Page 25 of Iron Crown

I took a deep breath, fighting tears that welled in my eyes.

“You will have a longer, more peaceful life with him. A morecertainlife with him, if you send him away so thatwecan make a better worldforhim.” I tried to say it as calmly as I could, but I felt the waver in my voice all the same.

“If I live that long.” Eoghan scowled at me, and I was not used to being the subject of his ire. I did not like it. “Is that your intent, then? For me to die so that I am nothing but a blip in his memories? That I will contaminate our son with my darkness?”

He had never, ever, said anything so cruel to me before. I didn’t think he was capable of such a thing. To others? Yes. But to me? My heart ached, as if someone was reaching into my chest, and squeezed my heart until the flesh broke like the skin of a juiced orange.

“How dare you,” I said quietly. “Howdareyou say that to me?”

“I dare because you have never been truthful with me. Not once!” He pushed away and stared at me with something that was so close to hatred that it frightened me.

“And you take it as an insult, right?” I scoffed, not letting myself look weak when he was bent on attacking me.

“I do! And you know it.” His finger was in my face, pointing with cruel accusation. “But I have overlooked that foryou, Kira. I have overlooked it for my love of you. Andstillyou give menothing!”

“I gave you a son.”

“Youtookhim away, and you want to take him away now.”

“I’m not!” I reached out to him, my bare feet padding on the cold surface of the tiled floor.

He drew away, his handsome face so distorted that he could have been a different person.

“Eoghan!” I called, agitated that he would pull away from my touch.

He scoffed, his voice bitter as he said, “Am I so bad of a man that I should not be allowed to be a father? I don’t even get a chance?”

“Eoghan, listen to me…” He was so far in his head that he wasn’t seeing me. He wasn’t hearing me. I needed him here. I needed him toseeme. “Eoghan! God damnit! Look at me!”

When I grabbed his shoulder, he pulled away, then left the bathroom.

He left me standing there naked, the remnants of black dye in my hair dripping down my chin like mascara tears, as I stood there crying like a fool.

Chapter seven

The Calm Before the Storm

Eoghan

Astrange calm had fallen over the house. The gray skies above fit my mood, as I wallowed in darkness.

I had trudged my way in the early morning to our room, thinking I would find her asleep in bed, but she wasn’t. I panicked, thinking she had run away again, but then our son’s snoring reassured me that she was still here, under the same roof. She would never leave him behind.

I’d found her in the bathroom. I was as drawn as I ever was, like a moth to a flame, needing to feel her and touch her.

She had, once again, kept her secrets.

I had kept one myself—the one of Morelli. It wasn’t just retaliation.

The moment she discovered him, his imprisonment, and his even more morbid future, she would leave. No one would want to lie beside a man capable of doing what I do—capable of slaughtering a friend. Was I cruel to have befriended him the way I had? Maybe. Was it worse to lean on him the way I did when he rightfully owed me less than nothing? Yes.

My palms ached as though they were already covered in Morelli’s blood.

The moment she found out, she’d run, just as she did when she found me torturing him three years ago.

History repeats itself, again and again. A madness from father to son. Blood to blood. Ash to ash.

This would end the same as it had three years ago. She would vanish, and I would be a broken man. This time, the breaking was just slower…

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