“Yes,” Gabriel said. “The cure to the Urbat curse is to be killed by the one who loves you most—in an act of true love. Grace has proved that it works. Alas, there is no guarantee that you would survive the cure as Daniel did, but it would free your soul before you died. So you are not doomed to be a demon for all eternity.”
That look in Sirhan’s eyes faded, as if the hope that he could become perfect like Daniel faded along with it, but it was the freeing of his soul that he’d come here for in the first place. “Then how can you cure me, child? You don’t even know me.”
“I never said I could actually cure you.”
Sirhan snarled. “You dared to lie to me, child!”
Five blue-robed men closed in on me, their spears only centimeters from my face. “No!” I shouted. “I didn’t lie. I said I would provide the cure for you, but I can’t do it. You’re right, I don’t know you. I pity you. I have compassion for you. But only someone who loves you most can cure you.”
Sirhan’s lips dropped back over his pointed teeth. He pursed them tight for a moment. “Then it is hopeless. My Rachel is gone.”
“Here’s a whole room of people who love you—” I started to say.
“They are loyal; that is not the same as love,” Sirhan said. “My true alpha essence keeps them devoted to me. But I have been far too cruel over the last year. No one in this room could possibly love me now. Love is against the nature of most Urbats, anyway. We are sad creatures, really. We hate to be alone. Our greatest drive is to be a part of a pack. Yet it is also part of who we are to never truly be close to anyone. We’re too selfish for love.”
“But there are exceptions to that. You and your Rachel? Daniel and I before he was cured?”
“True,” Sirhan said.
“And I believe there is someone in this room who still loves you greatly. Despite the way you’ve treated him. He’s loved you as his brother for nearly eight hundred years. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”
“Does she mean you, Gabriel?”
Gabriel nodded. “I am still your faithful brother, Sirhan. No matter what betrayal you think I have committed. I came to this town, and I stayed here, because I wanted to learn more about the cure—for you. For me. For all of us. I am your beta, and I will be until the end.”
“But can you kill me?” Sirhan asked Gabriel. “You, who hasn’t raised his hand against another man for centuries?”
“What life I have I owe to you, my brother. I would have gone mad hundreds of years ago if you had not convinced your pack to let me in.” Gabriel swallowed hard. “For you, I would do anything.” He wrung his hands. I noticed they were trembling.
Sirhan sighed, looking even more weak and frail than before. Like he’d somehow aged another couple of decades in only a few seconds. He reached one of his beastly hands toward Gabriel. “Then do it now, brother. End my suffering.… Before it’s too late and I pass from this world on my own.”
“Not here. Not now. Alas, Sirhan, I will need time to prepare. Meditate. I want to ensure I am in the right state of mind for it to work. What I do for you must be an act of pure love.” He paused for a moment. “There is also the issue of the Challenging Ceremony that should be considered.”
“Yes. Tomorrow is the first day of the full moon, is it not?”
“It is.”
Sirhan coughed. It sounded like a mixture of a growl and an asthma attack. “I do not know if I can hold on that long.” He rolled forward awkwardly in his chair, as if trying to reach for Gabriel, but instead he slumped over his knees, his outstretched hand now pointing at the floor.
Gabriel knelt at his alpha’s side and helped push him up. The guards held him steady. “You must. Two days is not enough to prepare for the ceremony. We need more time.”
“What’s this about two days?” I asked. “And what does the full moon have to do with anything?”
“Pack laws are stringent when it comes to the Challenging Ceremony,” Gabriel said. “Not only in location, but also in timing. The ceremony would have to take place within a hundred paces of the location where the death of the alpha occurred. Pack laws also dictate that the Challenging Ceremony must happen at midnight on the second night of the full moon directly after the death of the alpha. If Sirhan were to pass either today or tomorrow—the ceremony must be held this Saturday evening. When the moon is at its fullest.”
“It would be glorious, though, wouldn’t it?” Sirhan mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. “A Challenging Ceremony on the night of the bloodred moon. So poetic. And all that p-p-p-power…”
I wondered for a second if Sirhan was rambling incoherently with some sort of rapid-aging-induced dementia, but then I knew what he was referring to. “The night of the bloodred moon? Does he mean a lunar eclipse?” I looked at Daniel. “There’s a total lunar eclipse this Saturday. We’re supposed to observe it for our astronomy class. Dr. Richards said that the moon would turn bright red during it.” I looked back at Gabriel and Sirhan. “Does a lunar eclipse do something to the Urbat?”
“So much power,” Sirhan said. “It would be so glorious.”
“No, Sirhan. It would be far too dangerous.” Gabriel looked back at us. “The way the sun, moon, and Earth align during a total lunar eclipse, something about it increases the power of the wolf tenfold. The draw of the wolf,” he glanced at me, “would be overwhelming. And if an Urbat can channel the power of the bloodred moon, it would make him immensely powerful. A Challenging Ceremony held during the eclipse would be far too dangerous.” He held Sirhan’s hand, not seeming to notice the grotesqueness of it. “Alas, you must hold on longer, my brother. Two days is not enough for time for us to prepare.”
“Very well. I’ve been alive for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. What is two more days?” He let out a low, raspy laugh. The he straightened up in his chair. With a labored swing of one of his leathery, withered arms he pointed at Daniel. “In the meantime, kill the Kalbi boy.”
“What!” I screamed.
The five spears that had been pointed at my face were now positioned by their holders at Daniel, who stood tall and unflinching.
“This wasn’t part of the deal, Sirhan!” I said. “Daniel is to get sanctuary.”