Page 62 of Demons In My Head: Exposing the Exiled
"Ace—" he started, but I cut him off with a raised hand.
"Don't fucking call me that." The nickname scraped against my insides like broken glass. "You lost that privilege."
Khol's jaw clenched, a muscle twitching beneath his bruised skin. It was the same tell he'd had since I was a kid. Anger, frustration, or pain—I never could tell which. Maybe all three.
"Fine. Ashland." He ran a hand through his dark, blood-spattered hair. "You know Asrael was a lying piece of shit. Whatever he told you—"
"What? That you slaughtered my real parents alongside him?" I spat the words like venom. "That you were going to murder my mother, too, until you had some convenient fucking crisisof conscience? That you raised me knowing exactly what you'd done?"
The courtyard had cleared somewhat, the wounded being carried away, the dead left to grow cold. My entire body hummed with rage and adrenaline, and the urge to plunge my blade into his heart was almost overwhelming.
Khol didn't flinch. "Is that what he told you?"
"Does it fucking matter? You never denied it."
"Because part of it was true." His voice dropped, turning rough with emotion. "We found them in the woods. Your family."
My fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade. "And you decided to play hero after helping slaughter them?"
"There was no stopping Asrael." Khol's eyes never left mine, steady and unflinching. "Asrael sent me after your mother when your fathers took on Asrael. I did not cut them down."
"Bullshit."
Khol's expression relaxed, as though he was no longer standing before me, but instead, deep within the forest that crawled with the resistance.
"You had her eyes." Khol's voice cracked, something I'd never heard before. "Ice blue. Like looking into a frozen lake."
I wanted to call him a liar. Wanted to run him through and be done with it. But the raw emotion in his voice gave me pause.
"I told her to run. Not to stop. It was as I was heading back to Asrael that I heard her screams. By the time I reached her, she was dead. You were nowhere to be seen, and then I heard a little cry. The tiniest, most innocent sound I'd possibly ever heard. She knew Az was going to get her, and she hid you in a tree trunk." The information was coming faster than my brain could process, and yet I couldn't stop him. I had to know.
"Asrael wanted you dead," Khol continued. "Said you were an abomination. A resistance-bred bastard that shouldn't exist. Iwouldn't let him kill you. I told him I'd raise you as my own, teach you our ways."
"How fucking noble of you," I snarled, but my conviction was wavering.
"I'm not asking for your forgiveness, Ace—Ashland. I made choices I have to live with. But know this—every day I raised you, trained you, watched you grow into the leader you've become... I never once regretted saving you."
A bitter laugh escaped me. "Saving me? For what? To be your fucking legacy? To carry on theColdname? Why do I even matter now? Huh? You have a daughter who's just become Queen of the entire fucking realm!"
"To give you a chance." Khol's eyes softened, revealing a depth of emotion I'd never seen. "I didn't save you from that fucking tree trunk out of selfishness just so you could survive, I saved you so you couldlive! There's a gods damned difference, and that woman"—he pointed to Saige, who was now wearing a bright crimson colored gown—"taught me that. I love you every bit as much as I love her, son."
Something inside me fractured, a hairline crack in the fortress I'd built around myself. "You could have told me the truth."
"At first, you were too young. Then, I feared you'd hate me. By the time you were old enough to understand, it seemed too late." Khol's shoulders sagged. "When Asrael twisted it all... I didn't know how to unravel his lies without losing you completely."
"So you said nothing."
"My biggest mistake." He took a step closer. "I'm not asking you to call me father again. I'm just asking you to know that whatever I am, whatever I've done—I loved you like my own from the moment I held you in that forest."
The world around us seemed to fade as I processed his words. The battlefield, the victory, even Palmer waiting around the corner—all of it receded against the weight of this moment.
I looked away, unable to bear the raw emotion between us. "I need time."
"You have it." He nodded, understanding. "I'll be here when you're ready. If you're ever ready."
Without another word, I turned and walked away, my mind a storm of conflicting emotions. Behind me stood my past, complicated and painful. Ahead waited my future—and a certain cherry-scented bunny who had some serious explaining to do.
Chapter fourteen
