“You have them here,” a woman said. “Wehatethem.”
“We’ll kill him,” a man growled from the shadows.
“Tear him to pieces and stake his parts all over this realm,” another woman vowed.
I intended to be the one to destroy my father, but if any of these amsirah got their hands on him, they’d tear him to pieces. I wasn’t opposed to the solution.
“We have to go,” I said. “Can you make sure this money is split between everyone in White Pool and delivered to Seacrest? You might want to wait a bit before taking it there, but they need help too.”
“We’ll see it’s delivered,” the bartender vowed.
When I went to turn away, a woman gripped my wrist to halt me. Her nails bit into my flesh as she gazed beseechingly up at me. “Will he kill our children?”
“No.” I wrapped my free hand around hers and squeezed as I sought to give her some reassurance. “He’s going to raise them to believe in everything he does. He intends to break them, so they’ll bow to his will and, in doing so, create perfect little soldiers forhim. I know, because it’s what he tried to do to me.”
“But he didn’t succeed,” another woman said.
“Not for lack of trying.”
“Will he succeed with them?”
I couldn’t lie to them; they deserved better than that. Plus, they would see through it. “Some of them. Others will withstand him, and most likely pay for it, but we will get them back.”
I had no idea how I would fulfill that promise, but I would.
“What will he do to break them?” another woman asked.
My mind flashed back to my days spent locked in rooms and cells. To the days I’d spent chained while a whip repeatedlylashed my skin. Blood and despair had encompassed me as my flesh gave way to muscle and then bone.
As a child, I’d wept from the pain. But I’d also cried because I didn’t understand why my father, the man who was supposed to love me, and the only parent I had left, hated me so much that he’d torture me in such a way.
As a teenager, I started to understand that even if I’d been the perfect son, he still would have abused me. The man was a sadist who relished the suffering of others. He enjoyed listening to my screams, whimpers, and pleas for mercy.
While I understood this and knew my cries gave him pleasure, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. And because of that, I’d grown to hate myself.
When I became a young adult, my screams stopped, and though he’d still torn the skin from me and given me the worst beating ever, I grinned at him when he finished. It was then he knew that while he’d gotten many years of joy from my suffering, he’d never succeed in his goal… destroying me.
He’dneverbreak me apart and forge me into a man more like him. I’d never enjoy unleashing misery on all those he deemed beneath him.
I left home shortly after, joined Leo’s military, and mostly avoided him for the following centuries, but I’d always played my part in our roles, and so had he. Now, my role had completely changed.
“My father is a vicious man,” I told her. “I won’t deny that.”
The woman paled, and the man sitting next to her rested a hand on her shoulder.
“Iwillget them back,” I stated again.
“All of them?” another man demanded.
I wanted to tell him that I would make sure everylastone of them came home, but again, I couldn’t lie to them.
“We all must prepare to lose something in this coming war,” Fletcher said. “It’s either that, or we sit back and do nothing, and in doing so weallowthem to take everything from us… our homes, children, unborn children, futures, security, and especially, our dignity. They’ll strip it all until there’s nothing left of us.”
“Honestly, once they have all the children, what use will they have for any of you?” Luna asked.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ryker
