Page 56 of Heiress of Fire

“I don’t know much, only that she’s lost in the hole of her miserable life somewhere far away from here. I’m thankful for the distance because she won’t be contaminating my children.”

There was her chance to meet her grandmother.

“I honestly don’t understand why you’re wasting your time away in that castle,” Nico exasperated.

Davina reminded herself why she was fighting to become a better warrior: the kids and Mae. Because as much as Mae broke her heart a million times, Davina loved her mother. Davina held on to the distant memories of when it was just Mae and Davina. No Nico.

“I’m doing this for all of us, not just for myself. With all these accidents happening—”

He slammed the table with ignited fists. Small flames fell onto her cheek. She sucked in a breath as the sparks burned into her skin. Her eyes watered yet she refused to let the tears fall, biting her lip harshly.

“No, you don’t get to do that! You don’t get to cry or to be mad. You have no right you ungrateful little brat. You’re doing this as your revenge against me and your mother. You don’t get to judge us for our mistakes!” he yelled as he rushed to stand, towering over her.

The cups over the table rattled as he pushed the table away from himself.

Davina had not been mentioning anything about their poor choices, but she knew he was reacting this way because he was too immature to deal with his own mistakes. He went around blaming the whole world yet never assuming the fault himself. There were even times when Nico blamed Davina for the issues at home. Nico would say that she was the one who always said the wrong things, that she was the one who always exploded, that she was the problematic one, and that she didn’t serve to be a Soldier for Bellatorm.

Nico knew he messed up. Not once and not twice, but many times. And that is why he blamed her. Because blaming others will always be much easier than putting aside one’s pride.

Davina wondered whether Mae and Nico were like this with her because Davina’s biological father had left when she was a toddler. Perhaps Mae was a neglectful mother because Davina bore a similar face to the man who abandoned her. Was Nico like this because of that too?

Mae didn’t come out of her room. Her heart broke as she realized how her mother left her at the mercy of her abusive husband. Why was she even surprised? She’d had disappointed her countless times in the past.

Hot tears singed her eyelids, she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“You know what? You can go ahead and cry and be mad at me all you want because I’m tired of this. Of you!” he yelled, standing right before her face.

The knife in Davina’s heart twisted. He was using her pain against her. No matter how much her tears were fighting to spill, she held them back.

“I know you treat me this way because I’m not your daughter,” she muttered.

“Shut it with your lies. I’ve always put you above my own kids,” Nico spat. He turned away from her, heading toward the hallway.

Not once has he done so. Just because he married her mother with Davina being born from another man? Because he barely put any food on the table?

“Your actions don’t tell me that!” Davina yelled.

“I have given you the clothes that you have on your back, and I have fed you. That was not my duty to do so as you do not have my blood in your veins. You have no right to say I have not treated you as my daughter.”

“Then tell me why you and my mother are the reason for my afflictions?” Davina’s voice cracked.

His face twisted even more with anger. “You are exactly like all those spoiled snobs you hang out with.”

“You don’t even know them.”

“I don’t need to know them to know that you’re worse.”

Davina walked past the kitchen, toward the hallway, then she stood next to him. She looked into his hazel eyes. “I hope the numerous scars that I carry in my heart are worth your pride.”

Nico’s eyes held a question for her. Davina took a deep breath before walking away from him and into her room, making sure to lock it before plopping on her bed.

She had just had another argument with Ron, and now Nico.

The burns over her cheek throbbed. She’d have to tend to her wounds tomorrow. Dreams of living with Leilani rushed into her mind as she wrapped herself in her blankets.

The next day, getting up from bed and helping her mother clean was difficult with the pain of the burns over her cheek and neck. Especially because she remained sour for her mother having allowed Nico to burn her. Davina did her best work to cover her marks with a powder that Leilani gifted to her long ago, she had never found use for it before.

She felt a bit better after having received word from a Basalan messenger that let her know that Cara’s activation ceremony would occur that night.

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