still alive, although its wing was badly mangled. Picking it up as gently as she could, she felt its beak pierce her hand. There was still fight in the thing if it was able to bite her.
    “Stop that,” she said gruffly as she handled the bird more carefully. “I’m only trying to stop you from becoming tire splat.”
    The bird stopped and she felt it stiffen in her hands as if rigor had just settled in. Then it cocked its head and looked up at her, as if it was listening. Toweling off the excess wetness from its feathers, she was careful to avoid its wing.
    Brushing her hand through the feathers to make sure most of the water was gone and her upholstery was going to stay relatively dry, Mairi noticed the silver stripe that ran along its back. It had been partially buried beneath wet feathers, but now that they were all unruffled, the stripe was clearly visible.
    Oh, shit! It was the bird from the club.
    “Why are you out here by the hospital?” she asked, as if speaking to a bird were perfectly normal. “You’re blocks away from the club.”
    The bird didn’t answer. Not that she expected it to. Cradling it to her chest, she ran back to the car and carefully placed it on the passenger seat. She thought about taking it to an animal shelter, but she knew they’d only put it out of its misery. For some reason, she couldn’t stand the prospect. There was something about this bird that she liked. It made her feel calm.
    She thought back to what Rowan had said, and an image of Bran looming over her, licking her sex, fired up in her brain. “Stupid,” she muttered as she buckled her seat belt and pulled the gear shifter into drive.
    So he gave her a hell of an orgasm; it didn’t mean he was keeper material. Hell, he was nowhere to be found when she had left the club with Rowan. For all she knew, he’d gotten what he wanted out of her and taken off without a backward glance. Damn, she wished she could remember the events after that blinding orgasm.
    What the hell had happened to make her forget?
    She looked down at the bird as she drove, studying the gray mark. “I don’t know anything about birds,” she grumbled. “How the hell am I gonna fix your wing?”
    “You’llthink of something. And I will repay you with my life.”
    Mairi looked at the bird. God, now she was hearing things.
    “Mairi?”
    She startled at the sound of Rowan’s voice. “Yeah?”
    “Do you believe in fate?”
    “No.”
    “You should, because yours is staring at you right now.”

    From the shadows of a building, Suriel watched Mairi head back to her car. The raven was in her hands, just as he had planned. He watched her carefully place the bird on the seat. A softness in him warmed his usually cold insides.
    He had intended for her to find the Sidhe king. It was their fate.
    He knew that now. Although he’d wanted desperately to keep Mairi from the Sidhe, it was not to be. His purpose in her life was ending.
    A hollowness filled him as he finally accepted the truth. Unknown to her, he had been at her side since birth, watching over her, guiding her. He hadn’t always understood his purpose in her life, just that He had willed it so. And now He had shown Suriel the path her life would take, and the part he would play in it. A damn millennium here on Earth, with no fucking contact from anyone from above, and tonight he gets a message that Mairi’s path lay with the raven, and not him.
    He still didn’t want to accept that his precious human was meant for Sidhe scum. They all believed him responsible for the ills that had befallen Annwyn. But it wasn’t as though he’d barged through the veil and slaughtered everyone in sight. He hadn’t brought locusts and plague. He’d had sex with a goddess. And she had seduced him . Yet the raven despised him as though Suriel alone were responsible.
    He hated Annwyn and all its inhabitants. He hated the goddesses the most. He blamed them for his fall. He’d had over a millennium to reconcile himself to his actions. Yet a thousand years later he was still embittered.
    Except for when it came to Mairi. She was the key to his redemption. She was what was left of the good in him. She was the healer that the raven would need to save himself from Morgan’s curse. He had a role to play in both their lives, if only the raven would not be such a pigheaded ass as he usually was.
    He wanted out. Needed out. He was tired of this