Page 60 of Blood Vows
He gave a small, bitter smile.
“Ah, they never told you that part, did they?” I shook my head, my mind spinning.
“No. They didn’t even tell me they had a brother. Why would they keep that from me?” He turned back toward the fire, his shoulders tense.
“Most likely because they thought I was dead,” he said.
“Or at least, they hoped I was.” The words hit me like a blow.
“Why would they think that?” He glanced over his shoulder, and the look in his eyes was enough to make my heart ache.
“Because that’s what I wanted them to believe after… well, after they tried to kill me,” he said, making me gasp.
“They tried to kill you!” The room seemed to shrink around us, heavy with the weight of his family’s dark and tangled past.
“And now you are finally starting to understand my need for revenge.”
“But why… I still don’t understand… why did they try to kill you, Vas?” He exhaled a long breath, as though releasing the weight of decades. His gaze drifted back to the fire, watching the flames curl and twist. When he finally spoke again, his voice was lower, quieter, almost reluctant. Until finally he told me,
“They tried to kill me because…”
“Because…I killed our father.”
23
DEATH OF A FAMILY
“What?”I asked, utterly shocked. My body pressed back into the seat at the confession, my heart slamming against my ribs.
“You… you killed him?” I stammered.
He nodded once, the admission firm but filled with something raw beneath the surface.
“Yes,” he stated unapologetically, and I couldn’t look away.
“But I thought you said the darkness… that it… that it consumed him… that it …” I let my assumption trail off when I saw his jaw tighten, his expression unreadable. Yet when his words came, it was edged with something that almost sounded like pain.
“The darkness did consume him. Which meant that in the end, he left me no choice.” He looked up at me then, his eyes haunted, a storm of memory and fury swirling within them.
“He was not the man my brothers pretend to remember. He was a tyrant. He ruled through cruelty and fear. And when the time came to pass down the dagger, as it was clear to everyone his mind was not what it once was, he refused, even though I was the rightful heir.”
“No… There must be more.” The words escaped before I could stop them, though I could already see it written in his face… There was more. Something terrible. Something he didn’t want to give life to by saying it aloud.
He took a slow step toward me, his voice measured, each word heavy, like shards of glass breaking the quiet.
“My father saw the darkness in me long before I did. He said I was born wrong, that my shadow was too strong, that the demon he bargained with had cursed me before I ever drew breath.”
“But that doesn’t make sense if you had already been born before he made the bargain,” I pointed out, shaking my head.
“You’re right, but by the end, very little made sense in my father’s mind. He grew paranoid, convinced that those closest to him wanted to steal his power… That they already had. He became obsessed with the idea that the demon had begun making new bargains with us, granting us enough strength to destroy him and take possession of the dagger.” He moved closer as he spoke, until he was standing just in front of me. I could see the anguish tightening his jaw, the pain flickering in his eyes. It was raw, haunted.
“Is that when he refused to hand over the dagger?” I asked gently, desperate to keep him talking, to see this story through to the bitter end.
“My brothers were away at the time,” he said after a moment,
“They didn’t see how far he had fallen. They didn’t witness the worst of it… They only saw what they wanted to. But my mother and I…” His voice faltered, the memory pulling at him. He shook his head, as if trying to banish the ghosts of that day. Without thinking, I reached out, but he was quicker. His hand lifted first, the backs of his fingers brushing softly along my cheek. The touch startled me. It was tender, almost worshipful, as though he were the one trying to comfort me.
He held my gaze a moment longer, something unspoken passing between us, before he stepped back and turned toward the fire. The faint glow caught his profile as he continued.
