Page 44 of The Prince and the Double Shot
“It was what they thought necessary. Honestly, I think they hoped for a second child, but… Fate, man.”
“It’s a bitch.”
“Part of me knows that they cared for me in the best way that they could. Our lives were not like… There were a lot of hard times.” I skirted anything that might tell him how broken I was. In my home country, in my family, I was born the golden son. Then, when I should have been developing the skills of my forebears – nothing happened. I was born broken. That’s what they said, over and over again.
“You were homeschooled? You said I had been to school.”
“Yes. I was homeschooled my entire life. I had friends in the village that I played with when I was younger, as long as they came to the… our house. But they stopped coming as they got older. My parents kept me on a short leash. I had many teachers who came, stayed for a year, and were dismissed because they had come up short. I was the one who came up short.”
“That sounds hard. I’m…”
“You don’t have to be sorry, Phil. But thank you. I was so angry for so long that it… It filled everything inside me where I had no room for anything else. So I decided to leave it all behind. I ran away like a thief in the night, and my family is not the kind that you run away from.”
“See, that’s why I always think mafia.”
“We’re not really mafia, I promise. It just felt like it sometimes.”
“So you ran away here?”
“No, not at first. I traveled often, always looking over my shoulder to see if I had been found. It was almost a year of traveling before I came here. It’s… Layla and Sheena are hard to leave. They make you feel like you’re a part of a family, youknow? I still looked over my shoulder for a while, but I think I’ve been looking in vain.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe they were glad that I was gone,” I shrugged, and for the first time in a long time, I felt a swirl of emotions towards my family. I was mad, sad, angry, and needy all at the same time. How did people cope with this many conflicting emotions at the same time? I felt like I was about to explode. My heart raced, and my stomach felt like lead. I slapped the side of the cliff.
Vibrations shook my feet, and rocks fell from the side, sliding down the face of the cliff. I couldn’t move out of the way fast enough! I heard Phil shout behind me, and all I could do was glance his way and throw my arm up to protect my head. He wasn’t far enough away.
An explosion happened. That’s the only way I could describe it, and it came from deep within me. It was like a damn had burst inside, and I reacted in fear. My hands pushed forward, and the rock slowed down and stopped.
I was shocked and jumped backwards.
The rock started to move again. It slid more slowly since I had stopped its momentum, and I ran backward and pulled Phil out of the way. The rocks clashed at the bottom of the cliff.
“What the fuck was that?” Phil had turned a ghastly shade of white. He was in shock.
I was in shock.
I was broken… So I had always thought, anyway.
“You… You did that?” He looked at me dumbfoundedly. “You’re… How?”
“I didn’t think I could. I’ve never been able to before, it… I could feel it. I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was…”
“Magic. You’re from a magical people. Where?”
“I… Holy shit. How did that happen? How could I… I was born broken. I shouldn’t have been able to…” I looked at him andwiped a tear from my eye. I was so overwhelmed, and honestly, a little freaked out.
“You have an ability over rock and stone. The way the ground vibrated… I’ve never seen it before, but… I’ve heard of it.”
“I don’t think I can explain this. Not yet. I… I’ve never done anything like that in my life.”
“It must run in your bloodline. There is a kingdom where some are born with this ability. I’ve never been there.”
“I know it. Few have. Few would have any reason to.”
“They're a difficult people, or so I’ve always heard.”
Phil walked over to a boulder that had a vine growing over it. He waved me over. “Come here. Let me show you something. Hold out your arm.”
