Page 71 of Lies That Bleed
She didn’t argue, she just kicked off and took to the skies. I was fuming mad by the time we saw the black dragon in the sky flying over the park near my house. How dare he! With my sisters home. Would he have hurt them?
‘Tell Onyx to land,’I told Liana.
I knew she had a mental connection with the dragon, and seconds after I’d made my request both Onyx and Kohen looked up to see us looming over them.
Onyx lowered immediately into a dark and deserted portion of the park. The second Onyx landed, I didn’t wait for Liana to get me to the ground. I pulled my dagger from my boot and leapt off of her. I crashed into Kohen’s back, forcing him to sprawl out on hisstomach before I shoved my knee in his back and pulled the blade to his throat.
“What the hell were you doing in my father’s study? With my sisters home. If you hurt them?—”
“I would never hurt your sisters!” he said, aghast, turning his head to look up at me in shock.
His shock made regret flush through me.
You’re mine, Aisling. I’ve made love to you under a bed of stars.
His previous words were so far from the current place we found ourselves I couldn’t help but shake my head. He was a liar. He was playing me!
“Answer me or I’ll bleed you right here,” I growled.
Onyx chuffed behind me as if he wouldn’t allow that to happen, but Liana stepped in front of him, blocking his view and clearly telling him to back off.
Good. I’d wondered what she would do if it was ever us against them. Now I knew. My creature was loyal to me alone, as promised.
“Left pocket,” Kohen said sadly.
I frowned, pulling one of my knees off of his back, and reached into his left pocket, fully ready to slice him if this was some trick. When my fingers wrapped around a cold, flat, metal disk, I pulled it out.
Bringing the item up to my face, I frowned.
“A pocket watch?” I stepped off of Kohen and allowed him to stand.
The watch was heavy, solid gold, and it had abeautiful etched tiger on the front. I clicked the button to open the face and peered at the inside.
The inscription engraved under the lid had my throat closing with emotion.
To my beloved son, Kohen. Rule with justice and compassion in equal measure.
“My father had it made for me when I was born. Your father stole it from him the night he killed him. I was just getting it back. It’s mine.”
My heart sank into my stomach like a stone. I reached out to hand him the watch, which he took gingerly from my outstretched palm. Here was the man who helped me keep my locket the first day of boot camp, and all he was doing was getting back a similar object from my father.
I felt like a jerk.
“You could have just asked me. I would have gotten it for you,” I told him, though the thought of sneaking into my father’s office terrified me.
He frowned. “Would you have? I don’t know anymore. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Then he walked past me, got on Onyx, and flew away.
‘He should not have broken into your home where your sisters sleep. You were right to confront him,’Liana told me.
I nodded.‘I know.’
But then why did I feel like such crap?
The next morning at breakfast,there were two drill instructors standing ten paces behind me as I ate, seemingly guarding me. Kohen sat at a table in the corner and Anika and the rest of his crew moved with him. It was painfully apparent that there was a separation there, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d screwed up.
“He broke into my freaking home!” I whispered-screamed to Tetra. “And I’m the jerk for calling him out on it?”
