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The look in his eyes as he screamed at my mother to get me out of our burning house, so I could live.
Pain slashed my being, burning through me while I ran up the stairs. The urge to open my mouth and scream at the four winds overwhelmed me, and Tharion’s roar echoed through the mountain when I barged into Evie’s room.
Kingston and Evie spun in my direction, startled by my sudden presence. “What is the meaning of—?”
“How could you?!” I demanded of Evie, my voice reverberating in the room and cutting off the chief’s question.
She stood from her chair. “Braxton, what is going—?”
“How could you?” I seethed, the agony behind my words revealing their true meaning.
Sadness and regret cut through Evie’s features, and she shook her head, briefly glancing at her guardian. “He knows.”
My eyes flickered to Kingston, to find remorse scaring his face. “Braxton, it is not what you think.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Evie explained, seeming in as much pain as I was. “I didn’t want to take away the image of that beautiful man that raised you, and gave you love until your heart burst. I didn’t want to replace it with—”
“Stop,” I seethed, lifting a hand to her. “I know the man my father was. I know because unlike you, I didn’t meet him through a legend. Nobody told me the things he did or didn’t do. Khayden Skystorm wasn’t a fantasy to me. He was the man who gave his life so that I could live. Do you really think my opinion of him would have changed because of what you believe he did wrong?” I shook my head, disbelieving. “I know who he was!”
Her betrayal cut me as deeply as his loss did.
“He died in front of my eyes, Evie. Screaming at my mom to save me while Azazel’s green flames scorched every inch of him.”
“What?” Kingston stepped closer, shock clouding his eyes. “Raithian followed you guys to the Mirror World?”
My attention went to the chief, contempt for him shaking me to my core. “He burned my life to the ground that night, not just my home.” The truth caught in my throat, choking me while my eyes stung from the ire.
“Braxton,” Evie whispered, tears escaping her eyes but she wiped them swiftly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you. I—"
“I don’t even fucking care that you didn’t tell me!” I raged, my form shaking as I pointed to the city outside. “I care that for eighteen years, your family let them curse my father’s name. You let them disrespect the memory of the Harbinger of Justice, after everything he did for you! The least he deserved after all he went through, was for his soul to find peace. Yet, you didn’t care, did you? Because he left.”
I stepped closer, not fully knowing if I could forgive her for that.
“You couldn’t even give him that, so you let them curse his soul with every mention. Allowed everyone to spin wild tales of who he was because of a single mistake, after he had spent an entire life being the hero you needed him to be. He became a shame to you, because he left.”
“Not just because he left,” the female voice argued from the door, and I turned to find Willow standing there. Her form trembled with as much fury as I felt.
“Willow,” Kingston called, walking to her as though he wanted to shield her from this.
“No,” she replied with such hurt that it made him halt in his tracks. “I have to do this. He needs to know.” Her attention fell on me, anguish simmering in her eyes like bubbling lava. “He left us in the middle of the great battle. A battle we fought under his command, because we believed in him. Because he promised that with his Dragons and our forces, we would end the Warlock King, once and for all.”
She stepped closer, tears falling from her eyes.
“But that was not what happened. In the middle of the battle, just when we were gaining ground on the Dark Empire and hindering their army, something happened. He fell from Azazel, but instead of calling on him or one of his other Dragons to get back in the fight, he allowed Raithian to take control of the four-headed beast. When he saw Azazel was lost to us, the coward got on the horse of a fallen warrior and ran away.”
Willow stopped before me, letting go of the shawl she had been gripping to her body like her lifeline, and lifted a single finger at me.
“It took one fire breath from Azazel’s four heads to raze half of our legion,” her voice quivered, the confession mixed with her emotion. “The same force we had been using to decimate the Warlock King’s empire was turned against us, because your father let Azazel go. Over eight hundred of our warriors were incinerated in one combined breath, including my brothers and my mom. And the family of every other person out there.”
Sobs swallowed her words, but she didn’t let them stop her.
“That is why we curse his name, and why we will never stop cursing him. It was one mistake, but an unforgivable one.”
The blazing anger inside of me, dissipated when I witnessed the depth of the anguish Willow carried, but it didn’t change the fact that she was wrong about him. I stepped forward, while my eyes bore into her teary ones.
“I am sorry all those people died,” I admitted, the muscles on my back and arms jerking with every word. “I am sorry so many were left without a family. I cannot pretend to know what happened in that battle, how my father lost control of Azazel, and how Raithian was able to gain it. But neither can you. I know who my father was, and I can tell you that he never gave up trying to find a solution, no matter what the problem was. He left, but he must have had a very powerful reason. Because if there is one thing that I am absolutely certain of, and I would bet my life on, is that my father was no coward.”
Pushing past her, I left Evie’s chambers and burst into my room, going straight to the bed. My hands flipped the mattress onto the floor, and I seized the letter my mother had left me.
