50. Chapter 50
Chapter fifty
I didn’t bother looking at Sin. There was nothing he could do or say that would ever make this okay. He chased down my mother who had to take her own life to escape him then lied about it. All my love for him vanished the moment I watched her take her final breath.
He was just the puppet, though. Even I could recognize that.
I wanted the master pulling the strings.
I yanked free of my father’s grasp and whirled around, letting him see every ounce of rage that burned behind my eyes.
“What did you do?!” I screamed in his face then shoved him backward. “What did she overhear that sent her fleeing from the palace in the middle of the night? What could have been so bad that she would kill herself rather than see me brought back to you?”
My fire came roaring up from the place it slumbered inside me and burst forth, wreathing my hands in flames. The flickering shadows that whipped across my father’s face underscored the stark terror painted there.
“Tell me!” I screamed as I advanced on him, my flames pulsing brighter with each jagged breath.
I didn’t control the fire.
I was the fire.
And my father was about to learn that firsthand.
“Rain, you need to stop!” Sin called from behind me.
Stop? I wasn’t going to stop. I was going to make every single one of them pay.
I whirled around, thrust my hand out, and a fireball larger than my head rocketed toward Sin.
He dove to the side but not fast enough. The flaming orb splashed across his hip, spinning him off balance and slamming him into the parapet. I didn't even wince as his head cracked against the stone and he fell still.
Good. I didn’t need any more interruptions.
Turning back around, I faced the male trembling against the castle wall.
“Raynella?” he asked in a tiny, horrified voice.
“My. Name. Is. RAIN!”
Wings of fire exploded from my back, unfurling and stretching out behind me, their furious blaze driving away all the shadows and their secrets within. My rage fueled the flames, and they grew and spread until I didn't have just wings, but an entire cascading river of fire over my skin that engulfed me completely. I was a phoenix, born from the ashes of my pathetic life to never again bow at the whims of others.
The crescia silk flashed away to become nothing more than embers on the wind. I built a new dress from my flames, letting them curve and coil around my body until I had a gown of living fire that highlighted the harsh beauty of my new ramentum.
Stalking toward my father, I let him see everything I had hid from him—my magic, my fire—but especially the anger that burned inside me that I had to suppress my entire life.
“Don’t act out Rain or you’ll be punished.”
“No one will adopt you with that temper, Rain.”
“If you sass me one more time, Rain, you’re going back to the orphanage.”
“Nobody will ever love an angry little girl, Rain.”
Angry little girl.
Angry little girl.
The admonishment echoed through my brain. My anxiety disorder manifested out of a childhood spent hiding who I really was. Hiding my hatred and frustration at the unfairness that was my shitty life. I buried it deep, so deep that most of the time I could pretend it wasn’t there.
Not anymore.
I was finally the person I was always meant to be.
I was wrath and rage. I was violence personified.
Planting my hands on my father’s bare chest, I let him feel every bit of my fury. My flames burned hotter as he screamed, and I reveled in the sound.
He was the reason I grew up in poverty.
He was the reason I had been abused and scarred.
He was the reason my mother was dead.
My hands begin to sink into his chest as layers of skin and muscle melted beneath my touch.
“Why?!” I screamed. “Why did she run? What did she overhear?”
I let up on the pressure, allowing his magic to struggle in its attempt to repair the scorched muscles of his chest.
“Tell me,” I hissed, bending down close to his face.
“The truth,” he whispered through clenched teeth. “She learned the truth.”
I leaned even closer, allowing my flaming wings to curl around me so they snapped and popped in his face. “And what is the truth?” I growled, not even recognizing my own voice. “What did my mother learn?”
“She learned… she learned that you won’t survive it,” he confessed, his voice a pathetic whimper as my flames continued to lick at his skin. “There was a part of the prophecy I kept hidden. It says that when you go to pull the ley lines apart, it will take all of your magic to restore them. It will drain you completely and… It will kill you, Raynella. That is why your mother took you and fled.”
I reeled back as if I had been slapped in the face.
