Page 24 of Fated to Monsters

But I push that intrusive thought away. It’s only been a day; I need to not jump to conclusions. I’ve spent a lifetime in captivity, what’s a little longer?

“Here’s the deal. Tremont hurt her in more ways than one. He hurt you, too.” He looks directly at me when he says this. “He’s the reason your magic was suppressed for all those years. He conspired with my parents to steal magic from an entire bloodline in some sadistic power-hungry rampage. Up until not too long ago, the Oliver name was cursed, and he played a huge role in making that happen.”

Rage boils within me at each word he speaks. It’s no wonder he was shocked when he found Tremont shacking up in his house and threw together that barrier spell. Hell, I would have killed him on the spot if I were him. Sydney has more willpower than me, or maybe he’s not accustomed to that kind of violence. Or is it that things aren’t handled that way here on Earth?

“I say we kill him.” Bo finally breaks his silence.

Leave it to Bo to say the thing on my very mind.

I flit my attention at him briefly before settling my gaze back on Sydney. “You really believe I have hidden magic somewhere within me?”

“Without a doubt.”

I thought Parla took everything from me, but it seems Tremont was a key component in trying to ruin my life, too. What if I came into my powers sooner? Could I have stopped the war in Prania earlier? Could I have saved myself a lifetime of serving that heartless bitch? Would I have been strong enough to prevent my mother from being murdered when I was a child? I’ll never know, and it’s his fault I’ll never find out.

“I think he knew.” I recall the memory of him taking mymagicto break the barrier spell at Rockbridge, the one that was keeping us confined inside the building.

He acted shocked, like my power was somehow alarming. I passed it off as him getting a jolt of all the demon essence I harnessed, but in reality, he was getting a taste of what he already knew.Oliver magic. He gave himself away again when he questioned my last name, and insisted I would be capable of cross-realm travel without a weakness in the fold. He knew the whole time, and never once thought to tell me who I was, who I am. And because I was blind to the truth, I never truly picked up on any of it. My biggest concern was getting my people to safety, and in that, I overlooked the enemy right at my side.

But if he truly meant ill, would he have brought us to the very place where those secrets would no doubt come to light? He had to have known how dangerous it would be here, and that it would only be a matter of time before I learned what he had done.

The entire situation makes no sense from his perspective if he had some nefarious plan.

Regardless of whether his intentions were good or evil, it still makes me want to kill him no less.

He may not have known he was hurting me when he suppressed the Oliver magic, but the impact of what he did runs deep. His actions very well could be the catalyst that set my entire life on the path that it took.

Would my path have crossed with Wes’s if he hadn’t, though?

Or what if we had met sooner, under different circumstances?

"Oh, he did, for sure," Sydney confirms. "I'm guessing he brought you here as a bargaining chip, for his freedom."

How dare someone use me for anything, especially for forgiveness of such heinous acts.

“Wait.” I play the details of what he said back in my mind. “Your parents, what became of them?”

Sydney’s jaw tenses. “They got what they deserved. And now they’re serving out the rest of their days in Balial’s hell dimension.” He puts his arms up. “This was their home, the one I grew up in. I can’t bring myself to part with it but being here is a constant reminder of a childhood I don’t wish on anyone else.”

That makes two of us with a screwed-up adolescence.

Wes grips my hand under the table.

None of us have had it easy, that’s for sure. But if I have any say in our future, it’s one that isn’t plagued with memories we beg to forget.

“I’m guessing you didn’t share your parent’s ambition?” Dash stands from the table, taking his empty plate and the one in front of me.

“No, my parents and I had nothing in common. They hated me and what I stood for—what I was.”

“How could a parent hate their child?” The question leaves my mouth without me really meaning to say it out loud.

“I was a reminder of what they would never have. True angel given power.” Sydney glances around. “I don’t know how much you know of your ancestry, but we all have some level of light and dark magic coursing through our veins. Every supernatural being does. The lighter, the more powerful. That isn’t to say darker can’t be potent, too, but lighter is purer, a more direct link to the Angels. My parents, with the help of Tremont and many others, going back centuries, had been suppressing and harnessing the Oliver line, because it was stronger than anything they could have naturally.”

The comparison of what Parla had me doing to the demons of Prania is so eerily similar to what Sydney’s parents were doing to my bloodline.

At the end of the day, what makes me any different than him?

What if he was manipulated and convinced that what he was doing was the right thing?

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