Page 147 of Sands of Atonement

“You,” I rasped.

Salazar stepped toward me and snaked a hand over my reins before I could move from him.

“Ah, my daughter. You remember the stories, don’t you?”

My mouth went dry as I stared at Salazar, realizing he was Targon.

“I trust you’ll keep the information that I’m your father to yourself, for your safety… and for Norrah’s.” He twisted a smile as if he had been waiting for days for this moment. My eyes darted up ahead just as Norrah was entering the Atrove.

No.

Norrah.

My head turned back to Salazar. The world no longer made sense to me. I was Targon’s daughter?

Oh my God. I was spiraling, and it was hard to breathe.

“Why did you take me, Targon? And don’t you dare think about lying to my face? You taught me everything I know. I expect decent respect for your student and daughter,” I said.

Salazar chuckled as if I were an overreacting child—as he had many times in my childhood, but this time my insides coiled. Amusement was written across his face. It nearly broke my bruised heart. How could someone whom I grew up thinking the world of be someone entirely different? One moment, he was my teacher and mentor, Salazar. The next, my father. And now Targon.

The man had many scarves, and I intended to unwrap them all.

Lying piece of shit.

He held on to the reins as if that would do anything. My eyes flitted toward the Atrove’s caves, where Norrah was. “I’m taking you away before Kavid finds you out here. He’s searching for you to finish what he started,” he whispered, but he was wrong. Kavid didn’t try to kill me when he saw me again. I kept my eyes on the entrance. “Come down from the horse, Eshe. I don’t have all day to explain everything.” My immediate reaction was to drop my shoulders, obey him, and listen to Salazar like I had done for twenty-four years.

But something wasn’t adding up. I shook my head. I couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You lied to me,” I whispered to him.

“For your safety, I did. I needed you with me—you’re my daughter. You’ve been with me your entire life, and I wasn’t going to let you endanger yourself to the man who did it all.”

I was his daughter, and he was the past Atrovian leader, Targon. There was nothing I could do with Norrah inside, so I folded my anger inside my heart and followed Salazar into the Atrove. But a whisper of the wind through the desert sands told me deep in my bones not to trust this man as we entered.

We walked through the darkened tunnels, and I remained quiet. Calculating everything and everyone in my life, past and present.

This time, Targon and another Atrovian warrior brought me down the levels to the fourth and last one. It was colder here than I remembered. We approached a closed chamber. I turned toward Targon.

“What? Are you going to keep me locked up here now?” I snapped at Targon.

His streaked brows lowered, as if he were tired of my complaining. “Until I can trust you.”

“I have questions. That doesn’t mean you can’t trust me,” I hissed.

“I understand that you do, of course you do. And I will answer every single one of them, but right now I don’t have the time.” He took a step toward me and brushed the back of his fingers against my cheek. “I’ll be back this evening, and we’ll discuss everything.”

It took everything in me not to step away. “I want the truth.”

“You will have it, I swear, Eshe,” he promised.

With great reluctance, I dropped the subject. Through the threshold of the door, I found a bed, a table with fruit, and a chair. It was dark with a candle glowing.

“Where is Norrah?” I asked as I turned to face Targon.

“Don’t worry about her. She has her own chamber close by.”

I saw red. The anger deep inside me unfolded like a crashing wave.