I was robbed of a mother who cared about me enough to sacrifice her life for my own.
Because of my father, I had been denied a lifetime of warm hugs. A lifetime of bedtime stories. A lifetime of comforting words when I was sad and encouragement when I was nervous.
I had been denied a lifetime of love.
I plunged my hands back into my father's chest, letting my fire devour his flesh. Deeper, I pushed my flames. I would hold his beating heart in my hands and watch it turn to ash.
He struggled against my grip, and it only made me press harder. I let his screams wash over me, delighting in his anguish. Finally, he would know what it felt like to suffer.
A wave of cold water crashed over my head, and I cried out as the deluge swept me across the rooftop and slammed me into the wall.
Sin stood with his back to the ocean, his hands upturned, and a massive wave suspended behind him.
“I can’t let you do this, Rain. I can’t let you kill him. There’s still so much that you don’t understand.”
“I understand enough!” I bellowed, as I jumped to my feet and the cool night breeze on my wet skin reminded me that I had torched my clothing. I called to my fire, trying desperately to force my flames back to life. Sparks flickered but only smoldered against my soaked and shivering skin. “You told me she was your friend!”
“She was.”
“Liar! She was running from you. You could have let her go, but instead you stood there and watched her die. You did nothing. Nothing!”
I almost felt bad for Sin. The heartache on his face was fiercely evident, and instinct told me he wasn’t actually lying about caring for my mom. Unfortunately, my instincts had betrayed me far too often to ever listen to them again.
I tracked Sin out of the corner of my eye as I stalked toward my blistered and charred father, my nudity the farthest thing from my mind.
“Are you going to kill me now, Sin? It’s the only way you’ll stop me.”
“This isn’t you, Rain,” he argued. “You’re letting the magic rule your emotions. You can’t control them both at once. You need to let go of the fire.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, my voice bitter and harsh. I willed my flames back to life, and once more they slithered into place across my skin.
I knelt in front of my father, his labored breathing indicating that he didn’t have much time left. Maybe if he got to a healer he could be saved. Too bad I wasn't going to let that happen.
Despite all my rage, some small voice that lingered in the recesses of my mind screamed at me to listen to Sin. Begged me to stop. Shouted that this wasn’t me.
I slammed the door shut on that little voice.
“Rain!” Sin thundered from behind me.
I paused to glance over my shoulder.
Sin swirled his hand, gathering water above his head.
Before he could unleash his magic on me again, I shot a blast of fire across the roof. He dropped into a crouch to avoid the flaming projectile, and his grip on the water faltered.
I turned back to my father. My entire focus needed to be on making him pay.
“Raynella,” he wheezed out. “There is so much I wish I could tell you.”
“I don’t care,” I hissed. I knew enough. I swirled my flames around my hands and slammed them down on his chest.
No screams of pain reached my ears though, as cool hands coated in water settled over mine, snuffing out the flames before they could tear into his flesh. Sin leaned closer, ignoring the spots where his clothes and exposed skin began to smolder.
“Please, Rain,” he whispered. “You trusted me once. Trust me again. Don’t do this.”
I yanked my hands out from under his and urged the fire back to life, but a thin coating of his water magic covered my skin once more like silken gloves.
“You won’t let me kill him?” I asked, staring into eyes that once captivated me.
“I’m sorry,” he replied. “But I can’t let you do that.”
I nodded as if agreeing with him. “I’m sorry too, Sin, because no one tells me what to do anymore.”
In one smooth movement, I yanked the sharp six-inch hairpin from my braid and plunged it into my father’s pulsing jugular.
His body seized, and blood spilled from his mouth. Thrashing against the wall, he reached up to pull the pin out, but it was too late. His pathetic magic might have healed his ruined chest, but it wasn’t enough to save him from the gushing hole in his neck.
Choking on his own blood, he coughed out, “I love you, Raynella. From the moment I first held you in my arms, I loved you. And I failed you. I am so sorry that I was not stronger. Whatever happens next… please… don’t… blame… yourself.”
Then he was gone.