"Well, it's nice to speak to you, too, sister."
"Talon, stop. We both know the kind of relationship we have."
"We don't have a relationship, Navy! That's the fucking problem!" he shouted.
I pulled the phone from my ear, put it on speaker, and stepped outside. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I counted to five before letting out an exaggerated sigh.
"You said you needed to talk to me about Honor. Either talk or get the fuck off my phone."
"Wow." His chuckle was low. "You still only care about that nigga."
"No, I care about the people who cares about me. You've been jealous of Honor since Lucian let him out of the basement. You hated how Lucian kept him close while shutting you out."
"That's what you think? That our father shunned me and favored the orphan he snatched from a druggie who stole from him?"
"Well." I shrugged.
Talon's voice dropped. "What Lucian did wasn't fucking favoritism, Navy, it was a mind game. He wanted to control Honor, keep him on a leash and?—"
"And you let me kill a man because you didn't have the balls to do it yourself!"
"Navy," he groaned.
"No!" I snapped. "You wanna talk about everything our father did, but you're not innocent either. She was dying in front of you, Talon. Our mother's life was slipping away in your face, and you froze! I did what you couldn't. I… I… I fucking killed?—"
The confession ripped the ground from under me, stealing what little control I had left. My chest cinched, throat burning like barbed wire dragged across it. Blood on my hands, the weight of the knife, Talon's wide eyes, my mother's shrill scream. My vision tunneled, black crowding the edges.
"Breathe through it," I mumbled, but my body wouldn't listen. I shook so violently my knees buckled beneath me.
"Navy!"
A door slammed. Footsteps pounded the pavement. I swayed, fighting against gravity as it fought to pull me down. Before I hit the ground, arms caught me. Honor dropped to his knees and held me against him.
"Navy, what the fuck?" His voice snapped, and for the first time, I felt small in the arms of the man I loved.
Honor saw me at what he thought was my worst.
I'll cry in his arms. He'll kiss my forehead and whisper how he'll wipe out the entire population if I ask him to. I'd laugh telling him as long as I had him my problems didn't matter. Then it'll end.
But those instances weren't my worst. My worst was more like Chosyn on a mild day. With a father like Lucian, it was impossible not to inherit some of his worst qualities. Choyce thought she was Lucian's first apprentice, but she wasn't. I was.
The side of me my father influenced was the part I hid. The parts of me I never wanted Honor to see.
What I'd done that night haunted me. It wasn't something Honor could fix with a kiss and a threat. The damage had already been done, and Talon was the trigger.
"Navy," Honor whispered, cradling me with a panicked gaze. "What happened?"
"I—"
My thoughts ran scared, too afraid that if I told Honor the truth, he would clip my wings. In his eyes, I'm pure light. He thinks I've never been tainted unless it was from the bite of his teeth. I couldn't bring myself to change that because without my light, Honor would fade to black.
"Navy, tell me something, or I'm going into this house and making shit ten times worse."
"I—"
I let my eyes fall toward my phone. Honor picked it up, then frowned at the name on the screen.
Honor Gravehart
