Page 40 of Forgotten Monsters
“You helped my daughters, despite everything…”
Barron’s lips quirk. “They didn’t give me much of a choice.”
Dad sips on his tea. “And you…Your father was Mallon Chakrabarti.” The soft tremble of his voice quickens my heart.
Mal’s face pales in response, but she nods. “Yes, but my mother was a fury. A mortal.”
I don’t know much about the Underworld, but I know that surname. Malifar Chakrabarti was the name of the emperor that betrayed the peace between the three realms and started a war that ultimately destroyed his people.
“Now it all makes sense.” Dad turns to Barron. “She’s the reason you defected.”
Barron balls his fists, and his shadows thrash around him. “Orders shouldn’t always be followed. Especially when some shithead President sends you to kill an innocent little girl.”
Dad’s eyes dim, his gaze glued to Mallory. “After your mother’s clan was slayed, you were branded with that curse to hide and weaken your powers—and also prevent the Chakrabarti sympathizers from kidnapping you and raising you off-world.”
There’s an eerie pause before Barron snarls. “You did it.”
“Yes.”
My eyes bulge. “Why?”
Mallory is frozen in place, her jaw slightly ajar, her eyes full of unshed tears.
“The President wanted to erase the Chakrabarti bloodline, but I thought if I cursed you, if I neutralized the immediate threat, then the High Council would leave you alone,” Dad says.
Barron grips the armrest of his chair, shaking. “Well they didn’t. They sent me after her anyway. She suffered fordecadesbecause of that curse.”
“That was my mistake. A mistake I can finally rectify, if you’ll let me.” He offers Mallory his hand, speaking softly and with such care that I frown.
“I remember you…” Mal squints as though she’s only now seeing him clearly, fury visible in her glacial-blue eyes. “How did you know my mother?”
In the pinch of my father’s lips and the shameful hunch of his spine, I realize Mallory’s mother wasn’t just a woman Dad happened to cross paths with during his undercover mission.
In fact, I’m 99.9% positive Mallory’s mother is Jules’ mother.
15
EFFIGIES
The Faerie lodge where Cole and I spent our honeymoon is unrecognizable. Flynn guides me from the dusty portal to the balcony. Wilted flowers float on top of the basin where we used to swim. Wild vines grew over the banisters and nestled in the mortar between the stones.
Next to emerald water, a patch of grass was replaced by a marble statue depicting a round, fiery orb. My legs soften as we draw closer. Flames pierce the confines of my skin and reflect off the orb’s silver plaque.
Fire that's closest kept burns most of all.
The engraved metal is cold under my fingers, and my belly squeezes painfully. “It’s a grave.”
“There was a body,” Flynn says quietly—so quiet in fact, that I barely hear him. “We buried you, Jules. Right here.”
Tears mist in my already red eyes. The foot of the tombstone is engraved with my name. My fingers tremble over the letters. “How—”
“If there hadn’t been a body, we never would have stopped looking for you. Never.”
Darkwood not only faked my death, he faked mybody? He forced my dad, my friends, my husband toburyme?
Infernal magic pulses in my bones.
I hurl an orb at the tombstone, smashing the top half to pieces.
