Page 137 of Memories Like Fangs
I pulled against her, but she held fast and continued. “Cooper killed your father and your Aunt. He has been plotting your demise since you killed his father. He helped me hire Zaria to kill you. He looked down on you like you were nothing. He beat you. He took delight in hurting your mate through your torture. He was an avenging monster who deserved his fate. But you carry adarkness in your eyes for him. You think about his family that he so willingly not just left behind but was willing to kill if they got in his way.”
I growled, my tail lashing forward to strike. The tendril of blood still circling Lilah acted like a shield to stop my tail from going any further. “You care and care and care, Byrdie, and that is what makes youweak. That is what makes you soft. Because you love and give so much of a shit that even monsters get your sympathy. When you need to do the hard thing, you can’t do it without caving to guilt. That is why you willneverbeat me. You will never be the dragon who burns villages down for killing her own and stealing their riches. You will always be the poor little fledgling trapped in the cave, begging for someone to save her.”
You will always be the poor little fledgling trapped in the cave, begging for someone to save her. Lilah’s words wrapped around me like barbed wire, cutting and curling tighter with every ragged breath I took. They were hot as a poisoned brand in my mind.
No.
No, she was wrong.
She was so very wrong.
That’s not who I was.
Right?
I wasn’t that terrified girl, gripping her mother’s necklace that felt strange around her neck, waiting for a miracle. I wasn’t the same girl who had to beg crystals to save her, who needed her dragon to surface before her body was ready to withstand the manifest to protect her. I wasn’t the girl who ran to her daddy, pleading for him to pull her from the rubble of her fear and to tell her everything was going to be okay. No, that wasn’t me.
That wasn’t the reason that Talli got killed.
Nor was it what had Cody, Cole, and Maisie possessed by some demonic bitch.
It couldn’t be.
Lilah just wanted me to believe that it was.
But…
You are emotional, baby girl. It isn’t a flaw or a bad thing. But your kryptonite is bottling it up. Feel it. Sit with it. Then let it go. I’ve seen too many bad people who don’t do that, and they let it consume them and those they love.
Mom’s voice, steady, deep, and warm like the afternoon sun.
The world needs your softness, Byrd. It’s got enough people who let it make them hard.
Pops with his safe embrace and a baritone that made me feel like I could weather any storm.
It was thanks to them that I felt everything so deeply. I always had. And, I was proud of it.
I had killed Cooper, his father, and countless hunters today. I planned to do the same to Lilah. Ihadto. And, I would feel every ounce of it. I would never forget the sound of a life ending by my own hand. The chilling shock it would send through me. The numbness that followed was like a tide crashing into a cliff again and again. The questioning myself into madness, wondering if I had done everything I could to avoid this within a shadow of a doubt. Maybe I would cry. Maybe I would scream or throw up or fall to my knees. But was it so wrong that I would feel the gravity of it all? That taking someone’s life was always something I couldn’t shake?
Even when it was self-defense?
Even if it was the only way?
Even if they deserved for this to be the end of their road?
I didn’t mind being a monster, if that’s what it took. I came to terms with that long ago when Lilah was torturing me. I would wear the title proudly if it meant Quinn lived and our family made it out of all of this alive and as whole as possible.
Quinn once told me I wasn’t a monster.
What would she think of me after all this was over?
Wait.
My eyes widened.
Where was Quinn?
My heart stuttered, missing a beat entirely. Inside me, my dragon froze, too. I twisted my head around, trying to scan the room. She wasn’t there. Not with the others trapped in Maisie’s barrier. Where was she? When had she left? How could I have not noticed?
