Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
I don’t move. “No.”
“Daughter.”
“I have to do this,” I snap. “You don’t know everything he’s done.”
“I do,” he replies. “I always have.”
My heart twists. “Then let me finish it.”
He moves toward me, slow but unstoppable, until he’s close enough that I can feel the storm beneath his skin. He touches my arm. “You’re powerful. Ruthless, when you need to be. But you are not a killer.”
“I’ve already killed,” I say, “and he deserves to die.”
“He will.”
My father turns, and without a word, lifts his hand.
The demon king gasps, body lifting from the floor, limbs snapping tight under invisible pressure. His eyes bulge. He tries to speak. To beg. To gloat. I don’t know.
Because in one smooth, final motion, my father clenches his fist.
A sickening crack.
And then…
Silence.
Richard’s body falls like a puppet with its strings cut.
I stand frozen.
He did it.
My father.
He took it from me.
“I could’ve done it,” I whisper.
My father looks down at the body and at me. “I know. But now you don’t have to carry it.”
My throat tightens. “So you’ll carry it instead?”
He steps closer. Brushes a strand of hair from my face. “I’ve carried worse.”
And for a moment—for the first time in my life—I believe him.
Not just the king.
But my father.
“I’m the reason your mother turned to Richard,” he says. “Why she sacrificed you and your sister for the attention she got from him. This lies at my feet, Hannah. Not at yours. Never at yours.”
“But Alara said—”
“Alara said what you needed to hear, Toosie. Nothing more and nothing less.”
“But she taught me…”
“She showed you your gifts. And you used them. You defeated Eris.”
I shake my head. “You knew. You knew the whole time that Rogan wasn’t my mate. Why? Why did you do all this? Why did you make me believe we were fated to be together? Why did you tell me my baby could never be?”
I already know the answer to all of this, but I want to hear it from him.
He inhales. Then he grimaces. “I detest the scent of demon blood.”
So much for answering my question. I scoff. “Try tasting it.”
His eyes go wide. “You didn’t—”
“No, of course not. Eris’s blood. It was…like venom.”
“Eris is only half demon.”
I nod. “I know. Trust me, I would never put anything from Richard into my body.”
“He’s no longer your concern.”
I breathe in.
My father is right.
The demons thought I was the one who would kill their king.
Turns out that my father, for the first time in his life, put someone else first.
Me.
“I was wrong,” he says. “Wrong about so many things.”
I could agree, but what would be the point? We both know he’s right.
“Your child is the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken long before your first breath,” he continues, voice low and reverent. “A prophecy I wasn’t aware of until Alara educated me. Born of vampire blood, human heart, and the lycan wild spirit. He will be the first of his kind. The bridge between what has always been divided.”
I shake my head slowly, the words unraveling me. “No. That’s a hell of a responsibility for someone like me.”
“You are worthy. Remember that. And I’m sorry for every time I made you think you weren’t.”
My heart pounds. “You said he’ll unite what’s been divided. What does that even mean?”
“He’ll bring peace to the blood races,” he says. “Vampire. Lycan. Human. The war that’s never truly ended will finally find its truce…in him.”
I stagger back a step. “That’s not peace. That’s pressure. That’s impossible.”
My father’s gaze sharpens, but his voice stays calm. “No. It’s inevitable.”
I want to laugh, but it catches in my throat. “And what am I supposed to do? Raise a savior?”
He cocks his head slightly. “Raise a child. Love him. Protect him. Let the rest come when it must.”
My hands tremble, but I steady them against my sides. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“No,” he says. “And that’s why you’re the perfect person to do it. You. And your wolf.”
I swallow.
“You’ve proven that love conquers fate. It conquers destiny. And this child—your child—will do things we can’t even imagine.” He sighs. “I only wish I could be around to see it.”
“What?”
He doesn’t answer, but I see fatigue in his eyes.
I look at my father.
Truly see him.
And for the first time, he’s not the robust man I’ve always known.
He’s…old.
Despite his quest to stay young with his herbals and elixirs, he is succumbing to Father Time.
Killing the demon king took the last of his power and strength.
And now that he’s leaving me? I want more time with him. Want to get to know this new side of him.
“No, Daddy, please. Don’t go. Please don’t go.”
69
A flicker of something like regret passes over my father’s eyes. I almost smile. For all his power and ruthlessness, he’s still capable of feeling emotion.
“Please don’t,” I repeat, my voice barely a whisper.
My father’s gaze wanders beyond me as if he is looking toward something in the distance, something only he can see. “If you will never be anything else,” he begins in a hushed tone, “know that you are strong.”