Shackled (The Lord Series) by Amy T

Shackled (The Lord Series)
50. Reyes
Flashback, Reyes 7 years old
Loud shouting and the sound of objects breaking come from downstairs: 1 hiding under the bed in the small, messy room I share with Alex, my older brother. I have always been scared when our parents fought. Lately, it has been happening more frequently than before.
My father, Ander, works many hours and is rarely home. When he is home, he spends as much time as possible with Alec and me..
My mother, Roxanne, fills her days with drinking and is drunk most of the time. When Alec and I return from school, or often find her passed out on the couch. There were times when we found her with other men, drinking or inhaling a white powder through their noses-cocaine, Alec called it. I have never liked those men. Especially Ariel. He has always looked at. Alec and me in a way that makes me uncomfortable.
Sometimes, Azael and Mother would go into my parents’ bedroom. Since her room is next to mine, I could hear strange noises coming from there. When I asked Alec about it, he told me to ignore it.
I even started to think Arael was hitting Mother. Once, when Mother was screaming Azarl’s name, I was on the verge of tears because I thought he was killing her, Alec took out his guitar, the one our father got for him the first time he went to a very special place on the day he turned helve-which I am not yet allowed to know about-and played a song, calming my nerves,
When I turned seven, some months ago, Azael brought me a book about angels and demons. It told the story of how the demons rebelled against Heaven, and Go d cast them out. Father told Alec and me that the demons left Heaven because the angels became corrupt, so I confronted Father about his Des. When asked where I heard about the angels being good, I showed him the book and told him about Axel. That day, my parents had their real first fight
The front door slams and only Mother can be heard yelling, letting me know my father has left. Knowing what will happen in the next few minutes, curl into a ball.
“It will be alright. I won’t let her harm you anymore,” Alec tells me. He has been sitting on the bed since the start of the fight.
A few minutes of peace followed, and I think Mother might not be mad at me tonight. I am about to get out from under the bed when I hear footsteps down the hall, and I freeze.
The door to the room opens
“Where are you, you little piece of sh it?!” Mother stands in the doorframe, a belt belonging to my father in
Mother’s slurred voice has me peeing my shorts. I hite my fist. Will she be even angrier with me now?
Alec stands. “Mom, you should go to your room and lay in bed. You are not well,“

n her right hand
“Of course, I am not well! Your father left me because that little bas tar d couldn’t keep his mouth shut she screeches. “But I will teach him to never open his mouth again”
“Mom, please?” Alex, who is seven years older than me, has always been my hem. And now, he sounds as frightened as
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“He is hiding under the bed, isn’t he?” she asked.
“I don’t know where he is.” Alec tries to push her out of the room.
“You dare protect Keyes aher all he has done?!” she yelled.
“He is unly arven,” Aler keeps defending
“Almost a man. And tonight, I will teach you two what it meant to be the sons of a lard ”
Motary has never hit Alm before. Only me. Until now
pushes Alex cardo the but, and while oct one what is happening, I can hear the and of the belt on skin, followed by Alec’s scream. I can’t let ham be
art but from under the bed. Mother drs not me as the is facing away from me. When she is about to hit Alec again, 1.
50. Reyes
“There you are,” she says as she hits Alec one more time with the belt. “The ba sta nd that uined my life,” she yells and grabs me by the hair, and therkes me floor. “Did you just said yoomself?”
1 try to talk, but only a faint, whimper comes out of my mouth, the hits me with the belt over my hare legs. When I scream out in pain, the laughs,
“Mom, don’t!” Alec tries to intervene, but she slaps him across the face so hard that he hits his head on the nightstand and falls next to the
“You killed him!”
when Aler does not move or make any kind.
Mother (ghorns me and continues to me with the belt until my legs are full of buses, welts, and blood. The first time aboxit Azael, but she has never been so
was the day I told my father.
“Look at the mess you made. Go let yourself,” the cadets me. Before leaving, she kicks Aler, and he groans.
When the door closes behind her, I drag myself to where Alec is “Wake up!” I beg my brother as I shake his
Ader turns on his back. His left brow is split
tw, the bone visible. I put my head Alec’s chest and cry silently. Ale puts his arms around me, and we stay like
cleaned up,” Alec says. I nod in
Ale takes me to our bathroom, gets me in the shower, and helps me
a tack and puts it against his been, stopping the blood
the blood from my leg. Before taking me back to the room, Alec grabs a hand one from