73. Tezya
SEVENTY-THREE
TEZYA
Cold, pale eyes seeped into me. I could feel him long before I saw him. I wasn’t sure if it was Rumor’s enhancement or if I was just sensing his emotions, but I knew he was ready for a fight.
I made Sie compel Scottie before we left. She wouldn’t be able to interfere until Sie teleported her. It was the only way I agreed to her coming. If he hadn’t, she would have thrown herself in front of the King, and now that she has my Dark blood running through her veins, Sie’s total mind control would be the only compulsion that works on her.
I just had to trust Sie to keep her in the compulsion until I was done.
The three of them were hidden a couple miles out, still within reach of Sie’s teleportation. He could be by my side in the blink of an eye, while still being far enough away that the King wouldn’t notice them.
I also knew it didn’t matter where Rumor was, she was probably listening and feeling everything through our bond. Her emotions were so strong that it was taking everything in me to block her out and focus on what I had to do. I knew she was pissed at me. Pissed didn’t even begin to cover it—I had never seen her so livid before.
She punched me a hundred times over with tears streaming down her face as she cursed me out. I let her anger run its course, taking it as her punches slowly lost their power and she collapsed in my arms sobbing.
I hated it. I hated that our last moment together before coming here was tainted and hostile. I hated that I was the one who caused her pain, that I had asked Sie to compel her, knowing her history with the ability.
But I’d rather her hate me for it and be alive, than dead, and if Sie hadn’t compelled her, she would be reckless enough to put herself in harm’s way. I knew she was blocking me out for a reason today.
I just prayed I’d get the opportunity to rectify things with her after this.
I focused on my surroundings instead, trying to push her out of my mind. I wasn’t as familiar with the Temples as I should have been, and it was likely the reason the King chose the spot. No one frequented the area except Dovelyn. The only time the general public came to them was on Allium Day.
I hated the Temples. I always had. Even though I liked to pay tribute to Pylemo, I was never as devoted as Dovelyn was. I still worshiped and respected each Goddess. I just liked to do it from the comfort of my own room or the hut. But Dovelyn loved it here. She came nearly every day and would soar over the dense trees below before they opened up into the vast mountain range.
It was probably why I hated it. The hike on foot to the Temples was unbearable, and the further I walked, the thicker it became, drawing more insects to my sweat.
When I was little, I was envious of my siblings’ wings. I sometimes wished I was the King’s son just so I could possess air abilities like Dovelyn and Arcane. But as I grew older, I realized it was the opposite. I knew they would have given anything for a different father—would have each given up their wings for it—and being raised by the man too, I wanted nothing more than to give that to them.
And now I could. I was going to kill him.
Even if it cost me my life, the King would never hurt anyone else after today.
We were on Pylemo’s peak. The mountain range had thirteen all together—twelve smaller slopes leading toward the tallest one dedicated to the High Goddess. It was located at the tip of the island, creating a large cliff drop into the ocean from the other side. It was the only part of the ocean around Lux that wasn’t tame. Air users didn’t put their efforts into the shields over here. You came here for one reason and one reason only—to worship the Goddesses—and you didn’t go swimming.
Old ruins sat at the top of Mount Pylemo with balding desert-like rock covering the slope. It all felt dead to me. Besides the jungle before the range, there wasn’t any vegetation. No color. No signs of life, which felt wrong for worshiping the Goddess who blessed our kind with fertility during Lakimi. Even the ruins were graying stone columns that sat empty. Nothing but different kinds of rock and rubble.
“You have a lot of nerve coming here,” the King said as his eyes swept over me. He stood above me, blocking the entrance to the Temples. “All these years you’ve been disobeying me. All these years when I gave you orders to murder those rebels, you’ve been hiding them? Training them? For what? To overthrow me? I offered you the crown over your brother. I wanted you as my sole heir, not Arcane. You said no .”
“It wouldn’t have been my rule. It would have been dictated by you, and I meant what I said then just as I do now. I don’t care about the crown. There’s only ever been one thing I cared about.”
“And what’s that?” he sneered, annoyance lacing his voice.
“My mother,” I said into the silence and even though he didn’t kill her—even though her death was technically on me—if he hadn’t been so cruel, there wouldn’t have been a prophecy to begin with. He was a poison seeping and killing all of us slowly, and I saw the damage that lingered in her while she was still alive.
I took a deep breath before I continued with the only other people that mattered to me growing up. “And my siblings… The only thing I cared about all these years was protecting them from you.”
He smiled, lifting up only the left side of his mouth. “You did spare Dovelyn and Arcane from me most of the time.” His eyes gleamed over my scar with a hint of amusement. “There was no saving your mother, though, she was too weak for this world.” I knew he was trying to taunt me, to get a rise out of me, but I wasn’t buying it. I’d had a century to settle into my grief.
“And once I’m finished with you, any ounce of sympathy left in your bones for her will be gone.” He paused, looking down on me. “You and your sister are looking at centuries of retraining. I’ll have you begging me to kill you. You’ll regret everything you’ve tried to do here.”
“You’re wrong.”
He scoffed. “I’m never wrong.”
“We aren’t leaving this mountain together. One of us is going to die, and I have every intention of it being you.”
He started laughing. “What the fuck are you on about? I trained you myself. I taught you everything you know. Do you really think I would have let you live if you were stronger than me? You can’t beat me, and I never thought you were stupid enough to think you could. Even if you’re more powerful than your siblings, you’re still weaker than me, son. I’m the strongest in our family by a landslide.”
“You’re wrong again.” I said it calmly as I felt his anger radiate toward me, as I welcomed it. For my mother. For everyone he’s ever hurt. “Our mother was the strongest in our family.”
“You’re mother was soft and—”
“She was strong enough to last in a marriage to you and even stronger for still finding love with someone else despite it.” His crooked smile started to vanish. He never knew my mother had an affair, and I was going to fucking savor it.
“What did you just say?” His voice lowered.
“You heard me.” I took a step toward him, then another and another, until I was standing next to him on the mountain. I let the words sink in. Let him figure out what I meant as I kept staring into his cold, dead eyes.
After a minute of stunned silence, I spoke again, letting my body flare in golden spirals as I slipped the ring over my finger. “I’m not your son,” I said. “And you didn’t teach me everything I know.”