“It’s not even the magnitude of what I did—I’ll process that eventually. The part that scares me the most is howeasyit was to justify it. I needed more power, so I took it.”
“You didn’t, though.”
“I would have,” she whispers.
I shake my head. “I don’t believe that.” Her eyes water, and it pleases my dragon when she wipes them away with the sleeve of my sweatshirt—like she’s marking me, just like I’ve marked her with my clothes.
“There’s no way to know if I would have stopped—” But I’m not letting her go down this road. Fuck knows I’ve already been there, done that.
“Nyx. You’re not like the rest of them,” I jerk my head in the direction of campus and the ruthless jockeying for power and influence beyond those doors. “Okay? You’d have stopped in time.”
She nods and dries her eyes again, but I don’t believe for a second that she heard me. “You want to know what else was fucking weird?”
“Fuck, there’s more?” I deadpan, and she laughs under her breath again.
“You know my creepy tarot deck?”
“You mean the stack of sentient paper you’ve been feuding with?”
She narrows her eyes. “Are you teasing me?”
“I would never.”
“Liar. Anyways, when I got back to my dorm yesterday after the hearing, the box was on the floor, in the middle of my room. That’s like the fourth time it’s randomly appeared somewhere.”
“That’s even weirder than the fucking cat.” Who’s now looking at me with death in his eyes as she scratches its chin.
“I don’t know, he’s growing on me.”
Guess it’s here to stay, then. The dragon merely rumbles in displeasure and she opens her mouth, but hesitates.
“What?”
“Can I ask you a shitty question?”
“So long as you’re not asking me to cat-sit.” When she smiles, I think I actually get butterflies. But they die in a fiery blaze when reality comes crashing down.
“What’s the deal with your father?”
Well. She did warn me.
“I haven’t asked because none of my business… but, I think it’s kind of my business now, if I have to face him on the Council.”
“Yeah…yeah.” I rub my hand over my face, tracing the five jagged scars marking me as an exile. “So he’s an evil piece of shit.”
“Obviously.”
I take a steadying breath, and notice the cat’sstilllooking at me. Like it’s waiting for me to confess, too. But this is the part I fucking hate. This is the part no one knows about the fallen dragon prince, except for those that were there on the worst day of my life. Quietly, I reopen those old wounds, and tell her everything.
“I grew up hearing my father tell us that our family was destined to rule, because we’re the last true descendants of the original Fae. He said it was ourdutyto lead, because we were the strongest.” His voice echoes through memories I’ve tried to bury beneath anger and pain. “He held out for my epiphaneia to the very end. Even when my brother had his just after his twentieth birthday—we’re only eleven months apart. The morning I turned twenty-one, he burst through my door, dragged me out of my room, and threw me down the stairs where my mother and little brother, Atlas, were waiting. Along with the leaders of all five shifter clans.”
My throat closes as I become lost in the memory. “While everyone watched—while my motherwatched, and didnothing—he accused me of betraying our bloodline. He called me his greatest shame, that it was an insult to his legacy to even share air with a worthless failure who couldn’t wake his dragon. He called on everyone to bear witness as he stripped me of my birthright as crown prince and gave it to my brother.”
“Ramsey—” I shake my head, cutting her off. I just need to get it out.
“But that wasn’t enough for him. See—shifters breed true. Most of the time, the kid takes after whichever parent is the stronger shifter. Our family has always bred true, no matter what. We arealwaysdragons. But he didn’t want to risk any moredefectivedragons challenging the new rightful heir to the throne. He said any child of mine would be nothing more than a weakling bastard, cursed to bear the shame of my failure. So he exiled me. You know what that means?” I ask. She shakes her head, and I see the glint of tears streaming down her cheeks, but she doesn’t say anything.
“When a shifter is exiled, it’s like they no longer exist to other shifters. They’re notallowedto. Usually it’s because they’ve committed a crime so heinous, that execution would be a mercy. Because being cut off from your pack or clan, from your family, your community, ensures a slow, lonely death. And the one who exiles you is required to mark you as one.” I gesture to my face. “He wanted to remove the stain of my existence from the world. And he all but guaranteed it by disfiguring me.”
