Page 122 of Of Blood and Banes
He grunts and shoves me to the ground, pinning my back with a knee as he still holds my arm. “Say you relent.”
I growl in stubborn protest. “No.”
He pushes me harder into the ground. “Relent.”
I wiggle underneath him, fighting for space to free myself.
“I could break your fucking arm right here,” he hisses, and throws my arm out of his grasp, the pressure spiking my spine disappearing.
He walks around to the front of me and stops, his boots filling my vision. “Your problem is you lead with your emotions. If you go into a real war, with a real battle, your ego and your anger will be the death of you if you don’t learn to control it. I keep telling you, and you’re not listening.”
I push up to sit, glaring at him as I spit, “Then stop taunting me.”
“How else are you going to practice if no one else is challenging that side of you? When you’re weak, you train until you’re strong. Just thinking you’ll be strong will do jack shit. You have to put in the effort, the time, the blood, the sweat, the tears. I’ve trained until my tears ran dry and my body was beat to a pulp, every day, foryears. You’re fucking lucky I’m easy on you.” He turns his back to me and begins to stalk off.
“Why? Because your father didn’t take it easy on you?”
His back is to me, and he stops mid-step. “We don’t talk about him.”
“And why’s that?” I stand up, lifting my chin to him. I use his same words from earlier. “I’m not acoddler.”
“Remove my chains from the wall.”
“Or what?” I challenge.
He swivels to me, anger blistering in his expression. “I don’t need to answer that. Just listen to me, and fucking do it.”
I hold his glare. A chill runs down my spine as calm lethality washes over his features. I’ve hit a soft spot. I undo his shackles as he asks, and he kicks his boots off and slides into bed.
Constructing the pillow wall between us, I mutter, “You want to talk shit about Archie all day long and push me until I’m pissed off. You think you’re so much more composed than I am. And now look at you.”
“I’m not the one who needs to be trained,” he growls, flipping his back to me. “Watch it. Or I won’t hesitate to remind you of your place.”
An awkward burn crawls up my throat. Perhaps I shouldn’t push him so hard. But it feels like I’m teetering on the edge of something monumental. “Why don’t you refer to him as your father? Why do you call him by his first name?”
“Get to your point,” he grits out.
“Sethan…mentioned your stubborn arrogance. He said it was never…” my voice grows smaller.
“Beaten out of me?” he finishes for me. “Yes. Jurrock had a short temper and rough hands. Terrible drinking problem. Sethan has known me since I was a boy and had been best friends with him for longer than I can remember.”
My breath escapes me in a single exhale, a coldness spreading throughout my limbs as I stare at the back of Darian’s head. “So, he…he knew?”
“He more than knew. He saw,” Darian tosses out plainly. “Now, will you be quiet so some of us can sleep?”
Anger bubbles inside me at the thought. Where Cole had a similar experience, Darian had an adult witness it and still not stand up for him. I fight against the temptation of letting my horror win and storming off into the night to find Sethan for answers.
But I know what I’m doing first thing in the morning.
“Fine. Let her in,” Sethan’s muffled response sounds from behind his thick, wooden doors.
After a soldier slips back out, he invites me in past the two guards posted outside of Sethan’s quarters. As soon as Sethan’s eyes connect with mine, he recognizes my fury and dismisses the other guards inside the room.
“We aren’t leaving for Vitalis until tomorrow, and the dragon riders aren’t to scout ahead for another two hours. Why are you in here at the crack of dawn?” he asks.
As soon as the door closes, I explode. Even training with Marge last night wasn’t enough to channel my horror into something productive.
“You watched Jurrock beat Darian, and you didnothing?” I nearly snarl. “How could you do that? He was a boy. And to throw it in his face like you have in front of everyone back in Driftmond?”
