Page 75 of Shattered Heir
We reached my room, and I crawled into my bed—too tired, too exhausted to shower off the scent of Cade. “Ry, it was horrible. He is—” I didn't know what to say. I wanted to say that Cade was horrible, but it was a possibility that I didn't know at all what I thought I had known.
“Emma, don’t really go falling for the guy,” Ryker said walking around me and pulling my shoes off of my feet. I had not noticed that I was still wearing them.
“Hardly,” I said with disgust. “it's just, he seemed to have had a horrible childhood. I didn’t see much, but I don’t think he was treated well. That could be what led him on his current path now, you know?”
“I guess—however, he could have still chosen a different path. We all have choices. Some things, like our circumstances, while we cannot change as children, we always can as we grow older.”
I let his words sit there in the air and thought them over. I agreed, yet still pitied the little boy who was wrongfully beaten, day and night, for what reasons, I knew not. For the first time, I noticed that the beast of hate inside of me was half asleep, flickering in and out of her cage.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Isaw the other day what you didn’t want me to see,” I said looking out his window. I’d gone to his house again.
“What was that?” he asked softly.
“I saw what that man did to you, as a child. Who was that?” I turned to look at him, his face was hard and cold, just looking out the window.
“That is just how life is, sometimes.” I watched as he spoke and noticed the way he shielded Shad’s soul.
“True, however, no one deserves to be treated like that. You were just a child.” I touched his arm, and he flinched away.
“You know nothing of it, Emma. It is in the past, over and done.” He folded his arms across his chest like he was trying to piece a part of himself back together.
“I know enough. You were just an innocent, little boy.”
“And how do you know, Emma?” he shouted and turned to me. “You know nothing about it. You don’t know who I was back then. I could have done horrible things—I did do horrible things, but I did them to survive, and I won't apologize for them.”
“But you didn’t, did you, Cade?” I asked, touching his arm again as comfort, curious about who he really was, about what really had happened to make him who he then was. Cade was not my favorite person, but I could say that slowly, I was not hating him as much as I had. The monster was still trying to rage, but the more and more I spent time with Cade, the more I realized that he was broken, that he had been hurt, that there was a wound there that had never healed. If I healed it, would he let the crystal go? Would he give me Shad’s melody? I knew that it was too great a hope, but I couldn't help having the thought.
“I do not wish to speak about my childhood; it is of no consequence.” He brushed past me and walked to the counter, getting something to drink. I wondered what it was that he was drinking as I watched him.
“Cade, I can help you,” I started to say when a laugh hung in the air from him.
“Emma, you want to help me? What am I to you? Someone to fix? A pity project for you?” He leaned against the counter and took another drink of the clear liquid that I was certain was not water.
“No, but I do wish to help. Who was that man?” I asked, walking closer to him. He set the cup down and turned to me with anger in his eyes.
“I am who I am, Emma; I did not kill your parents, no, but I did still steal this soul and beat your best friend, didn't I? I may not be all wicked, but there is no purity inside of me.”
Why was he trying to scare me away? Why, after all of his work, was he trying to get me to see him differently, telling me that he was bad?
Before I could say anything, he spoke. “I will take you home, now.” He walked to the door, opened it, and motioned for me to go out.
“Fine, but I will continue to ask you until you tell me.”
He groaned and softly pushed my back so that I would go outside.
“I did not know how irritating you could be,” he murmured under his breath.
***
“So how are things going with ‘operation Cade’?” Ash asked as we walked down the halls at school.
“Fine, I am getting closer to him.” I held the books I was carrying closer to my chest. I had so many strange feelings for the boy I once hated, one of them was pity. Keil said that my corruption was lessening, and I could confirm that for myself. I felt the darkness wavering. I wasn't feeling the beast overtaking me anymore.
“That has got to be so odd. I mean, I am grateful, at least, that you know the truth, that he didn’t directly murder your parents, but still, hard.”
“If I didn’t know that one piece of information, I am sure I would not be able to get close to him.”
