From Slave To Queen (Athena and Michael) novel Chapter 115

Chapter 115

*She was left at our doorstep. my mother chokes on a new sob. “We thought it was a mistake–we expected some mother to come looking for her lost baby, but no one came. A few months later I found out I was pregnant…”

She covers her mouth, genuine panie carved into her features.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, daughter. We didn’t know what to do. We were so afraid of what could happen to our baby, and you arrived like a blessing. We didn’t think we’d end up loving you the way we did… but by then it was too late. To the world, you were already our firstborn (Laughter.”

Questions pile up in my mind one over another.

w neck.

The strain of trying to speak only causes more blood to ooze from my lips

my lips and drip down my chin, forming trails along my

30, I don’t think this pain compares to hearing that the people I’ve considered my family all this time saw ine as the easiest solution to a problem

ne to save their biological child.

I was the sacrificed baby, a child from the street who came to save

Deep down, I can’t blame them–though it doesn’t make it hurt less.

you

blink away the thin layer of tears that has formed in my eyes and nod in understanding.

“Didn’t they leave anything with her?” Ragna presses. They just left her at your doorstep and

her in, just like that?”

“She was left just as she came into the world. Nothing came with her, and no one asked about her whereabouts.”

“And I think Mrs. Voss has made it quite clear that the reasons they kept Elara

weren’t e

exactly selfless,” Cassian interrupts.

His voice drips with contempt in every syllable he utters, and his eyes are daggers locked onto the figure of my mother.

This feeling building between us is overwhelming. I can’t believe he–of all people–is the one defending and protecting me right now. If someone had told me this months ago, I’d have called them insane.

Despite how surreal all of this is, my heart flutters inside my chest seeing him like this–especially now, when I feel lost, abandoned, orphaned,

They took me from my life on a full moon night, but now I feel they’ve burned all my roots,

“How cold–blooded one must be sacrifice an innocent baby,” Ragna sneers. “I suppose that clears my conscience a bit for what I’m about to do.”

I tense immediately.

Everything happens so fast I can’t react until it’s already done.

My mother’s heart now rests in the hands of the shapeshifter leader, who licks herjips while watching the threads of blood drip from her fingers

onto the floor.

Abigail’s scream tears through the air–and it’s what triggers mine.

It rises in my throat and gets trapped in my mouth, burning my insides.

Silas, pinned to the ground, writhes beneath his captors‘ hold to no avail.

My father stares into my mother’s lifeless eyes, trying to catch her body before it hits the floor.

At last, my eyes stop holding back and 1 feel my tears overflow like a cup filled to the brim.

I don’t know if it’s mercy or just another way to feed her twisted side, but Raguia allows my father to reach his wife’s body.

He cradles it in his arms–and without touching her, I know she is fimp and lifeless,

Abigail doesn’t stop crying, in a way that strangley, any hiran.

“Ty’t this enough for you, Elara!”

Ragna’s eyes meet mine as she walks around my father, who is oblivious to everything but her.

“How much pain do you need to feel?”

Make me out of pain and I will only know how to give it back, screams my mind.

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12:26 PM ď ď

Chapter 115

I swear it’s as if she reads the words inside me, and her

fill with c

challenge.

Cassian’s teeth grinding echoes through the hall and draws all my attention.

“Look at me, Elara–just look at me.”

Why?

“Because I’ll lose you if you don’t.”

I frown, dive into his eyes—and once again, I’m surprised to see the tiny black veins in the center of his iris even from this far away

A pull inside me makes me look elsewhere, and I understand a lot as I do.

Ragra’s smile is diabolical as she looms behind my father.

His expression is soft, clouded by a sadness that may not only be for Mom.

His eyes speak without words,

They ask me for forgiveness.

fight against my shackles and against Rhory.

I try to stand with the little strength I have left–and I do

I begin to run on trembling legs, more pathetic than a newborn animal learning to walk, but I don’t care–I just want to reach my father and be his daughter again, his girl, even if everything is a lie,

I’m almost there, but like a house of cards collapsing with a breeze, my hope vanishes.

Ragna’s hands rrut on each side of my father’s head. He closes his eyes–1 see a tear fall–and before my fingers can reach him, he’s gone too.

I don’t look away when his neck falls into an unnatural position.

The sounds coming from Abigail are not of this world. They are the cruelest kind of suffering that can Lexist.

I change my course and rush toward her–and no one stops me.

I embrace her, let her face sink into my chest, and her tears soak me.

“Elara!”

I ignore the Cassian speaking in my head.

I run my f

fingers mechanically through my little sister’s curls, in a completely catatonic state,

I don’t want to—but the memories of my father play through my head uncontrollably.

I remember his remorseful, gaze the day I entered the Red Auction, and the days before that.

The kisses on my forehead every morning and night, the little taps on my head whenever I got rebellious with Mom, the slices of pie he gave me in secret, the way he lovingly said my name when he spoke, or his calloused hands holding mine when the cold was too much.

He tried to make up for what they had done.

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