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“My anger was unjustified. You wanted to spare your son—and I was too naïve to see that. This life was the only option for us, and I should have appreciated it for the gift that it was.”
“Where does this come from?”
I looked away.
“Over a thousand years have passed in silence. And now you speak. Why?”
“Larisa.” I met his gaze once again. “I wanted us to be together in eternity, but she wanted to keep her soul. I loved her long before I said it, but I knew my declaration would end the relationship rather than deepen it. Then in the battle, Ellasara nearly killed her…and a very difficult choice was placed in front of me. I could let her die with her soul…or we could be together forever. You know what I chose.”
He stared, his gaze so hard it didn’t possess a drop of emotion.
“She was disappointed…and it killed me.”
For the first time since I could remember, his hardness waned.
“She’s come around since. Understands that I made the right choice. But it wasn’t that way for a while, and now I understand your predicament. Eternal darkness is the only choice. I wished I’d seen it sooner before I said all those horrible things to you.”
This was the moment where he should speak, but all he delivered was silence.
I looked away, severing eye contact. “You don’t forgive me.”
“You’ll never understand how it feels to be hated by your own son. Forgiveness is not the issue.”
“I don’t hate you—”
“But you did. For a very long time. Until you realized that the Ethereal were the monsters I said they were.”
I kept my eyes on the fire. “I apologized. I admitted you were right. What more—”
“There’s nothing more you can do, Kingsnake.”
It was like a slap to the face.
“I’m ready to put this in the past.”
I lifted my chin and looked at him again.
“I granted forgiveness long before you asked for it. I’ve just been stubborn…as stubborn as you.”
I stared at my father, seeing him look back at me in a new way. It was so cathartic I didn’t know what to say. “What about Aurelias?” My father had been beside himself with sorrow when my brother left—and he blamed me for his departure.
“Aurelias made his own decision. His power and strength will return him to us.”
I nodded, hoping that was the truth. “I believe that too.”
Silence ensued, but instead of being filled with unbearable tension, it was filled with calm.
“Larisa had a change of heart far quicker than you did.” There was no question in his words, but definitely one in his gaze. He knew I had been inside the borders of Evanguard for several weeks, and of course, he suspected exactly what I’d learned.
But once I confirmed his suspicions, he would fly off the handle. “When I return to Grayson, we’ll be wed. I’d like you to be there.”
His eyes remained hard for a moment, refusing to release his grasp on the earlier topic. But he eventually let it go. “I regret missing your first wedding.”
“You didn’t miss anything.”
“Your brother said she died by your hand. That must have been difficult.”
“It wasn’t difficult at all.” The love of my life had lain in a pool of her own blood, barely alive. Swiping Ellasara’s head from her shoulders was the easiest thing I’d ever done. I could have incapacitated her with a wound and spared her life, but I wanted her dead in the ground.
