26. Barrett #2
I looked down at my uncle, at his unseeing gaze.
“Come on,” she said, and she helped me to my feet, my mind still racing, my heart pounding.
I settled onto the ground nearby, and she offered me a reassuring smile. “Just sit here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
She hurried back to where the guards were now collecting Atticus’ body. I blinked, my eyes falling to my hands.
I’d killed him...
Jissena would rot in prison for the rest of her unending life, but she wasn’t the only soul who had wronged us. The corruption went deeper; the Kyrios of House Leukós and his son were still involved in some way.
“Foolish male,” Lucia said as she sat down next to me, and I blinked, unsure of how much time had passed, how long I’d been lost in my thoughts.
She watched as the guards and Damien took care of everything, locking down Atticus’ house and searching it for any evidence of how far the corruption reached .
Despite my doubts, despite how much I’d resisted her help, Lucia had done as she promised. She had proven my innocence, had seen the people responsible punished for their crimes.
For a moment I felt a gentle nudge, as if Calliope stood at my back. And despite how much I had feared to trust her, to confide in her...
“My father killed Cali.”
White dots danced across my vision as the side of my face slammed into the floor, my teeth smacking against one another as the taste of blood filled my mouth.
Anger flared deep within me at the sound of Calliope’s sobs, the salty scent of her tears filling my nose, and I fought against my captor’s hold to glare up at where Father stood by his desk.
“Foolish girl,” Father said, glass clinking against the wood as he set his drink down. The room stunk of ambrosia liquor, his eyes glazed over, his cheeks flushed. “Did you really think you could get away with this?”
“What were you thinking running away?” Mother demanded, her eyes reddened, more from tears than from drunkenness.
Father had likely been taking his anger out on her the past few hours.
It wasn’t like I cared whether he had put his hands on her or not.
She never cared to intervene when he beat us, never cared to stop his abuse.
I pushed myself up, but a boot slammed into my back, shoving me back onto the floor, and I growled. Father stalked across the room, and Calliope whimpered as one of Atticus’ guards twisted her arm behind her back, forcing her to stand taller.
“Ungrateful child. You can’t even fathom the opportunity laid out before you!” he shouted.
“You mean an opportunity for you ,” she retorted, and my heart stilled at the fire in her eyes. “I will never marry that bastard, and I will no longer bend to your will!”
A crack echoed through the room as his hand collided with her face, and she crashed to the floor, her cheek already red, her lip split and swollen. She twisted around to face him, the defiance burning in her eyes something I’d never seen.
He stormed toward her and grabbed a fistful of her hair to pull her from the ground.
She winced, tears rolling down her cheeks, but she didn’t cry out.
The flames pressed against the surface of my skin, begging to be free.
I couldn’t risk losing control, couldn’t risk burning Calliope.
They wouldn’t hurt Father anyway, not with his own magic.
I twisted around, knocking the guard off me before jumping to my feet. “Calliope!”
Father lowered himself to her level, his anger warming the room. “You will do as I comma ? —”
He jerked back as she spit in his face, and my heart launched into my throat. His chest heaved, the room growing unbearably hot as he slammed her up against the wall, wrapping his fingers around her throat.
“No!” I shouted, running forward, but hands grabbed my arms as Atticus’ guards swarmed me .
Calliope’s eyes popped open, her lips falling open as she grabbed at his hands.
“Stop!” I roared, fighting to get to her, to get to him.
“Elias,” Mother started, hurrying to him, but he didn’t stop, his grip tightening, his teeth grinding together.
“Please...” She gasped for air, her voice breaking as she kicked at the ground just out of reach. “Stop... I can’t brea ? —”
A deafening crack reached my ears, chasing the sounds from the room, and her hands fell away from him, her soft green eyes staring into nothing. He dropped her to the floor, stumbling back, and Mother stared in silence, her hand clapped over her mouth.
“Cali?” I muttered.
She didn’t respond, didn’t move.
Flames exploded around me, and I couldn’t contain them—didn’t know if I wanted to. Perhaps if I let them run freely, they might consume me and take me out of this world entirely. What life was there to live without her?
Fire engulfed every guard holding me down in a pyre of screams. They released me, and Father turned to me, crazed and furious.
“What will you do, boy?” he demanded, his own flames rising to the surface, as if they relished the possible challenge.
The fire spread quickly, snaking around us, and Mother shrieked as she stumbled back. I couldn’t think straight, my vision turning red as heat flooded my system, demanding to end him, to devour him, to burn every inch of this cursed place to the ground.
I grabbed one of the burning guards and reached into his coat, feeling a sickening satisfaction in the way he flailed, how his skin was already blackening, his screams melding with the others.
“I should’ve known you’d never amount to anything,” Father bellowed, and I threw the guard to the ground before stalking toward him. “You’ve always been weak, just like your sister.”
He swung at me, his flames winding around his arm, concentrating in his fist, and I dodged it before crashing into him. Air rushed from his lungs, his eyes bulging before falling to the dagger protruding from his gut, a dagger that one of Atticus’ guards had carried ? —
The blade laced with Aethersbane.
The flames at his command flickered before dying out entirely, and he lifted his wide eyes to me as my own built and built.
I growled, my teeth grinding together as I let them grow. “Burn.”
My flames wrapped around him, and he cried out as they crawled over his skin, burning every inch of him. Mother’s screams filled my ears as she caught fire, and I let the flames do as they wished until nothing remained.
My eyes fell to her bracelet dangling from my wrist, the inscription engraved on the gold plate haunting me just as deeply as her face .
v?u hall?s apeir?s?.
Love you infinitely.
It was meant to be a joke, a way to one up her in the words we always shared, but now, it felt more like a promise—that I would always keep her with me, that her memory would haunt me until the day I died, that my failure would remain engraved in my mind the way my message was engraved in the metal.
“I hadn’t meant to lose control like that, but I...I don’t regret what I did.” I admitted.
“He got what he deserved,” she said, resting a hand against my shoulder. “And I hate that I let this happen when you were children, that I hadn’t listened to my gut about him and launched an investigation.”
I shook my head. “You made it right in the end.”
“There’s one more thing before it’s fully right,” she said, and my brows furrowed as she brought a slip of parchment into view.
“Barrett Stratos, you are hereby cleared of all charges.” She tore the parchment in half before me. I couldn’t speak, could only watch as she smiled and handed me the torn piece of parchment that had been my undoing.
“Enjoy your freedom, hothead.”