“It sounds horrible.”
“It was.” I licked my lips before continuing. “I’d had enough. I told my father we couldn’t go on this way. The Red King was pushing hard at us. This was weeks before the start of the war. If things didn’t change, if we didn’t change, the Fire Kingdom would have taken our entire northern territories.”
“What did you do?” she asked breathlessly.
“I did what any child does. I rebelled. I opened a window, and I turned on the lights.” I closed my eyes, recalling that day vividly.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The snarling figure of my father burst into my room, his hair clacking wildly as the beads twisted into his many braids whacked one another.
Reaching out, he shut off the lights and stormed across my room to the window. His fur coat trailed out behind him, courtesy of a pair of pelts from bear shifters that had wronged him.
“You know the rules! This is no way for a future tyrant to behave. Fall in line.” He turned to look me full on, his blue eyes filling with silvery light. “Or do I need to get the whip? Perhaps you’ve forgotten what it means to be an ice dragon, boy? Do you need a reminder?”
Something inside me broke that day. I’d had enough. I was tired. Tired of it all, of all the games, all the brutality and beast-like nature we were forced to live in because of him.
“I’m not the one who has forgotten their way,” I said, moving to stand between my father and the window. “I’m not the one who is afraid to see the light, to look at themselves in a mirror. I’m not the one who feels the need to rule by fear, Father.”
He snarled, thrusting a hand at my feet. I countered his ice with my own, simply standing my ground. When he couldn’t freeze me to the spot, he decided he would try the old-fashioned way. With the back of his hand.
“What did you do?” Anna’s lips had parted slightly as she listened to my story, hanging onevery word.
I hung my head. I couldn’t bear to see her thoughts of me shatter against the truth of what I was.
How could she love someone who killed their own father?
“I broke his hand,” I said bluntly. “And then I broke his neck.”
“Caz …” she whispered, horrified.
“I know. I’m a monster. I told you.”
I waited for her to get up and leave. To walk out of the room and out of my life. It was what I deserved. A fitting punishment. A man who killed his father denied the opportunity to become one.
“You’re no monster.” Soft, feminine fingers stroked my cheek and pushed my hair back over my shoulder.
I tried not to shudder under her touch. I didn’t deserve it. To rid myself of the worst thing to ever happen to me, I now had to sacrifice the best. I knew that. The scales had to be balanced somehow. Anna was too good for me. She deserved better.
“You know what I’ve done. How can you say that?”
“Because.” Her voice was hard as steel and cut as cold as ice. “I’ve seen whathe’sdone. I’ve seen what he did to you, and I’ve seenwhat he did to those like me. That man was a monster, and all of Hollow Earth is better off because of what you did, Caz.”
My eyebrows shot up.
That didn’t sound like rejection, like fear and disgust, or any of the things I’d expected to hear.
“I only wish I could have been there to help you through it,” she said, moving in closer. “That must have been impossibly difficult. Dealing with what happened, even if he deserved it. The fallout. The war with the Red King right after. All with just you and Dirk.”
“Dirk doesn’t know,” I said flatly. “And he must not know.”
Anna’s eyes widened.
“I made it look like someone else had done it. Not that anyone cared. They all saw me as far easier to manipulate anyway. But I didn’t tell Dirk. I couldn’t. I love him too much. He would never understand. Not truly.”
“So you’ve kept this entirely to yourself? Told no one else?”
I shook my head.
“Caz, I’m so sorry.” She leaned in and kissed my cheek.
