Page 14 of Ashborne Phoenix

“He will not take my seat while I live. I won’t allow it,” Father muttered.

She turned to face him, beaming. “Of course not! But we could be the first—establish a new, lesser seat at your side. The first Dominus with the power and strength to stand and rule while his son yet grows at his side! Not in competition, but in unity. You two together would be… unstoppable.” She was awed, and excited. Breathless with it.

I wasn’t sure what seat they spoke of, but my father’s frown made it clear he wasn’t convinced.

“You think I don’t hold enough control without his… exhibitions?” He enunciated the word, spitting syllables through his teeth.

With one, darting look over her shoulder to shut me up, Mother hurried around the desk, ignoring me completely as she leaned into my father, stroking his chest and murmuring as if they were the only two in the room.

“Rand… It has always been a weakness that the Heir takes his seat at the table with no prior knowledge. You remember—it weakened us for the years needed to bring your Dominus into full competence. Imagine if he learned from you now? Imagine if he stood at your right, his power at your call? No one could stand up against the two of you together. None. And when it’s his time, he’ll excel.”

Father wasn’t impressed. “He doesn’t seek the hunt for power, he’s merely unwilling to share his little slut!”

I bristled, but Mother smiled. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… does it?”

They stared at each other in the wake of those words, clearly both remembering. But I had no patience for their games. I refused to be forgotten, and wouldn’t allow them to determine this outcome without hearing me.

“She isn’t a slut,” I said darkly.

Mother lifted the hand that dangled at her side, a short, sharp gesture to silence me, but Father’s eyes snapped from hers, to me, over her shoulder. “You think you can demand your place among us simply to keep your cock wet?”

“No! I’m ready!”

“Think, my darling,” my mother whispered, gripping his chin and pulling his attention back to her. “Think what they’ll say, Rand. Think of the stories they’ll tell in years to come of the Lord Ashford, and the power that runs in his veins… a power so deep, so potent, it emerges in his offspring before they have even reached maturity.”

“I am not immature—”

To my shock, my father’s form, looming darkly over my mother, diluted.

My jaw dropped to see the light from the window on the other side of his office angling through his form in the split second before something gripped my throat with such force, I couldn’t even inhale to gasp. I couldn’t breathe at all.

I was driven backwards, away from the desk and my mother, and my father’s impossible half-finished form, stumbling over my own feet, as a deep, irate voice echoed in my head.

‘Arrogant little prick, you have no idea what you’re dealing with. So sure of your own dominance you are blind to the truth in front of you!’

“Rand!” Mother gasped. “Don’t!”

I panicked when I couldn’t breathe, and instinctively tried to claw the hand at my throat away—but there was nothing on which to gain purchase. Air closed around my throat. And suffocated me. I couldn’t make a sound. For seconds, as he muttered curses and warnings in my head, I struggled against nothing and was convinced I would die.

But then I remembered my power.

Did he hold my magic? Or only my body?

There was only one way to find out.

To my relief, the moment I flowed from my place under his hand, to my mother’s side as she hurried towards us, my throat opened and blessed, necessary air sucked in.

My father’s form solidified once more, his face twisted in rage, but I was ready for him this time, gripping the dark, cold power that ran in my veins, ready to use it once more if he began to fade again and—

“Stop it, both of you!” Mother snapped.

We all went still, Father’s eyes narrowed, but locked on her. I panted, my body still desperate for air. But Mother stood between us, her chin high and rolled her shoulders back. When she spoke again, her voice was calm.

“Vane, leave. Now. I will speak to your father on this.”

“But—”

“Now!” she snapped, her eyes flaring with red-hot flame as she turned on me.