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Ever since the moment we’d met, she’d been a roaring fire, a fire that snow and rain couldn’t put out. But now, her flames were doused, and she was as cold as ice. It was the first time I’d seen her that way.
She sat in the armchair near the fire, in one of my shirts she’d fished out of the drawer, with a blanket over her legs. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were glazed over, as if she wasn’t really looking at the fire.
She knew I was there but didn’t acknowledge me.
I grabbed a bottle, filled two glasses with my favorite liquor, and set them on the table between us.
She immediately reached for hers and took a big swallow.
I felt like I was drinking with Ian.
“How is she?”
I turned my head in her direction, my fingertips on the rim of my glass. “Shaken up.”
“I can only imagine…” She swirled her glass as she looked inside, her eyes heavy as if she’d cried after I left. “Now I know why she’s not close with your mother.”
“My mother has always been distant…unfortunately.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
I watched her from the side, stared at her cheek and the deep shadow under her jawline. “I don’t always agree with her, but it’s wrong to judge her for this.”
“I don’t, actually.” She took a drink. “So, I have a sister… I’ve always wanted a sister.”
“Having the same blood doesn’t make you family.”
She looked at me for the first time.
“She’s my family—not yours.”
“I wasn’t implying anything, Huntley.”
I turned back to the fire.
“I’m guessing you’re the one who took care of her?”
I watched the flames with the glass in my hand. “Yes.”
“What about Ian?”
I gave a shrug. “He’s like my mother. Not invested.”
“Why aren’t you that way?”
Because I’d had to sit there and watch my mother abandon her. Elora always had food, but nothing else. No attention. No love. Nothing. She didn’t even have a name until she was four. My mother didn’t care enough to give her one. “I pitied her.”
“That’s not enough reason.”
“I loved her.” I could feel her stare burning into the side of my face, feel it like the sun. “I’m her brother, but sometimes I feel like more than that. Ian and I are friends, not just brothers, but the relationship is different with Elora because I raised her.”
After a long stretch of silence, she spoke. “You’re nothing like your mother.”
I tore my gaze away from the flames and looked at her.
“You can let things go. She can’t.”
“I haven’t let a damn thing go.” I would butcher her father like livestock for dinner.
“Then you have a bigger heart than she does.”
I looked at the fire again. “I’m just weaker than she is…”
“No.” Now her voice rose as if offended. “You’re stronger than she is.”
I watched the flames dance, watched the logs turn red and smolder.
“You’re the one who should be king.”
“And I will be—someday. When your father is dead at my feet and my homeland is reclaimed.” I felt the bitterness in my voice, felt the throbbing of the agony that had been inside my chest for decades.
She was quiet.
I turned back to her to see her reaction, to see if anything had changed.
Her eyes were empty. She was a cold morning, fog in the air, frost on the ground.
I almost wished she were angry instead, just to see that fire that drew me to her in the first place. “I’m sorry.” Not for what I’d said, but that she was the daughter of a murderer, a descendant of monsters.
Her eyes dropped. “I didn’t want to believe it. Refused to believe it. I admit my father is a bit cold and distant at times, but…I never imagined he would do such a thing. Now I tell myself that he’s a different man, that when he met my mother and had us, he changed. At least, I hope…”
I had a callous retort, but I kept it to myself.
“But even if that’s true, it doesn’t excuse what he did.” She suddenly turned her gaze to the fire and took a deep breath, like it was all she could do to stop herself from crying.
The anger left me whenever I saw her like that, because I saw how much it hurt her.
I wasn’t the only victim in this.
If my father had done something as heinous, if he had been anything less than the honest and admirable man he’d been my whole life, it would change everything. I wouldn’t be the man I am today.
“I just can’t believe he would do that…” She sniffled. “Were there others?”
Most certainly.
“I want to confront him about it…but what would I even say?”
She wouldn’t have the chance because I’d kill him the second I laid eyes on him.
Her fingers moved to her cheeks, and she wiped away the tears that had escaped. “I can’t even imagine everything your mother has been through, surviving down here and protecting her sons while her stomach grew bigger with a child she was forced to have…”
