Page 127 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

“Of course we resent you!” Mom snaps. The words seem to rip out from the very depths of her soul. Her eyes are full of anger and hurt as she stares me down. “You ruined our marriage.”

Pain slashes through my chest. “I was achild.”

“I don’t care!” she screams the words at me with all the force of a physical hit. With that anger still in her eyes, she motions between herself and Dad. “Welovedeach other. And you broke us. You took our emotions and twisted them up so badly that we could never be sure if we were truly angry with each other or if we were happy or calm or stressed or if we had any feelings at all. Or if it was all just your vicious meddling.” Tears well up in her eyes. “Youruinedus. You ruined everything.”

I rock back on my heels as if she had hit me across the face.

In my chest, I swear that I can hear my heart crack.

The silence in the living room is so loud that it pulses against my eardrums.

Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I open my mouth to say something. To defend myself. To try to explain, yet again, that I couldn’t control my powers back then. That I didn’t mean to manipulate their emotions. That I worked myself into exhaustion trying to master my powers faster than anyone ever had before.

But then I just close my mouth instead.

Nothing I say is ever going to change how my parents feel about me.

They don’t care anymore.

And now, neither do I.

So I just turn on my heel and walk away without another word.

None of this matters anyway. All that matters is that I have won the Atonement Trials. And tomorrow, my new life, my wonderful life away from all of this, is finally going to begin. I just need to make sure that I’m standing on the Dragon Field before sunrise.

No one,no one, is going to stop me from claiming my place as a victor in front of the entire Iceheart Dynasty tomorrow.

Hesitation blows through me.

No onecanstop me, right? Like Draven. He can’t just use his power and influence as the leader of the dragon shifter army to somehow stop me from claiming my status as winner of the Atonement Trials.

Can he?

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

I’m striding across the grass and out onto the Dragon Field an entire hour before the sun will rise. To my surprise, Alistair is already there. And Isera arrives ten minutes after me as well. Apparently, none of us wants to risk missing our one shot at getting out of here.

Cool morning winds sweep across the grasslands and rustle the leaves in the thick forest around us. I stare at those twisted trees and snaking vines and sharp thorns, and I can’t help but wonder if the rest of the contestants are still in there. Hopefully, they heard the Icehearts roar like that before they flew away, and took that as a sign to return.

I glance at Isera and Alistair from the corner of my eye.

Both of them just stand there next to me, their spines straight and their eyes fixed on the Peaks of Prosperity that the dragons should be flying over on their way here.

I shift my weight as the silence continues stretching.

“So…” I find myself saying after a while, because the tense silence is grating on my frayed nerves and is making me more worried that Draven is somehow going to show up and ruin this for me. “Still not going to tell us what you’re going to do with your freedom?”

Alistair starts in what looks like surprise, and then turns his head to stare at me. As if he can’t believe that I’m talking to him. When he realizes that I am in fact addressing him, he draws his pale brows down in a scowl.

“No,” he declares.

“Seriously?” I shoot him a pointed look. “After the winner’s ceremony today, we’re going to split up anyway and probably never see each other. So what does it matter?”

He glares at me in silence for a few seconds. Then he blows out a forceful breath and rakes a hand through his curly blond hair. “I’m going to get the hell out of here and never return.”

The venom in his words shocks me.

I raise my eyebrows. “You hate this place that much?”

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