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"And they just accept all of this?" I ask. "Just like that?"
"Nei, not just like that," he says with a chuckle. "It's no easier for them than it was for you, Rissa. But did you never feel different growing up, as if you didn't quite belong?"
"I did," I whisper. "All the time. I thought something was wrong with me."
"They felt the same."
I'm still processing this when Damrion pounds on the door. "Dax! I need to talk to you in private."
Dax groans, casting his eyes up at the ceiling. "If he and Adriel don't figure it out soon," he mutters under his breath before shifting his gaze to me. "Will you be okay by yourself, Valkyrie?"
"I'll be fine, Dax." I roll my eyes. "You worry too much.
"Ja." He reaches out, pulling me into his arms to kiss me. "It's my greatest pleasure."
"I love you," I whisper.
"More than the realms themselves," he says, releasing me.
I watch, smiling as he slips out into the hall to talk to Damrion. I'm halfway to the shower when he masks the bond between us for the first time ever. One moment, I feel him as if he's still standing next to me. The next, it's as if he's a thousand miles away. The juxtaposition is jarring.
My hackles rise, suspicion immediately flaring to life inside me. I drop the small pile of clothes on the bed, circling back to the bedroom door. I press my ear against the metal, listening intently.
If he and Damrion are still in the hall, they're speaking too quietly to hear.
I risk cracking the door open an inch to check. The hallway is clear. Where did they go? More importantly, what are they talking about that Dax doesn't want me to know anything about?
I slip into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind me. My feet are soundless on the concrete as I creep down the hall, my back against the wall to avoid detection. I stop at each room along the way, pressing my ear to the door to listen.
"Her father isn't in prison."
I draw up short as Damrion's voice floats up to me from below. My heart lodges itself in my throat, beads of sweat breaking out all over my body.
No. Oh, no.
"What?"
"Malachi ran the name through the system like you asked. He thought it was a pointless request since there's no way for the Forsaken to slip someone out of a prison undetected, but he ran it anyway," Damrion says, his voice soft. "Her father was released two years ago, Dax."
"Faen," Dax growls. "She must not know."
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
"She testified at his parole hearing," Damrion says. "She knows."
"She lied to me." I hear the sorrow in Dax's voice. Even with the bond masked, I feel little pinpricks of it floating through. They're echoes of echoes, but even those bring tears to my eyes.
I did lie to him, and I'm a hypocrite for doing it. But if I had to do it again, I'd do the same thing. His soul is worth saving, even if I have to save it from him. I can't allow him to get his hands on my father. Maybe my father does deserve to die for what he did to me and my mom.
But if there's Light left in the realms, it's because we don't decide that. We aren't judge, jury, and executioner, meant to cut down the guilty for their crimes. We hold to the Light, even whenit's hard. Even when the dark tempts us. It's the only way we preserve the Light. It's the only way wedeserveto preserve it.
"Malachi sent us out looking for the man," Damrion says. "He hasn't been to work in two days."
"Skíta. Forsaken?"
"Ja," Damrion says. "Dozens of them. They're crawling all over his place." He hesitates. "And her father isn't the only one they're holding, either. As of a few hours ago, two of her coworkers have gone missing. Genevieve and Jessa. They never returned from lunch."
No. Oh, God, no.
