Chapter Forty-Six
Avari
The afternoon with the shadow dragon and the professor brought a rare sense of calm, a reprieve from everything that had been breaking me apart.
It felt refreshing to focus on something besides betrayal, danger, and people with questionable morals.
The new dragon inspired me more than I wanted to admit; the thought of a real companion for my bonded warmed my heart. Seclusion was as unnatural to dragons as it was to people.
For a fleeting moment, I imagined them soaring through the Fogoyan skies together before I caught myself and shut the thought down. Deep down, after the weeks spent there, I had started to treat their court as my home. But it never was.
Even if I succeeded in helping the former queen return to her family, that didn’t mean I was ready to face the king and his treachery. I didn’t even know what home meant anymore. Ortensia never felt like one, and Fogoya had turned into a memory I couldn’t let go of.
Ortensia had never truly felt like home, even without my overbearing, abusive mother.
The water had its allure—vast and full of wonder, teeming with life that thrived against all odds in an environment determined to tear it apart.
But it was nothing compared to the living fields of Fogoya, so vibrant and alive with quiet energy.
Its endless greenery seemed to hum beneath my skin, forever tugging at my fingertips, begging to be acknowledged.
The king’s lands had clawed their way inside my heart and mind like nowhere else before.
The nature, the trees, and even the fireflies, they all spoke to my soul, making me feel like I belonged.
But I needed to think logically. Growing so attached to a dream, to a man who had betrayed me worse than anyone ever had, proved how foolish I had been.
Living there again was an unattainable fantasy.
The Shadow Lands, on the other hand, offered stability without expectation. My family seemed genuinely happy to have found me, but my father was a flawed man.
How could I truly trust someone who wrecked lives on a whim?
The question gnawed at me until it pushed me out the door. No matter what I did to distract myself, the thought of the former fire queen and my mother’s accusation refused to leave me. I had to know what my father would say about it.
Unable to shake it, I went to his office to question him about what my mother claimed—that he had forced himself on her. It felt wrong in every possible way, but I needed to hear the truth.
I knocked twice before a murmured invitation sounded from within.
My father sat on the sofa, eyes dim and hollow, the last few days clearly taking their toll. Even surrounded by darkness, he looked strangely relieved to see me.
‘We should talk,’ he said, voice rough, like the words cost him something to admit.
At least we agreed on that. ‘Why did she say that?’
He knew exactly what I meant. A sigh escaped him, followed by a gulp and a pout that reminded me of Alec. Just the mention of the queen’s spectacle seemed to drain him further.
‘Your mother was newly mated when I met her, just over thirty years ago,’ he began. ‘Some kind of fire noble. I heard she got pregnant, but since I never felt you and later learnt about your fire powers, it never crossed my mind that you could be mine. I’m not sure how it happened.’
The confession fascinated me. I only learnt about the queen’s mate the day before. There was no mention of it in any records, almost as if she’d erased the fact from existence.
His tone hardened as he continued, ‘So imagine my surprise when the day you arrived in Fogoya, I felt my shadows in you. I sent Alec there that very second. He made a deal with the king. He needed you for a month.’
I gasped. River had sold me off immediately. His intentions had never been pure.
‘I met Harper on the orientation day at Sycamore College,’ my father went on. ‘Alec was considering studying there, and I wanted to see the quality of teaching for myself. She was there with one of your sisters. We got drunk. It’s hazy, honestly, but she was the one who came onto me.’
‘That’s a lot to take in,’ I managed, my voice barely a whisper. ‘How can I have both shadows and fire? Shouldn’t I only have shadows and witchcraft since you’re my father? Or water? Where does the fire come from?’
He hesitated, eyes dropping to his glass before he finally looked at me again. ‘I’ve been wondering the same thing. You can’t inherit powers from your parents’ mate if they don’t share your blood.’
The thought settled heavily in the room. I wasn’t alone in my confusion, but that didn’t make it any less unsettling. Heat curled through me, threading down my arms, wrapping around my ribs like it was trying to remind me who I was.
My father and I exchanged a long, wordless look. We both knew something was wrong, but neither of us knew the right questions to ask or how devastating the answers would be.