“Your grandma had the same…conditionRoran has.”
Her eyes drop to her hand resting on my thigh, and I freeze.
She lied to me.
No—worse. How the fuck did I never notice she was hiding something this big?
“Back then,” she continues, her voice more fragile than I’ve ever heard it, “after I gave birth to you, your father and I went to visit them. So they could meet you.”
She doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t dare. “We went alone. They didn’t know what your father do… um, for living.”
A breath. Another. Her jaw trembles slightly before she forces the next words out.
“One of his enemies found us. He used the opportunity that we were alone and attacked. Your father took him down easily, but… not before he shot your grandmother in the chest.”
My body goes rigid.
My fists clench over the silk, rage boiling beneath my skin. I want that bastard brought back from the dead just so I can kill him myself. So I can make sure his soul doesn’t get the mercy of passing on.
But I stay quiet. Because she’s not finished.
And I’m terrified of how this ends.
“Because your father had to deal with the body, we couldn’t call an ambulance or take her to a hospital—” she swallows back tears, “—so I did something my mother taught me back when I first started learning potions. I fed her my blood.”
“You did what?”
My jaw drops, a gasp ripping out of me.
Blood magic.
Grandma warned me about this before—without experience, it could lead to chaos.
I never thought my mom could be that irresponsible.
A single tear slips down her cheek. Her eyes shimmer now, the dam breaking.
“She gained consciousness almost immediately. It healed her in a matter of days...”
She pauses, her voice cracking. Breath after breath, she tries to hold herself together.
“But we’re built different than humans—stronger. More durable. My blood healed her wounds, and for a week or two, she felt so good she started running again. Got back into sports. I apologized then... told them the truth about your father so they kept quiet.”
I tilt my head, impatient. My fingers twitch.
She’s dragging. And I’m getting more nervous by the second.
Where’s my dad?
They both knew—
“Things got worse after couple weeks. It started with hearing whispers, blurry vision... then her body began falling apart. Unbearable burning pain. She couldn’t stand. Couldn’t even move her hands without help.”
This is insane. I stare at her, speechless.
“I swam straight to Grandma for help—only then realizing how massive a mistake I’d made. Merfolk blood can heal when consumed, yes, but to humans, it’s like a drug. The worst kind. Once you’ve had it, your body demands more. Without it, the pain is... unimaginable. The whispers could make you tear your ears off. And the longer it’s in your system, the harder it is tobreak free. Eventually, it owns you. It either takes over, or it kills you.”
Wait—
