Sapphire straightens next to me.
“I—you said we were friends.”
My father barks out a cruel laugh. And my eyes trail up his tall, drunk frame as he stumbles in Aunt Skylenna’s direction.
“Because I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable staying with me!”
“We should go…” Sapphire rasps with a scratchy throat.
I hold my hand up to shush her so I can listen.
“Please!” she hisses again.
But I have to hear this. Like any man who has lost a parent, I believed I’d go the rest of my life without hearing my father’s voice. Without seeing how he is in person. And through a disastrous phenomenon, I have been thrown back in time before he was killed in the Great War of the Dralutheran and RottWeilen. Back when he ruled this country from the shadows.
“Aurick…”
Aunt Skylenna’s voice draws me to pay closer attention.
“It’s been torturing me to live under the same roof as you—knowing you’re undressing just across the hall—but I’ve been patient, waiting foryouto make the first move. Show me you want me.”
“What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath.
My birth father gets closer to Sapphire’s mother, cornering her.
“Not once. You’re myfriend,” Skylenna says.
“No. I’m a man, and you’re a woman. A woman living with me. A woman who has to obey me. Care for me. Touch me.”
Sapphire stops trying to tug me away from this scene. Her attempts go completely silent as she stares with a gaping mouth at the horror we’re both shocked by.
“Did you know?” I whisper to her.
She shakes her head.
My stomach fills with bile at the sight of my aunt quivering in terror. I’ve never seen her like this. Fearful. Small. Fragile. Aunt Skylenna has always had this primeval look in her eyes. A force sleeping behind her kind gaze. A dragon hibernating until it must fly and breathe fire once more.
But this young woman isn’t my aunt. She’s scared to death of my birth father.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me when I am speaking to you!” Aurick roars in a slur.
The back of his hand making contact with Aunt Skylenna’s cheek sends me into a brief state of shock. I jerk at the impact, watching her fall backward as she yelps.
Sapphire throws her hand over her mouth, gasping at the sight of her mother beinghit.
And cowering.
Crawling backward.
Cowering.
I never thought I’d see that woman look so helpless. So scared. So weak and gentle.
A cold creeping rage pours into my chest, stuffing my hands into hard fists. The edges of my vision are lined with tendrils of red and black smoke as my eyes go dry and scratchy from not blinking.
He hit her?
I lunge forward, prepared to throw open the balcony door and step in front of Aunt Skylenna. I’ll wring his neck. I don’t give a shit that he’s my birth father, and I’ve spent most of my life looking up to his memory. He hit her.
