Lucian’s eyes are wide, and his lips are pursed into an “Oh” as if he’s had some sort of revelation.
There’s no way I have a hope of guessing what it could be.
So far, I’ve badly misread this entire situation.
“Dad,” Lucian says, seeming transfixed by my feathers before he focuses on my face. To my shock, he smiles. Not a cruel smile, but a strangely relieved one. “She has wings.”
Our father snaps back at him. “It changes nothing.” His voice rises. “None of this changes anything!”
Lucian’s smile disappears, but his whisper is clear. “But… it changes everything.”
I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to change.
Our father turns his back on Lucian, returning his attention to me. His eyes are cold and once again, his expression is so hard, he could be made of ice.
“You are an impossibly dangerous creature,” he says to me. “Your mother’s claws were always a threat, but you have theblood of dark angels running within your veins, and now I see that you have the power of flight.”
Well, it might look that way.
In reality, these wings are useless to me. I don’t know how to fly because I grew up in a cell with a low ceiling and flying was an impossibility. I had no chance to learn and I’m not even sure, with the way these wings are structured, that they are built for flight.
He takes a step toward me. “It was my responsibility to ensure you were removed from this world, and that you never returned to it. That was my burden.” He thumps his heart with his fist. “That was my sacrifice.”
My lips part in surprise.
Can I really believe there’s now pain in his eyes?
“Why?” I ask, incredibly confused. “What could possibly make you judge me before I was born?”
I should have been prepared for him to play games with my emotions. To lie and cheat as dark creatures do. But the walls of my heart are suddenly cracking and my insides are hurting because with every word he speaks, there is no guile in his voice.
No subterfuge. No pretense.
He speaks only with conviction.
“I am Taiven Nostra, the Ultima Nostra,” he says, announcing the title to the empire I came to claim. “I’m responsible for the lives of countless dark creatures who follow me with unquestioning loyalty. They live or die according to my commands. For millennia, we have fought the forces of light for our place in this world, a battle that rages beneath the awareness of humans.”
He takes a step toward me. “Butyou…” His jaw clenches, his lips drawing back from his teeth. “You will fill the streets with blood.”
My eyes widen at his words. “I’ll… what?”
Declaring me unworthy of life is one thing, but telling me with so much certainty what I will or won’t do in the future…?
That’s fucking bullshit.
“You will incite a war among dark creatures that even the forces of light would never wish for.”
There’s an emptiness in his eyes. No longer do they gleam. There’s no triumph. Only a deep nothingness that, if I peer into his eyes too long, appears driven by fear.
It hits me hard that this dark angel, who commands an army of vicious, bloodthirsty, vile creatures, is afraid… of me.
“I gave you life,” he says. “Now, it’s my duty to end it.”
“But—”
I don’t have time to react.
He strikes far faster than I anticipate and this time, his attack takes a different form.
