Page 91 of Dream in Darkness
“Did you get another rune?” I ask, feeling the one on my back flare, sparking with life.
“I did. I got one for power, can’t you feel how well it’s working?” His forehead wrinkles, a grotesque smile forming on his lips.
“What about Abel?”
“I’m stronger than Abel. I have always been stronger and better than Abel. He should never have been made heir. I was the first born, it was rightfully mine,” he says, face turning red in his fit of rage.
“It wasneversupposed to be yours.”
My grandfather killed Balthasar Escalus, to become Alpha, and Stephano Escalus chose to exile himself after my uncle took power. When my father murdered Abel, Stephano returned, happy to serve the wolf who had avenged his father’s death.
But the role of Alpha should’ve been his. It was always supposed to belong to Stephano.
“You think Stephano should be Alpha? Stephano bows to me. He’s here tonight, killing your precious freaks.”
I shake my head. “Stephano wouldn’t kill anyone. He’s not like you?—”
“Thisis why I chose Tyrus and not you. He understood what we could become and was willing to die for it. We both knew you were too weak. You would never agree, so I never told you everything.” His words hit like venom, only deepening my hatred for him. “This is why your mother left. She blamed herself for your weakness.”
I can see the magic crackling at his fingertips. He inches towards me, taking a step with every word, and I know the second I let up, he’s going to blast me, ending my life, yet I find myself frozen. My muscles scream, begging me to move, but my feet remain planted on the ground.
“Tempest,” Yasmeena yells. “Tempest, he’s doing this on purpose. He’s saying whatever he can to hurt you.”
Except hecan’thurt me. Not anymore.
As a child, I blamed myself for his wrongdoings. It was my fault my mother left. My fault whenever things went wrong. My fault when Tyrus died.
I was taught that every bad thing that happened to my pack was due to my mistakes. For not being strong enough, or for being unlovable. My father didn’t need chains, no, instead he gave me a voice that sounded just like his so I could be a prisoner in my own mind.
So I adapted. I kept quiet. Learned to flinch before his fist hit my cheek, learned to apologize before the accusation even left his lips. I used to think the pain in my chest was weakness, but turns out it was heartache. I thought love was something to be earned, something you had to suffer for, so I became willing to bend and bleed for a tenderness that never came. For a father who would never care.
I mistook obedience for honor, and cruelty for valor.
The accumulation of everything that’s ever happened to me hits me like a hammer, breaking my bones, leaving me destroyed. Every sweat-glazed night terror was a memory my brain was desperate to forget, and every beating I endured was not an Alpha forging a warrior, but a monster forming a wound.
Heat flares from behind me, and Fenris screams in agony. Draven runs across the field, Gemma in his arms, and I can hear Reina and Khalid, but everything is muffled. I think they grab Yasmeena and pull her away, but I can’t see anything other than my father as he stalks towards me.
The entire grounds seem to shake with untethered power andit’s as though I can see my father’s mind being corrupted in front of my eyes. He was always the villain, but the atra is destroying him, just like it did Abel.
I have to be the one to end this.
Coils of magic threaten to release from under my skin, and I let go, unleashing myself upon him. Frost blooms from the tips of my fingers, growing across the grass between us. Ice forms on his boots, crawling up his legs and chest, over old scars I used to trace as a child.
There’s a part of me that wants to stop here and let him be locked away in prison, or let someone else finish the job, but I know deep down that it has to be me.
The ice makes its way up his neck until I can no longer hear him. He is completely frozen, unable to move, but his eyes are still wide. His breath creates a fog until I can no longer see his face, but my magic keeps going.
Layer upon layer, ice upon ice, I completely encapsulate him in a frozen tomb.
My mind clears, realizing how quiet it’s gotten on this battlefield. Khalid finally lets go, allowing Yasmeena to run towards me, and I wrap my arms around her.
I kiss her forehead, and she hums. “You’re okay, princess.”
“I’m okay,” I repeat, and place a finger under her jaw, tipping her head up to look at me. “How are the others?”
“I don’t know. Draven took Gemma. Reina and Khalid are fine, I haven’t seen anyone else. There are definitely some dead lupion,” she says, and I nod.
“I heard Fenris—who else? Gregory and Sampson?”
