AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We understand why you couldn’t tell us before,” Elijah added.
“We are still a bit perplexed, but we understand,” Harper echoed while Elijah fully carried her in his arms. She had been standing for too long.
“I love her, it’s true.” Smiling at them, I lifted Evie’s hand to my lips and kissed it. “But there is something else I meant to share with you.” My eyes begged Evie to recognize why I had to do this. “If I can’t trust my own family to accept me for who I truly am, then I have nothing,” I whispered to her.
Apprehensive, she cupped my cheek, but finally nodded.
“Whatever it is, you are our brother,” Fletcher assured, with Islay, Finn, Hanna, and the others echoing his thought.
“My Dragon powers were not the only reason my parents were asked to sign theblood oath,” I began, hoping I would still have my family by my side when the last word left my lips. “You knew of my mother as Keira Skystorm, but that was not her given name. She was born Keira Devenish, Daughter to the once Xavier Devenish.”
Recognition and dread began to stain my brothers’ and sisters’ faces, but I forced myself to push through it.
“My mother was the Princess of Caelisium, which makes me—”
“The Warlock King’s grandson,” Asher breathed, disturbed. “And his successor to theDracones Throni.”
The revelation turned their faces grim with disbelief, horror, bewilderment, and denial… Yet, it was Willow’s look of betrayal that sliced my chest open.
“No,” she whispered, dismayed, and whirled around, running towards her room. Running away from me as fast as her feet would take her.
“Willow, wait!”
I rushed after her, passing Finn and Hanna, who stepped away from me as though I was the devil himself. As though I was Raithian. Their reaction burned through me, but in that moment, I was only worried about Willow.
My hand gripped her arm before she disappeared into her room. “I didn’t know,” I blurted, turning her around while my heart slammed against my ribs. “I didn’t know who I was. Who my parents were, or even who that monster was to me. I swear to you, I just found out, Willow. I didn’t ask to be—”
“I understand!” Tears fell freely from her eyes with the scream, and Willow pulled away from me like my mere touch had poisoned her. “I understand,” she sobbed, tortured, shaking her head with such helplessness that it took all strength from me too. “But I still lost them all because of you.”
Her voice shook with each word, and still, they were bullets piercing my soul.
My eyes burned as my own tears seemed to scorch my skin, until her pain and mine coursed like rivers of acid through me, carving a path of sorrow and guilt. I couldn’t even imagine how much hurt she had carried through the years because of what my parents had to do, but it wasn’t just her hurt talking, there was truth in her broken words.
“Youhadto live,” Willow whispered, no longer able to speak. “Even if they all had to die…”
