Page 102 of Axis of Fire

If I looked invincible, fearless, powerful—

then perhaps I would become that as well.

“I’m taking a risk by sending you to Istmond,” my father said.

I watched his thin, long-limbed figure sink onto the leather couch inside my adoptive parents’ house.

We looked nothing alike.

Perhaps I resembled my mother.

The woman I had never seen.

Not in photographs.

And certainly not in person.

My father’s gray eyes met mine.

“You do not have the right to fail.”

I nodded.

I had never had the right to anything.

No part of me did.

Not even my magic.

Even my magic had been forced into existence instead of being allowed to awaken naturally.

“I’m certain everything will go well.”

What a shame he didn’t believe in me for even a second.

His eyes made that painfully clear.

In his eyes, I was insignificant.

And it hurt to know I had devoted every second of my life to him—

yet it was still not enough.

I silently tucked a loose blond strand behind my ear and exhaled.

In only a few minutes, I would have to leave this house.

This family.

Even after twenty-five years living side by side, we remained strangers.

Then again...

how could anyone ever see a monster as human?

No one had ever needed me.

Chapter 9