AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But why?” I pull away from her again, needing to see her face. Suddenly words tumble out of my mouth. “He told me you left me. You didn’t want me. You’re supposed to be at the Isla de Canta. You’re a mindless beast with no humanity.” I’m crying again because of what it all means. My father has been lying to me ever since I was born.
She shrinks back at my words. Her voice turns faint. “Please don’t think such things of me. I tried to escape this room many times and come to you. I swear it upon the lives of all those I’m sworn to protect.”
My heart aches and my face turns downward in shame. “I’m truly sorry for believing him. I don’t anymore.”
It is a strange thing to be so torn apart from the inside. I’m overjoyed to have found my mother, but that joy is pressed right up against the sting of my father’s betrayal.
I dare to look up again. “Why did he put you in here?”
“He’s never said so, but I think he didn’t want me influencing you. A mother would split your loyalties.”
“Then why didn’t he kill you?”
She looks away from me for the first time. “You don’t want to know.”
I’m afraid I already do. “Please, tell me. I think I need to know.”
She seems to mull it over for a moment. “You’re already a grown woman.” Her face falls at missed years. “He wanted more daughters. More sirens to control and manipulate as he’s done to you. More power.”
Despicable bastard. But I put a hold on cursing his name for a moment.
“Do I have sisters?” The thought is both exciting and horrifying, now that I know what my father is truly capable of.
“No. I have been unable to give him any more children.” She looks sad at the thought, and I find that most peculiar.
“Do you want to?”
Her perfect lips turn down in a look of disgust. “With him? I don’t want to be touched by him ever again. But I would have liked to have many daughters. I wanted to raise them and teach them. To see them grow. He took that from me.” She touches my shoulders gently. “But I’m pleased beyond words to see you now.”
Perhaps it should take longer than a few minutes to turn against the man who raised me. To switch sides so easily. But how can I do anything else when I know what he’s done to my mother? A mother who isnota mindless beast.
A wave of anger washes over me, smothering any loyalty I once had for the pirate king. “I had no idea you were in here. You must know, if I had known, I would have come for you immediately. I’m only in here tonight by accident.”
“Don’t blame yourself. There’s nothing anyone can do. I’m merely a woman when I’m away from the sea.”
When the torrent of bitter anger finally clears, resolve takes its place. “Well, I’m not. I’m getting you out of here. Now. Riden!”
He’s back in the room in an instant.
“Can you carry her?” I ask.
“Of course.”
This is such a dangerous situation—it must be handled carefully, but my mind is pounding, so full it’s fit to burst.
My father lied.
My mother isn’t a monster.
She’s a prisoner.
I have to get her out.
But what if we’re caught?
It doesn’t matter.
I have to try.
