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“Everything I’ve done has been to help you, Kiara.Everything.” He growled the word, a line forming between his brows. “Whether you believe it or not, I crafted you into the warrior you are today. You’ve always been special, but after you were attacked in the woods, after you became…what you are…I had to intervene.”
My upper lip threatened to curl back. “Who are you, really?” I asked. He definitely wasn’t my uncle. That was a damned fact.
Micah sighed. “Aurora. She…prayed for my help, and I answered.”
My brows scrunched. “Aurora? What does my grandmother have to do with all of this?” I waved my hand around the Mist, to the figures cloaked in blue light. They had yet to move. “Why pretend to be my uncle? Why train me to fight?”
Now my eyes prickled and burned. I wasn’t sure if I could keep my promise to myself to hold back my tears. The years of lies were a betrayal that pierced too deep.
“Aurora gave her life to a cause, a vital one.” Micah cocked his head, assessing me in that typical, calculated way of his. I knew him so well, and yet, I didn’t know him at all. “She’d suspected what resided inside of you ever since you were born, and after you survived the shadow beast’s attack, it was confirmed.”
He wanted me to ask. To beg and plead for scraps of information. I didn’t.
“So stubborn,” Micah chided after some moments had passed. “I suppose I always did like that best about you.” He waved a hand, and the shining figures and their light scattered.
I stepped up to the cage, every nerve electrified.
“Did you do this?” I asked, searching the twining wood for a weak spot. There was none.
He raised a shoulder. “Only so I could warn you without you trying to kill me. Or hurting yourself as youfailedto kill me.”
“Who are you?” I asked again, my teeth nearly bared. “Tell me. No more lies,Uncle.” Gods, I was sick of them.
He didn’t pause for long.
“Aurora Adair was a sun priestess.”
My heart thundered in my ears as he spoke.
“She devoted her life to Raina at a young age, but years after the goddess’s disappearance, Aurora chose love and family instead of prayer.” Micah scoffed. “That was untilyouwere born on the longest night of the year, shaking the earth as you emerged from your mother’s womb. When Aurora held you, when you placed your tiny hand in hers, she claimed your touch branded her.”
Grandmother’s scar on her thumb. She’d always refused to tell me how she’d gotten it.
“I don’t understand.” Truer words had never been spoken.
“You burned her with a divine heat. A power that could only belong to one goddess,” Micah explained. “She knew then what you possessed. A little bit of Raina’s magic. She kept it to herself until the attack in the woods, fear prompting her to journey to my temple a week later, begging for help.
“The second I saw the mark from above, I fell, materializing before her. While Raina and I may not have gotten along well in the past, I was one of the only gods Aurora could ask, and one of the few who might deign to help. So she implored me for aid, and I gave it to her.” He rubbed at his bearded chin, his brow crinkling as if in confusion. “I believe you humans may say my actions were borne of guilt.”
My knees wobbled. I was going to fall. Pass out. Throw up.
If my grandmother went tohimfor help, then that meant…
Shit. Uncle Micah was more than a mere liar. He was agod.
“Why act as if you were family? Why the charade?” Out of all the secrets, that’s the one that tugged at my heart. I should’ve asked a thousand other questions.
Jake touched my back, and I flinched. I’d forgotten he was there.
“I made the mistake of giving in to my jealousy fifty years ago. It was I who gave her lover the Godslayer blade that would split Raina’s magic, and I’ve regretted my actions every moment since.”
Something akin to shame—if a god could feel shame—clouded his glacial eyes. “I decided I would train you, personally, and make sure you were ready for the battle ahead.”
His gaze flicked to my exposed hands. “I didn’t want you to know about the darkness within you,” he said, reading my thoughts. “If you gave in and used your unnatural powers, I feared it would overtake you, as it eventually does all shadow beasts. But you were made for bigger things, and I had to make sure you remained pure, and that you survived long enough to meet him.” Jake’s fingers dug painfully into my shoulder as we awaited Micah’s next words.
“Who ishim?” Jake asked, his voice a quivering whisper.
Micah smiled, a sad smile that felt more grim than hopeful. “You’ve already met the man who was born to hold all three pieces of Raina’s power and take his place in the heavens.”
