“That night. The masquerade. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.”
Her thumb dragged slowly over his cheek. “Your father made you do it though. It wasn’t you, right?”
He shrugged. “Obedience to authority is a weak human trait. I tried to run away, but he’d told me to stay, and I just…couldn’t leave. It was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. My name became synonymous with fear, but they all knew I could convince them to put a gun to their own head, so no one tried to kill me.” He sighed. “I wish they would have. I wouldn’t have stopped them. I was too weak to do it myself, and it was the only thing that would have stopped the madness. So maybethat’sthe worst thing I’ve ever done.” He paused for a long moment. “Being alive.”
Anna had no idea what to say. Every cell in her body ached. Each word from his mouth squeezed harder on this nucleus of pain inside her.
Elenya appeared beside them. Anna had nearly forgotten the other woman was in the room. She slid from David’s lap, resettling in her own chair, nauseated by the amount of pain slicing into her magic. As she pulled her power away, his emotions woke, temporarily free of ice. Horror wrestled with dread and shame behind his blank expression. An entire index of sadness burst apart like confetti, three-hundred and sixty degrees of despair, shock, resentment, insecurity, mortification. So many emotions, each one hammering nails inside her emotional core that she feared might never be dislodged.
“You aren’t weak, David,” his mother said, ignoring the emotional assault. “I thought Xandra would keep you safe. You were to stay with her and obey. You surrendered to them both because I told you to. ”
Silent, shattering on the inside, David stared at her. His already pale features drained of color. The seconds dripped from the walls, silent and painful, while he refroze the glacier that surrounded him.
He opened his mouth to speak twice before a single word emerged. “Obey?”
Elenya crossed her arms, and Anna pressed against the safeguards surrounding the woman’s emotions, desperate to know how she was feeling in this moment. What had it done to her to learn what had become of her son? No matter how she pressed, Elenya’s emotions remained intact behind their barrier.
“I thought you’d be safe with Xandra,” she said, and while her emotions remained hidden, a thin slice of anguish broke through her words.
“I wasn’t with her. I was withhim.”
Agonized creases formed on her brow. “I’m so sorry, my son.”
David stood to face his mother. “I am not your son.”
“You don’t want to be, but it doesn’t change the fact of it. You’re mine, love. If you had a son with a destiny like yours, you’d try to steal him from it, too. I never wanted this for you, but there are things you must know?—”
His green eyes turned to chips of ice. With one cold look in Elenya’s direction, he left the room, sparing no further attention for Anna. The main door closed behind him with a soft, controlled click.
Elenya cast a vacant look after him, her gaze haunted by grief. After a time, she sighed. “He’s very alone.”
“Yes,” Anna whispered.
Sparkling mint eyes met Anna’s, the same color as her son’s. “He appears taken with you. Perhaps you could try harder not to dislike him.”
Anna grimaced. “I don’t dislike him. We were…mad at each other.”
A moment passed, and Elenya nodded once.
After weeks in her company, Anna had come to know her very little. The woman kept herself bottled as tightly as her son, but when they weren’t hidden behind her barriers, her emotions burned with love for him. Instead of embracing it, he ran from her. An ache pulsed from the sadness of it all. Neither of them deserved the pain they’d been dealt.
The door opened again, and David reappeared in the archway between the study and the sitting room, lancing Elenya with a glare. “No, actually. You leave. You’re the one who fucked up.”
The woman straightened, hope flashing in her eyes.
David’s gaze shot to Anna as she stood. “No. You stay.”
Skin prickling, she sank back down.
His hands clenched at his sides. “You coerced me into obeying him. Do you have any idea what kind of power that gave him?”
“I do now. It was a mistake. I’m so sorry, David. I thought she’d take care of you.”
“I really don’t want your apologies.” The words weren’t sharp. More…resigned. He rubbed his eyes.
“But I’m—I’m just so sorry,” she whispered, and one slip of her shield allowed Anna the pleasure of bathing in Elenya’s endless remorse. It was spiked with icy bits of despair and shame, almost painful as it coasted along Anna’s skin.
David could feel it. He had this magic, too.
