Page 79 of Cruelly Fated
“Have you met him?” I asked, referring to my father, Cyrus. He had always been a taboo topic in our house. But maybe now, with everything so different, Grandpa would finally speak of him.
“I think I saw him once, across the street. A handsome fella. He held your mother’s hand… She never introduced him to me.”
“Why not?”
“From what I gathered in the few times we spoke of it, he was someone important. High profile. At first, I thought he used her—like many men in power do. But when I dared say it out loud, she came down hard defending him. Said he had duties in his homeland, that he was an heir of some sort, and his family expected him to marry well.”
Grandpa let out a low, rumbling sound—somewhere between a badger’s growl and a sigh.
“If that’s not the definition of using someone—letting them fall in love when you always knew you’d have to leave—then I don’t know what is. After that, she never mentioned him again. He became the unspoken wedge between us for years.”
“That’s why she never talked to me about him?”
Grandpa’s eyes softened. “She was hurting. Even that cop, such a nice fella, couldn’t thaw her heart.”
I toyed with the paper in my hands. “The only advice she ever gave me about dating was not to trust men. ‘They all leave,’ she used to say.”
“What do you expect a heartbroken woman to say?” he asked, his lips forming a lopsided smile. “I wasn’t the most reliable either. But I’m here now. And something’s weighing on you. I can see it in those little tells you’ve had since you were a kid. What is it?”
I winced. “It’s about a certain man… Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“Ah, you women think men don’t go through heartbreak? Yes, spill it, child.”
I sucked in a breath. “I think I’m falling for Kyon.”
Grandpa’s eyes crinkled with amusement. “Ahh, the fire-breathing, tattooed demi-god—”
“Don’t forget presumptuous, arrogant, self-absorbed…”
Grandpa chuckled.
“This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not laughing at you, child. I’m simply happy. You’re notfallingfor him—you’re alreadythere.”
I blinked, twice, as if I could erase the words from memory. That surely couldn’t be it.
“So what’s stopping you two?”
“Ironically, the same thing that stopped Mom. He’s a prince of Avari. Comes from a long line of dragon kings. What if his family doesn’t approve of me?”
“If he chooses the family who threw him in jail over the woman who’s got his heart, then he’s not worthy of you.”
I pressed my lips together and unfolded Mom’s letter, tracing the shape of her final words. She’d wanted to see him again. Maybe my powers were the excuse she used to leave Avari in search of him, but she never stopped loving him. She gave up her own happiness so he could rise to power. Perhaps this letter was my sign…to let Kyon go, too.
“Hmph.” Grandpa rubbed his beard. “I’m afraid I know where that thinking’s taking you. And you’re wrong. Your mother never regretted being with him. Never regretted having you. But she did regret one thing—she didn’t go after him that day he left. She didn’t tell him how she really felt…that maybe they could’ve figured it out together.”
My eyes burned, heavy with unshed tears.
“Allie, I don’t want you going through life with the same regret. Go to him and lay it all out there.”
I hiccuped, choking on the intense emotion of this moment. Grandpa was right—he was a well of ancient wisdom.
Folding Mom’s letter over and over in my hands, I said, “There’s this party tonight…”
Grandpa chuckled. “What are you still doing here with this old badger? Go.”
I smiled. “Have I told you how much I love you lately?”
