Whatever he believes is only that: a belief. I can’t assume he’s right.
My fate was already balanced on a knife’s edge, and it is more so now.
I blow out a soft exhale, putting on a show of considering each of my father’s proposals. “Well,” I murmur. “What a difficult choice.”
What a terrible game I must now play.
I’m counting on my father underestimating my desire to survive.
He doesn’t know what I went through while I was living in prison, the mental fortitude it took to retain my sense of self, my determination, and my belief in a future where I would be free.
He has no fucking idea what I’ll do to survive.
I make a very deliberate show of returning my attention to Emil, who hasn’t taken his eyes off me.
“Which will I choose?” I ask him. “To kill you myself or let my father end you for me?”
CHAPTER TWO
Iallow my claws to extend as I reach for Emil’s face, resting them lightly against his jaw. “You betrayed me, Emil. How can I possibly decide which choice will bring you the pain you deserve?”
His hand tightens around the back of my neck, multiple sharp pricks of pain telling me that his own fingernails are sharpening—maybe into the claws of a wolf or the talons of a hawk.
When he speaks, his voice is broken. Disturbingly so.
“Betrayal is in my blood,” he says. “It’s a curse I can’t escape.”
“You lied to me,” I snap back at him, fighting a new dread that’s growing within me.
It’s the growing fear that he will give up. That he won’t fight for his life like I will fight for mine.
Because, for better or worse, his fate is entwined with mine.
“It’s in my nature to lie.” He nods. “The rules of my creation dictate that I cannot choose any other way.”
No. He doesn’t get to justify his actions because of what he is.
I fight the very real anger and pain rising within me. Fight to stay in control of these next few moments—moments that will determine my survival.
“You took the only precious thing I had.” My voice chokes up at that declaration—a truth that’s torn out of me—but I force myself to continue speaking. “You took away the only person who loved me. Then you made me believe she didn’t love me after all.”
A month ago, when I asked Emil if he’d tethered my mother’s magic, he told me he hadn’t. He allowed me to believe that the woman who had raised me had not been Galeia, my biological mother. He let me believe that Galeia had chosen to abandon me.
“No!” he snarls back at me.
His denial takes me by surprise, as does the sudden fury in his eyes.
“You leaped to that conclusion all on your own,” he says.
My eyes widen, a new anger threatening to swamp me, but this time, I let it grow because it’s cold and it will dampen my other, more vulnerable, emotions.
“You swore to me that you didn’t tether my mother’s magic.” My voice is deep with rage. “You made me believe that Galeia left me to rot in darkness for twenty-three fucking years!”
“I didn’tmakeyou believe anything,” Emil snaps. “Your own pain and fear led you to that belief.”
“Youletme believe it!” My hand tightens around his jaw, the tips of my claws dragging at his skin.
These black claws are practically indestructible.
