Page 128 of Wrath

My self-control went up in flames as anger took its place.

With a roar, I threw my fist at the mirror. Glass rained down around me, and pain erupted in my knuckles where numerous shards embedded.

But the mocking reflection was gone.

Where it once was now stretched a smooth pathway, large enough for my chair to roll through.

I wheeled myself forward, keeping my eyes straight ahead, ignoring the plethora of reflections on all sides of me.

“Ah! My son!”

I pulled to a stop when the pathway ended.

This time, the face reflected back at me in the mirror wasn’t my own…but my father’s.

A tide of helplessness threatened to decimate my composure before I remembered that he wasn’t truly here. He was locked away in the dungeons. He wouldn’t be able to hurt me again.

“You aren’t going to greet your father?” The mermaid king cocked his head to the side mockingly.

“You are no father of mine.” I was grateful when my voice didn’t shake, didn’t belie the fear I felt inside.

The last thing I wanted to do was show my father he still terrified me—even if he was nothing but a figment of my imagination.

My father’s eyes narrowed, and I could practically feel his anger growing. “I am your family. Your only family. You will show me respect.”

“I have a family.”

Father scoffed. “Those idiotic princes and that stupid girl? Do you really think that they love you? That they care about you?” He extended a hand, and I swore the limb seemed to protrude from the mirror, hovering in front of me. “Come with me. We can rule our kingdom the way it was always meant to be ruled. You’re better than the others. We both know it.”

Even before he had finished speaking, I was shaking my head. “No.”

“No?” He arched an arrogant eyebrow. “Do you think it’s fair that we’re cursed to be half fish twelve hours every day? Mages get magic. Incubi get sex. And what do we get? Scales.” He huffed out a bitter laugh. “Maybe it’s time we took what we deserve.”

“And what do we deserve, Father?” I demanded. “Because the way I see it, we deserve nothing.Youdeserve nothing. You’re a spineless coward who sought to make yourself feel strong by torturing those weaker than you. And guess what? At the end of the day, it was all for nothing. You lost. I won. You don’t have an heir, a title, or a throne. I took it all from you.” A cold smile pulled up my lips. “You’re nothing.”

An almost incandescent anger emanated from his eyes. “You listen here, you little shit?—”

But I was done listening. I’d been done listening. My father wasn’t a threat to me or the ones I loved anymore. No one in my family was. My father was imprisoned, and Tavvy was dead. My two younger brothers had taken off as soon as shit hit the fan, but I knew they wouldn’t return. They were lackeys who followed my father’s and older brother’s orders, not masterminds.

It was over.

After years and years of abuse and torture, it was finally over.

I felt free in a way I never had before. The iron shackles around my wrists had been removed. I could finally breathe.

With a scream, I threw my fist at the mirror, but this time, I barely felt the pain as glass nicked my skin.

Another pathway opened to me, and I wasted no time pushing myself through it. I followed the twists and turns of the mirrors until I came to the largest one at the very end.

Seven faces stared back at me.

Ryland sneered. “We are always forced to pick up your slack.”

“We can’t trust you to protect our mate,” Devlin added, his tone dripping in condescension.

“How can you be a king and protect an entire kingdom when you can’t even protect yourself?” Z asked.

“Stop.” I threw my hand up in the air, interrupting whatever they were going to say next. My heart pounded so quickly, it wouldn’t surprise me if it shook every mirror in the vicinity. “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to tell me I’m weak and useless and less of a man because I’m in a wheelchair.”

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