“I am notlyingto you, Oren Valens. I fuckingloveyou! I went to Venezuela, planning to go on that missionaloneas a means to keepyourfriends safe. I kept you here, because I couldn’t fucking stomachlosing you!”
“No, you don’t.” No. No, it was another fucking trick. “You left me here on purpose. You left me alone with my father, so I became what I was always meant to be. You lost me the moment you let me wake up in your roomalone.” I gripped the hilt of the blade, his blood coating my hand as it dripped down from the silver.
“I left you in my room to give you a semblance of comfort. All I fucking wanted,” tears welled in his eyes, his chest hitching, “was foryouto besafe.”
“Iamsafe. I don’t feel. I don’t have to think. I just act, and it keepsmesafe.” I pointed at him. “Look who’s in the chair.Notme for once in my fucking life.”
“Then do whatever the fuck you want to me to get your thrill,” he spat, his glower meeting mine. “Because I’ve already lost you, and there’s no worse pain than that.”
“Like you know pain,” I said, tossing the blade to the side. “How can someone who spreads it know what it feels like? How can someone who death follows know what it’s like to experience it?”
“I don’t know, Oren.” His jaw feathered, knuckles whitening as he gripped the arms of the chair. “Why don’tyoutell me the answer to your questions? Considering you’ve shifted into the spitting image of the man who destroyed your life. And now, look at you, doing just that to everyone else.”
“If I shifted into the spitting image of the man who destroyed my life, I’d look just as pathetic as you. My father rebuilt me.” A manic laugh echoed as I kicked his side, the stitches opening further as red seeped through his shirt, trickling down to his pants. “You wanna know how much? Should we talk about Lucas’s absence?”
His brows furrowed, the question coming out as a near whisper. “What have you done, Oren?”
“What Ihadto,” I answered, pointing to the stain of his blood on the floor. “He bled for hours,Thorne. Another one of your men, and I fucking killed him because I had to. It was the only way to erase this,” I said as I stabbed my chest with my finger right above my heart.
He ripped against the cuffs, but their tightness made the movement practically useless. “WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!”
But it wasn’t a question for me; he aimed it at the black window he knew my father was lingering behind.
“Never take your eyes off the man in front of you.” I curled my fingers, the blow cracking against his jaw before I sent another one to the wound I’d opened. “Oren Valensis dead, and you fucking killed him for good.”
He turned his chin back to me, his lip split as blood trickled from it. “Ineverwanted this for you, Oren. Not once… Not. Fucking. Once.”
“Neither did I, but as you told me, running is all I’m good at.Ichanged my destiny. I’m not weak anymore, not a burden, not… not anything… no, notanyonethat can be fucking toyed with again.”
“And how do you think Simon will feel about that? Liam?”
I clenched my jaw, flicking my gaze away. “I lost them, too. Having friends… having people to cherish is a weakness I can’t afford anymore. I’ve always been alone, but now? Now I’ve learned to embrace it.”
“So you’re going to shatter them more than they’ve already been shattered?”
“They have each other. They’ll be more than fine without me.” It was true. To protect them, to protectmyselffrom hurting anyone ever again, I had to let them go.
He shook his head, scoffing in disbelief. “You couldn’t be further from the truth. The two never ceased to remind me how much I’d failed you, theyfoughtfor you, and now you’re discarding them without a moment of consideration?”
“They were wrong. I’m not worth fighting for. You taught me that best,” I spat.
“Then go into the infirmary and tell Simon that. Tell him to stop fighting, to die.”
“Maybe he should!” My chest expanded, my innermost thoughts spewing. “Dying is merciful compared to this hellhole of a life.”
“You’re pathetic,” he snarled. “You gave up on yourself this easily, on yourmotherthis easily? You never loved her.”
“No, I didn’t. IthoughtI did, but I’m just my father’s son. A worthless, useless piece of shit.”
You never loved her.
“If that’s true, go get her ashes and bring them here. Dissolve them in water, in front of me, because as far as I’m concerned, you’re a fuckingliar.”
“I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“You’re right. You don’t. But even better…” He leaned forward in the chair, his lips curling into a sneer. “Youwon’t,because you’re acowardand you’re afraid of reawakening your light.”
“I’m… I’mnota coward.” I ran a hand over my hair, pacing back and forth.
