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Breath left her. “You wanted us—you wanted usstrong? You lied to me about my mother because you wanted us strong?” She shoved the table across the room, rage and panic coursing through her body. Arianna had been a child back then, she wouldn’t have questioned her father even if she’d scented a lie. She had no reason to, her father wouldn’t lie about her mother’s death, he wouldn’t—
She fell back into Talon and her heart hammered in her chest. Both males were speaking, but she couldn’t hear the words. The only thing she saw was her quiet, mild-tempered mother who used to read them bedtime stories and make them hot cocoa. The mother who chased away their nightmares by singing to them in bed. A mother who loved unconditionally.
Arianna tried to imagine it. Rion, no, The Demon standing before her kind-hearted mother before cutting her down. She tried to reason he wouldn’t do it, fought against the image of blood and carnage.
But he’d killed innocent people before. He’d told her as much.
She couldn’t breathe.
Had he known? When he’d discovered who she was, did Rion know he’d killed her mother? Is that why he’d always assured her he really was the demon everyone claimed him to be? Was he hoping for her forgiveness?
Arianna grabbed at her chest, breaths coming more and more shallow as the image morphed before her eyes.
Her mother standing before a roaring hearth.
The Demon’s green eyes prowling from behind.
Her mother’s smile as she tried to reason with the creature.
That smile fading as she begged for her life.
Talon called her name.
Arianna saw The Demon’s wicked smirk. He raised one hand, earth dancing around his body before shredding her mother to pieces.
And she smelled it. Smelled all his victims.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” her father said, though his voice was distant. Hollow. “I got there too late, and that demon stood over her body.”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t breathe.
“He started this war. I intend to finish it.”
She gripped the table when her father turned and Arianna collapsed, fading from the waking world that’d turned into a nightmare.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Arianna
Arianna’s head spun when she came to, but the arms around her were solid and familiar. She clung to him, not even bothering to see where they were going. Talon could carry her out to the middle of nowhere and she wouldn’t care. Arianna buried her head in his chest, breathing in his deep, aromatic scent. Like heavy rain in the middle of summer. How many times had she’d mentally begged Talon to rescue her? How many times had she ached for his presence?
He was here now, saving her from her mental demons instead of the physical ones. She was glad for it because while she could fight the physical ones on her own, the mental ones were winning their war, drowning her in thoughts and feelings too overwhelming to face.
He killed your mother.
He started the war.
Arianna’s body shook. Rion. Her Rion. His violent self had calmed so much since that first touch. Almost enough for her to forget about the savage creature he’d once been. Or still was. He’d killed warriors right in front of her. She’d watched their painful demise yet, she’d tried to reason they deserved it because how could anyone ever kill out of sheer pleasure?
Demon.
Monster.
Murderer.
But that’s exactly what he was. To everyone but her. When he returned to Brónach, they’d view him as that killing machine and grovel at his feet for mercy. And Arianna wondered if he’d grant it in her absence.
Talon shifted her weight to open a door, and he closed it with a light kick, shrouding them in darkness. He placed her on a soft mattress, and Arianna finally examined where he’d taken her.
