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“So, it’s true. You finally made it through the trials.” His voice wrapped around me like an emotional hug, but I didn’t answer.
He locked eyes with me, and I could see the questions swimming in them. His grip tightened on the red stone in his hand.
“You will not be stopped if you choose to take this stone to the Crimson Kingdom.” He frowned at me. “You and all of your friends can go back if you choose to.”
“I’m supposed to believe that you’ll let me walk out of here and give your enemy this stone?” I scoffed. Did he think I was stupid? “Why would I ever believe you?”
He took a deep breath and looked over my face in thought.
“You still don’t have any memories,” he guessed. “Is that why you look at me like a stranger?”
“You are a stranger,” I hissed.
Pain. That is what crossed his features and something deep in my chest tugged at the sight. I pushed away the feeling.
“I thought the curse wouldn’t take all your memories. I thought you could recognize your own father, Thea.”
Father.
I blinked slowly as my mind tried to process this. An empty void filled my mind as the word ricocheted through it.
“Thea,” he whispered and took a step towards me slowly, but I stepped back. “We have missed you so much over the years,” the king choked out with emotion. “You have a family, and we love you.”
Something deep in my memories called him a liar. I had seen him in my dreams, and he was always so mean to me in them. I glared at his comment.
“I know we fought, and I pushed you too hard. I have regretted it every day that you’ve been gone. I have often wondered if I showed you how much I did care if that would have kept you from running into the arms of our enemy.”
“What are you doing?” I questioned. “Am I supposed to stand here and believe that you missed me? That you tried to find me, that you love me, that you want me back? I have flashes of memories and all of them that showed you left me feeling like shit.”
He flinched at my words as if they slapped him.
“I know, but now we have a chance to try again. For me to right my mistakes and show you that I can be the father you always needed me to be.”
“Give me the stone,” I demanded and held out my hand.
The king stood, stunned, looking at me like he couldn’t believe I wouldn’t take his word for it. His eyes filled with unshed tears. His daughter. I had thought images or memories would plague me with this information, but nothing came. Why didn’t Cassius tell me this?
“They haven’t told you anything have they? If they had, then you wouldn’t be getting this stone for them. You wouldn’t choose them over your own father. Over your family. Over your Kingdom. Did they tell you who cursed you or what happened?”
“They can’t. The curse keeps them from saying too much.”
He laughed. This bastard laughed at my response, and it made me so angry. I felt my fire coming forth and he held up his hands in defense.
“Cassius was always a clever boy. Always had a keen sense of telling pretty lies and finding ways out of telling the truth. I almost wasn’t surprised when you told me you loved him. He’s a master manipulator and you were the perfect target because of me. Because you felt you had to settle for that monster. The Crimson Kingdom will do whatever it can to be in control. To have all the power. Including lying to you about all of this. About whom and why you were cursed to begin with. He can tell you, but he doesn’t want to because he is still using and manipulating you after everything. After seven years you still fall for it, and I can’t be upset because you have no memories.”
I wanted to refute this, to argue with him, but something stopped me. A tickle of a memory somewhere in my broken mind. Was Cassius lying to me? He had told me he couldn’t say anything, but he had told me a lot about us in recent days. He had waited until the trials were almost over to tell me anything.
“I can see you thinking it over, which means you know it’s possible.” The king watched me with pity.
“He took you from me. Kept you for himself under the guise of love, but this was always his plan. From the moment he saw you, you were his finale in gaining the most power in Elloryon. To overthrow the other Kingdoms. You are the key to power and control Thea, and the prophet told all of us. You alone can make Kingdoms crumble. You control everything because of your magic. You are a weapon, but you can still choose if it’s for good or evil. You just have to choose what side to fight for.”
A new sense of belonging slipped into place in my mind. My father seemed accepting of my power and abilities. It was the first time that I contemplated my power being used for good instead of evil. No one else had ever mentioned that I had a choice in this. Sadness filled me as I realized that I let others dictate and tell me what I was going to be without much of a fight. They had treated me like something to be feared, but my magic could do good. I could use it to help others. Maybe I could change the prophets telling.
“You don’t think my magic is…evil.”
“Only if you want it to be, Thea.”
I turned away from him so he couldn’t see the confusion clouding me. I glanced at Wisp for some clarity, but she floated in the shadows in a white flame. She had never been that color, and I didn’t know what it meant. Doubt swirled in my mind and wrapped everything I knew about Cassius in a dark blanket. Cassius’s face clouded my mind. He wouldn’t do that to me. He wouldn't hold things like the reason for the curse from me. Cassius loved me. Didn’t he? Everything I thought I knew threatened to crumble around me. I couldn’t possibly know the truth of anything on my own. I relied on others, and it made this all impossible to sort. My heart couldn’t fathom Cassius betraying me. It wasn’t true. I turned back to the king to find that he was holding out the bloodstone to me.
