Chapter 26 Rose Colored Glasses
Niklaus
“Hell no,” I mutter under my breath.
I jog after Sapphire, tripping over a cluster of sharp vines on my way out.
The panic of being left behind could make me do many things in this moment. I’ll lie. I’ll steal. I’ll easily kill to make sure I’m not stuck in this fucked up part of history. If she left me, I swear on my life, I’d find a way to make sure she was never born.
But as I sprint to catch up, I find her standing in the middle of the garden, cloaked in midnight, staring at the second floor of my estate—my father’s estate.
“Hmm?” I follow her line of sight to a large window, glowing with candlelight. A tall figure pacing with a bottle in hand. The raven-black hair is easy to make out from this distance.
Sapphire exchanges a look with me.
“Let’s go back,” she suggests cautiously.
I ignore her, staring at the window with an irresistible urge building in my system.
How often do people get to go back in time and see their dead parents?
When will I ever get the chance again to watch the great Aurick Demechnef in real life?
Not in history books. Not in stories I hear from his peers.
Right now, he’s so close.
I glance down at Sapphire again, then take off running.
I scale the side of the mansion with ease. The vines are thick like waxy ropes, and I know each and every nook and crevice to place my feet in to get leverage. Sapphire isn’t far behind me, wincing and hissing as she tries to climb without further aggravating her injuries.
“Go back to the greenhouse!” I whisper down to her, though I reluctantly hold my hand out to help her up to the balcony.
Sapphire’s entire body trembles in a misty, cool night air. Her face, usually a glass portrait of flawless symmetry, is bludgeoned. A deep scarlet and plum splotches her swollen cheekbones, increasing to a level of puffiness that nearly hides those striking heterochromatic irises.
I turn my head as her posture droops in pain.
“Let’s go back. We can’t risk changing any—”
I cut her off. “So, we can see your parents, but God forbid I get to see my dead father.”
At the sound of a muffled voice, Sapphire and I duck, crouching low to the black iron balcony floor. Sapphire shoots me a scornful glare as I slowly inch the door open so I can hear what’s being said.
The female voice is soft, gentle, and a little higher than what I’m used to. Over the years, my Aunt Skylenna’s voice has lowered. But she’s around our age here, and her tone resembles the lightness of a wind chime.
I’ve never heard my father’s voice before now. I’ve imagined what it sounds like. I’ve daydreamed about what kind of parent he would have been to me. But hearing it now has my stomach in knots.
“…do you find me attractive?” Aurick asks Skylenna in a lazy slur.
Sapphire straightens next to me.
“I—you said we were friends.”
My father barks out a cruel laugh. And my eyes trail up his tall, drunk frame as he stumbles in Aunt Skylenna’s direction.
“Because I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable staying with me!”
“We should go…” Sapphire rasps with a scratchy throat.
I hold my hand up to shush her so I can listen.
“Please!” she hisses again.
But I have to hear this. Like any man who has lost a parent, I believed I’d go the rest of my life without hearing my father’s voice.
Without seeing how he is in person. And through a disastrous phenomenon, I have been thrown back in time before he was killed in the Great War of the Dralutheran and RottWeilen.
Back when he ruled this country from the shadows.
“Aurick…”
Aunt Skylenna’s voice draws me to pay closer attention.
“It’s been torturing me to live under the same roof as you—knowing you’re undressing just across the hall—but I’ve been patient, waiting for you to make the first move. Show me you want me.”
“What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath.
My birth father gets closer to Sapphire’s mother, cornering her.
“Not once. You’re my friend,” Skylenna says.
“No. I’m a man, and you’re a woman. A woman living with me. A woman who has to obey me. Care for me. Touch me.”
Sapphire stops trying to tug me away from this scene. Her attempts go completely silent as she stares with a gaping mouth at the horror we’re both shocked by.
“Did you know?” I whisper to her.
She shakes her head.
My stomach fills with bile at the sight of my aunt quivering in terror. I’ve never seen her like this. Fearful. Small. Fragile. Aunt Skylenna has always had this primeval look in her eyes. A force sleeping behind her kind gaze. A dragon hibernating until it must fly and breathe fire once more.
But this young woman isn’t my aunt. She’s scared to death of my birth father.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me when I am speaking to you!” Aurick roars in a slur.
The back of his hand making contact with Aunt Skylenna’s cheek sends me into a brief state of shock. I jerk at the impact, watching her fall backward as she yelps.
Sapphire throws her hand over her mouth, gasping at the sight of her mother being hit.
And cowering.
Crawling backward.
Cowering.
I never thought I’d see that woman look so helpless. So scared. So weak and gentle.
A cold creeping rage pours into my chest, stuffing my hands into hard fists. The edges of my vision are lined with tendrils of red and black smoke as my eyes go dry and scratchy from not blinking.
He hit her?
I lunge forward, prepared to throw open the balcony door and step in front of Aunt Skylenna. I’ll wring his neck. I don’t give a shit that he’s my birth father, and I’ve spent most of my life looking up to his memory. He hit her.
Something hooks around the inside of my elbow.
“Don’t,” Sapphire says quietly.
I crank my neck to get a better look at her, unable to hide the surprise and betrayal darkening my glare.
Sapphire lifts her chin in defiance. A sad stoicism captures her swollen features in the cloudy moonlight. She shakes her head at me. No reasoning. No scolding. No convincing me why messing with time in this moment may alter our very existence forever.
No, because somewhere deep inside her, she’s fighting her own battle. She’s reminding herself that this needed to happen to help her mother become the legend we’ve all heard of. Yet it’s just as difficult for her to watch as it is for me to process that my father hit her.
I lower my head and wait for their confrontation to end, breathing a sigh of relief when Aunt Skylenna picks herself off the floor and leaves the room.
I lift my head to watch Aurick Demechnef pass out drunk on his bedroom floor.
I waited for Sapphire to fall asleep in the greenhouse to do this.
I’ve never moved so quietly in my life, painting the last couple of letters with the sponge. Streaks of red and pink soak the cream wallpaper, dripping to the floor.
My movements are vigilant, careful not to knock anything over in my anger, not to make any loud noises to wake him up.
The letter N is last.
Watery blood trickles down to my elbow.
Why is this triggering me so much? I’ve heard about the horrendous things that were done in the name of Demechnef for the war. But hitting Aunt Skylenna…
I drop the sponge to the floor, glowering down at my father. His pale skin, sweat stains, shiny charcoal hair…
What a colossal disappointment.
I wonder what he’ll think when he wakes up. When he sees my work of art on this wall. Will he remember hitting her? Will a small part of him know, deep down, that he disappointed me? His future son and heir of Demechnef?
Glancing back at the words written from a dirty bucket of Sapphire’s bloody water, I exhale and read it again.
Aurick
Demechnef
Hits
Women.