Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
I run my fingers through my hair, so stunned by the lengths she’s willing to go to in order to manipulate me that I initially can’t bring myself to respond. She could have treated the deaths of her children and the banishment of both me and her past husband as an opportunity to reassess her life, take stock of the mistakes she made in raising her children. But instead she brings me a dagger, a suicidal task, a promise of a new sibling, and not even a hint of an apology.
I am her pawn. A weak piece, but the only one she has left, so she’ll play it anyway.
Talking to her is enough to throw me into the same old hell I’ve lived in before my banishment. She doesn’t understand that I’ve moved on and changed, because she’s been back here, plotting and scheming as she has for years, while I got the chance to experience a world without her boot pressing on my neck. In a way, the banishment has been the best thing to ever happen to me.
I spread my arms. “Who did you even get pregnant with? You know what? I don’t care. Unless you know of something that can help me save Hawk, you might as well leave.”
“Hawk? The human.” Her eyes get that detached coldness I’m so intimately familiar with. As the least talented of her offspring, I’ve often borne the brunt of her disappointment and anger. Even now, I hold my breath, even though I’m no longer a child. She is still physically bigger than me, and I hate the echoes of fear it evokes in me.
“My Dark Companion. My husband.”
“What kind of Companion is he? I’ve heard of the feats you were capable of just days ago, but I don’t see even a hint of his shadow anymore. He is lost to you. You should kill him and—”
I grab the bottle of wine and throw it against the wall to relieve some of the rage boiling inside me. My mother must have not expected that from her meek, obedient son, because she makes half a yelp and steps back, but the flood of red still stains the bottom of her dress.
“I will not harm my Companion! I love him. And you can’t possibly understand, because you’re incapable of sacrifice. If stabbing that dagger into Lord Kyran’s eye could save Hawk, I’d do it, but since it won’t, I will be aligning myself with the man who can actually help me.”
She steps aside to avoid the puddle of wine, her lips in a tight line. “I hoped you could still make something of yourself and elevate our family, but if you don’t want to do this,” she shows me the dagger, “then you are proving yourself to be as useless as all of the Nocturne Court believes you to be.”
I let out a sad laugh, because what else is there to say in the face of such contempt? “I don’t care.”
“Have two months in the human realm ruined you so completely? You’ve lost all ambition.” Mother cocks her head at me, and I see it for what it is. Yet another tactic to guilt me into doing what she wants.
“My only ambition is saving Hawk. Once I succeed, my deal with Lord Kyran will stand, and you will be dead to me.” I stare her down with the cold glare I learned from her. “No. You already are.”
She shakes her head but slides the dagger back into her corset. “I will bear another son. One who is worth something, and one day, you will regret what you’ve just done.”
“I will not. And your future child? You will crush them with your dark dreams just like you did all of us!”
Mother squints, but she’s turning away. “Of course a weakling would say that. You should be guided by the greater good, not just emotion—”
I see red. “Guess what? Anger is an emotion too, and you’re full of it. You stew in helpless fury, and I hope you drown in it. I will let my love for Hawk guide me instead. I am my own man, and will live by my own rules, not yours!”
She stares me down. “You’re biting your nails again. It’s unbecoming.”
“Leave!”
She doesn’t even look back. The bottom of her dress leaves a long red smear as it drags over the floor. She slams the door to my cell so hard I fear the tower will topple, but nothing else happens, and I’m left in such blissful silence I collapse into an armchair to enjoy it.
I had no idea how much I needed this. Our umbilical cord is finally cut.
Guided by a surge of unreleased tension, I walk out into the balcony and scream at the top of my lungs. I scream until I have no more breath, and only then do I fall into bed.