Empath Reborn by J.A. Culican

Author:J.A. Culican [Culican, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Realm Press
Published: 2019-02-12T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

"So, Kasik tossed you aside ten minutes after you'd given him your love in every way a woman can. That's not your fault, Mom." My faint guilt at killing him fades even farther into the background. He deserved it and more for what he'd done to my strong, beautiful mother.

"Yes," she replies in a single word, looking down into her lap and the fidgeting hands it holds.

"The same night, Dad escorted you back to what you'd thought was your dream home. The same home that became your prison."

"Yes. Once he'd… had me… I became his property in everything but name. The charming Kasik was gone, replaced by something evil I'd never seen before."

"How did you and Dad get started if he was your prison guard? I started this to find out which birth certificate was likely the true one, but I'm suddenly very interested in the story."

Talon says, "And the one tale might affect the other, anyway."

"Perhaps," my mother nods.

"I really liked your mom,” Dad answers. “Ever since she and Kasik first met, which was also my introduction to her. But when Kasik did that, even though he had a bevy of women he regularly 'courted,' and then tossed her aside… You mother is as beautiful now as she was then, but she was even prettier on the inside. She seemed to shine, at least to me. I decided on that walk to her prison house that I was done being Kasik's lackey, and that I would someday find a way to save her from him."

Mom smiles wanly up at him and puts her cheek against his palm as he touches her face and neck with his fingertips. "He brought me things I wasn't allowed, like books and a phone. Smuggled them right in and never asked for anything in return. Every time Kasik had me dragged to his bedroom—"

"Almost daily," Dad says, nearly spitting.

"Yes. Every time, your dad gave me something kind on the way back to my cell, the beautiful house. We talked. I realized that in him was a quiet strength and dignity that had no use for charms and witty conversations, but also not for lies, or for selfish motives. When the beatings started, he was there. He once carried me home after Kasik sprained my knee, and got a healer to come fix it. Kasik hadn't even bothered to do that much, since it didn't affect him in any way. He wanted heirs, not wives."

Dad grimaces. Then, he looks down at her, and his eyes suddenly seem to sparkle and his whole face lights up. "That was the night I first kissed her. She was hurting so badly, on the inside more than from her jacked-up knee, and I just had to make her feel better. I needed to show her there was light in the world, still, even if she was in a dark place."

Mom twists her lips to one side, smirking. "All it took to get you to kiss me was one jacked-up knee and being someone's prisoner.

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