Page 22 of The Goblin in the Sink Drain
I had no idea if I had triggered the summoning token, and Fayne was nowhere in sight. I was on my own. But that was okay. Really. I had been all my life.
“The Walshes were…telling the truth.” Pain screamed through my jaw. “I’m…one of…them.”
“A latent is a latent is a latent, Anie. What difference does it make who your parents were if you’re more human than shifter?” His expression held pity confirming he—and therefore Dad—were clueless about fledging. “Carmichael should have let one of your challengers end it before the Walshes located us, but he refused to give up potential leverage against them.”
“End it?” I huffed a laugh that dribbled blood down my chin. “You mean kill me.”
“He thought you would shift, that you would be a dragon bound by his pack and his laws, but no matter how many of your peers he set against you, you never managed to sprout even a single scale.”
“He…?” I felt the sting of hot tears on my tender cheek. “He ordered the challenges?”
“Do you really believe anyone would have raised a hand to you otherwise?”
Sure, I had known Dad was aware of the beatings, the bullying, the broken bones. He always comforted me afterward, but I never expected him to intervene. I thought my peers were the ones who hated me, that if he stood up to them on my behalf, things would only get worse for me.
To learn he had orchestrated those years of torment broke me into a thousand jagged pieces no amount of glue or time could ever mend. “He never loved me, did he?”
“You wouldn’t be alive today otherwise.” He snorted at my naivete. “I can promise you that.”
No. He was wrong. This wasn’t love. What had he called it a moment ago? Oh. Right.
Obsession.
A fierce howl startled birds from the trees, the song taken up by a dozen other voices.
Dad was on the hunt. That call? It told everyone to stay out of his way.
“Sorry, Anie, but you need to be dead when he gets here.” He reached for the red lollipop sticking out of his pocket before catching himself and rolling his shoulders. We couldn’t have him choking on candy while he was choking the life out of me, now could we? “That’s the only way this works.”
The tiny voice in the back of my mind that always whispered I wasn’t good enough, worthy enough, that I was a waste of space, murmured it would be a mercy to end things here. My whole life had been a lie. I was nothing and no one. Not a Sartori. Not a wolf. Not a Walsh. Not a dragon.
As the fiction of Ana Sartori unraveled around me, I couldn’t grasp a single thread strong enough to hold myself, whoever that was, together.
A hard yelp smashed through my identity crisis, hopeless and faltering. Sloane was giving up, her resolve flagging. Another pitiful cry, one of surrender, gave me the strength to shove my issues down, stand up, and face Mercer. For her, my first true friend, mybestfriend, I would give it my all.
My determination to fight him to whatever end must have shown on my face because a cold smile broke across his that made me shiver. How had I never glimpsed this side of him? This ruthless ambition? How had he given me lollipops and life advice for as long as I could remember while biding his time to kill me at the precise moment when Dad was less inclined to return the favor?
“I’m not dying today.” I slid a hand in my pocket, retrieving one of my claws, their cold weight a comfort. I hated to give away I was armed, but two hands were required to secure the chains. I had no choice but to fasten them in his view, but I relished the wary glimmer in his eyes before he blinked them clear. “You, on the other hand, are going to pay for what you did to my friend.”
“You only got the better of me last time using the element of surprise.”
That, and Sloane had already worn him down. I wasn’t fooling myself that I could take on Mercer at his best and win. He was a fighter and a soldier, but he was still wounded. I could use that. Focus my strikes on his spine or on forcing him to protect his back from me. That would buy me time until…
No.
I couldn’t bank on Rían swooping in to save the day. I couldn’t grow dependent on him, not when I couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t toss me aside as so many others had after I failed to live up to their expectations. I had to place that faith in myself.
But, I mean, I wouldn’t cry if a dragon showed up, melted Mercer’s face with fire, then flew me away…
Gold spilling into his eyes, Mercer swiped for my throat with clawed fingertips I dodged seconds before I lost my head. The tree I had been leaning on wasn’t so lucky. Bark exploded as he sliced right through it.
A white blip flashed out of the corner of my eye. Fayne. She yipped once to draw my attention.
“This is a terrible idea,” I muttered to myself, twisting to chase her even as Mercer lunged after me.
“The sentinels won’t help you,” Mercer taunted from too close behind me. “They’re loyal to me.”
Be that as it may, we were heading straight for them. “Don’t you mean they’re loyal toDad?”
