Page 174 of Rising Out of the Darkness
“Hells, boy! For once in your damn life, listen to me!”
“I’ve got to—” My lungs burned from lack of oxygen. Shallow breaths escaped my lips with each wince of pain brought on by the vines. “—save her.” Thorns sliced closer and closer to the bone. Pressure began to build behind my eyes, but I had no energy to expend on trying to hold the tears back. Tears mixed with my blood as they rolled down my cheeks.
“Declan—son?—”
I stilled at the agony in my father’s voice. The way he said “son,” dripping with regret, the word burned a hole through my chest into my heart.
“Son.” His voice cracked. “You will not be able to help her if you don’t breathe.”
“You have no right to?—”
“Shhhh…breathe, my son.”
Everything around me started to become cloudy. I was stronger than this. I had to fight, to pull through. The kingdom, my family, my friends, my love, they were all counting on me. This couldn’t end here, not after everything that we’d been through.
“Think of your brother…your mother,” he whispered. “They need you to pull through, son.”
He was right, everything I did was for them. One deep shallow breath slipped in my lungs.Good, keep going.Two, breaths. Three. Four. The tightness in my trembling muscles began to ease before my father spoke again.
“You—you’ve always been stronger than I ever could be, Declan.”
A twinge of remorse swarmed inside my stomach. My father had always despised the fact that my dynamis was more powerful than his. It made him furious that someone like me, who was weakened by anxiety, could be given such a power.
“I’m not talking about your dynamis, Declan. You’ve always had a strength within you, a power that no gift from the gods could ever replicate. Even as a little boy, I could see it shine through, no matter how hard I tried to break it.”
Silence filled the air as I struggled to contain my shock over the conversation we were finally having.
“Even with everything I put you through all these years, things that would break a lesser man, like me, they never once touched you.” A sob broke free from my father, my jaw tightenedat the sound. “That’s what got me into this miserable position in the first place. It’s how—” His breaths were becoming shallower.
“Father—”
“No, son, let me finish. I’ve done nothing to deserve you listening to me, but please allow me to try to atone for the atrocities I’ve committed all these years. Please, just give me a chance to explain.”
“Well”—I winced as the roots tightened at my slip of movement—“it’s not like I can really go anywhere, given our current situation.”
It was silent for a moment before I heard a muffled laugh from the tomb next to mine. Even the edges of my own lips turned slightly upwards.
“Good point. Well, now that I have your undivided attention, let me get on with it.” My father cleared his throat. “This has all been my fault.” I would like to say I was shocked by his admission, but sadly, I wasn’t. “When Alastor arrived, the kingdom began to fall apart.”
“Don’t blame the beginning of our downfall on him. That was entirely you, Father. Your lust for power and your intolerance towards the humans is what began this darkness. Alastor just helped spread your hate campaign throughout the kingdom.” My words were harsh, but I didn’t give a damn. If he wanted to have a heart-to-heart, he was going to be truthful.
A heavy sigh filled the air. “You’re right. The desire for dynamis, power…control…had blinded me before Alastor ever set foot in our castle. Alastor is not what we all believed him to be.”
“You think?” I snapped.
“I believe he may not even be truly Elysian.”
“Stop beating around the bush. What are you saying, Father?”
A frustrated grunt rumbled out of my father. “I’m trying to apologize for unleashing this evil in this kingdom …for being weak and giving into my desire for power. Alastor has been syphoning my dynamis for centuries.”
My brows shot to my hairline.
“He can syphon our dynamis to make it his own, but only after being given consent. If you don’t consent, there are other ways he can force it out of you. Mine was the promise of complete control of my entire kingdom, and the promise that our family would continue to be the most powerful Elysians in the land.”
“He’s responsible for the suppression of dynamis, isn’t he?” The words left my lips short and clipped.
“Yes, but it’s not just those outside of the cities. I believe that Alastor was the original creator of the blood magic in this land. As you know all too well, that magic has an underlying evil about it.”
