I swallowed nervously at his words, knowing that anything to do with him and how he treated my mother couldn’t be good. My eyes narrowed on him. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“She’s dead.”
Static rang in my ears as my heart plummeted to my stomach. Bile rose in my throat as I pitched forward, wanting to rush him in anger. I wrenched my hands against the ropes binding me before gripping the stone floor in front of me, digging my nails into the filth beneath them since I was unable to stand.
“You bastard,” I snarled. “What did you do to her!”
Dead? Absolutely not. There was no way. That…that just wasn’t possible.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the opportunity to dole out punishment fitting for letting you escape,” he snarled as he turned toward me fully, truth evident in his disappointed gaze. “Your mother took the weak way out, taking her own life right after you left. I did, however, find your letter to her. I can’t help but wonder ifthatwas what did it. If it was your words that convinced her to take her own life.”
I stared at him blankly, feeling a dazed sense of stupor overtaking me. A victorious smile filled his face at my stunned silence. “You can think about that…for a few more hours anyway.”
A single tear leaked down my face as grief plowed into me, a pulsating, dark sadness radiating out from the center of me.My mother…had killed herself.
26
KIERAN
I’d never beento an execution before, so I supposed it was fitting that my first one would be my own. Despite my bold words to my father, I found that I wasn’t nearly as confident now as I was then that I would somehow manage to avoid my untimely death.
It didn’t help that thoughts of my mother weighed heavily on me, dragging me beneath the crushing weight of sadness, ofgrief, with each tortured memory.
When I left my family home, I had been well aware that I probably wouldn’t see her again. I had never expected this outcome, though—I never expected her to kill herself.While my father’s words hurt, I couldn’t blame myself for her death. I did, however, grieve her loss. There was always a distance between us that felt insurmountable, but I wished that I could have thanked her one last time for shielding me from my father’s rage for all those years.
Then again, if I didn’t find a way out of this situation, maybe I would have the opportunity to thank her soon enough.
“Forward. Move it.” I narrowed my eyes at the soldier that walked past me, clearly someone who viewed himself as important.
Forward.
Unfortunately, there was only one thing that stood in front of me that I could focus on and it was the massive wooden platform in the distance. It was beyond clear that my father had been very confident in his ability to capture me—because everything had already been put into place for my execution.
A sense of sadness and disappointment outlined the anger and determination I felt to get out of this situation. Sadness and disappointment at the concept that the man responsible for literally half of me could so easily decide he wanted to remove me from this reality.
Honestly, I don’t think he ever considered another solution to the problem that I presented for him, even before knowing about my dead affinity. In my father’s head, there was no way I could be allowed to live, to continue to bring the shame he believed I represented to the family name. He would kill his only child in an effort to preserve his pride and ego.
It was a wonder that I didn’t recognize how outright crazy he was earlier than I did.
As I was led through the jail toward the front doors, my brain pulled a memory to the forefront of my mind. It was one of the many times he decided to use me to make a point to others, just as he was doing now.
“I really don’t think this is necessary,” I whispered, feeling my stomach drop as my hands grew shaky. I hadn’t meant to sleep in, but I had been trying so hard to prepare for the exam today that I’d been exhausted and missed my alarm.
My father had pulled me from the house after my mother had woken me up, and I was now stumbling, more like falling, behind him as we approached the academy.
“It is absolutely necessary. You are lazy. Spoiled. Forgetful.”
The academy doors opened to let us through, and I tried to pull away from his white-knuckled grip on my arm. The look he offered was deadly, causing me to straighten before swallowing nervously. Without a word, I followed behind him through the empty halls of the academy, everyone else was already in class or in testing. I knew it wasn’t worth fighting him when he was in this type of mood.
I winced as he used his fist to push open my classroom door, the wood swinging in and instantly drawing over fifty pairs of eyes toward me. My teacher, Miss Tracey, looked at me in surprise before offering a polite nod to my father.
“Archangel, I didn’t expect you to stop by today. Welcome.”
“Unfortunately, it isn’t for a good reason. I am here to deliver my daughter and to have her apologize for her insolence.” His glare moved in my direction, and I shrank as far away from his ire as his ironclad grip on my arm would allow. “Say sorry and then sit.”
“Sorry,” I whispered. Shame and embarrassment heated my cheeks as I pulled from his grip and sat down in the closest chair, looks of pity and even amusement being cast my way from my peers. My father didn’t leave it at that, though, his voice loud and booming.
“All of you should look to Kieran as an example of whatnotto do—your exams are an important precedent to your affinity placement testing. Take them seriously.”
