Page 54 of As Darkness Fall
“My parents,” I said accusingly, leveling the words at him, letting him know that he wasn’t going to be able to claim ignorance on this one.
Johnathan sighed again, though there was a hint of frustration and anger in this one as well. “More than I wish I did,” he admitted quietly.
I fought down a surge of anger. He had known! All this time, and Johnathan hadknownthat my parents weren’t dead. That they hadn’t abandoned me without cause or reason. They had beentakenfrom me, and this asshole had pretended to be none the wiser about it.
My wolf was furious. She wanted to rip him limb from limb, to tear open his stomach and eat his guts before shitting down his throat. My mouth salivated at the idea of ripping his nuts off, and I nearly vomited at the sheer eagerness for such gruesome tactics that my wolf was displaying. Where the hell had she gotten such a bloodthirsty streak?
A wordless growl filled the room as I fought down that fury, that anger, trying to restrain myself from jumping on him and bludgeoning him to death with my bare fists.
He’s not worth it.
“I—I’m sorry, Danielle,” Johnathan said into the void that followed. “For all that I’ve done. Everything. Honestly, I truly am.”
I closed my eyes, not overly in the mood to hear his apology.
“The Soulbond,” he continued in a rush. “It really messed with my head something fierce. And then having you deny me in public like that made me somad. I did things…things I should never have done. Things I’m ashamed of.”
“Stuff your fucking apologies,” I spat, shaking with fury. “You were acting like this well before our Soulbond emerged. Ever since the day I dumped you, you acted like a child. My parents? That was eightmonthsbefore our Soulbond, so don’t you dare try and weasel your fucking way out of this, you shit. You knew what you were doing. And you did it anyway.”
Johnathan slumped farther down into the bed at my verbal lashing.
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re right.”
I blinked. This wasn’t what I’d expected from him. Acceptance of his real actions? That wasn’t him.
“You’re completely right,” he added. “I really liked you, Danielle. It hurt to lose you.”
“That doesn’t excuse shit,” I growled.
“I know,” Johnathan said, finally sitting up at the edge of the bed to look at me.
His eyes were filled with pain, which was more emotion than I could remember him showing in a long time, aside from anger. It was almost like he was telling the truth, that he actually felt this way. Not that it was going to get any pity from me.
“My father, the past few years… He’s not beenright, Danielle. He’s been getting scary. To me, my siblings. To my mother. We’re all afraid of him, of what he’s doing. Then, when your adopted father—”
“Mydad,” I snarled, seeing red. “He is mydad.”
“Of course,” Johnathan said apologetically. “When your dad came back, at the time of your Soulshift, it got worse. Exponentially worse. Something happened that night, Danielle. Between the two of them. I don’t know what, I wasn’t there, but when my dad came back, I’ve never seen him that angry. Never seen him so furious.”
I thought back to that night. My father had come home early from his most recent expedition. He’d said it was to surprise me for my Soulshift. That he wanted to be there when his only child went through their very first shift. I’d been touched because I knew he wasn’t due back for another week at the earliest.
After he’d reunited with my mother and I, though, he told me he had to talk to Lars. About the trip. I’d not thought much of it. He often had meetings with the Alpha to discuss his finds. But now that I thought back to it, my fatherhadbeen relatively tense. I wonder what he’d told Lars? What had made the Alpha so irate, he kidnapped my parents?
“What are you going to do?” Johnathan asked eventually, breaking the silence.
“I don’t know,” I admitted softly. “Your father wants to make a trade.”
“A trade?”
“If I return the Idol of Amunlea that I stole, he’ll give me back my parents,” I explained.
Johnathan snorted angrily. “That sounds like my father. Always the one to bargain with the lives of others.”
“Yeah.”
Standing up from the bed, Johnathan paced the room, carefully giving me some space. “Are you going to do it?”
I shrugged. “Vir says that if we give Lars the Idol, and he combines that with what he stole from another temple in Shuldar, he’ll be too strong. Vir won’t be able to contain him. So, we can’t do that.”
