Page 109 of Wicked Heirs

“You’re making a mistake,” she warned.

“I know exactly what I’m doing and one day you’ll come to me admitting that you should have listened, that I was right about it all.”

She sneered, then teleported out.

My father shoved a hand through his long hair, then sucked in a breath and waved his hand in my direction.

It shattered my illusion right away.

“You were there for the entirety?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

He surprised me as he smiled, bittersweet. “Good. At least somebody bore witness to that, because nobody else will believe my word on what just transpired. Especially after she poisons my name and the Kingdom as a result.”

“Father, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Absolutely nothing. Don’t involve yourself in this.” He walked to me and laid his hand on my shoulder. “It’s just become clear that I do actually need to let you take your leave for Electi Academy. It’ll be the safest place for you and a place that won’t be tainted by what’s about to come.”

“Father, I can’t leave you while this is—”

He squeezed my shoulder. “You have to. But you’ll need to play the game. One of my former army commanders under my charge a few years back is a professor there. Ingratiate yourself to him, pull on your revulsion for some of my ruling tactics and make him believe that you don’t condone anything I do when it comes to the rule of this Kingdom.”

“You want me to denounce you?”

“In a way. Just for now.”

“I can’t.”

“You must.”

I threw my arms around him and he returned my embrace, holding me tight to him.

I couldn’t believe this was happening, that it had come to this.

The sad part about the whole thing was that he was right.

About all of it.

Abigail Rose was determined to tear my father down.

And she was going to destroy us all in the process.

I easedmy hands away from either side of Alena’s head as I finished allowing her to see that part of my memory.

I looked out at her as I came back to the immediate moment after conveying the details to her about where my hatred for her mother stemmed from.

“After that, my fatherwasblacklisted in the supernatural world. Alliances and trading ceased, the Kingdom fell into a bleak and dark period and faced attacks and a whole lot of malice from those loyal toExemplar.Through it all, my father became enraged and depressed, and it really didn’t help my parents’ fragile marriage at the time. They split up and my mom left the DFR altogether. She disappeared into the ozone andused some of my father’s magic that she stole on her way out to cloak herself so he couldn’t seek her out. It broke his heart. The whole thing did.”

“Wow,” she said, grimacing. “That’s… a lot.”

“It was for me too. With it being your mom… seeing her in a negative light… I can’t imagine how hard it is to wrap your head around it.”

“She’s not perfect.”

“What?”

She lifted a shoulder. “I’ve heard things, seen things. She’s made mistakes. This isn’t my first foray into that side of her.”

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