Untouchable by Marii Solaria

Chapter 78 – Father Dearest

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.“–C.S. Lewis

Neron

Soft crackling from the torches nicked the tense air of my father’s prison. I ogled at the weapon at my knees, faint smudges of blood staining both the handle and the blade with miscellanies of its past victims. Lady Sanguine’s bleeding eyes scald at the top of my skull as she stands by, patiently, for me to act. Behind me, my father became silent, minus his ragged exhales through his broken nose.

Sounds of many echoed around me, but I have yet to breathe.

Rigid as a statue, the fatal promise the woman made to me replayed like a video–cassette in my mind, rewinding and replaying again and again. Exchange the life of my father for my freedom. Death for a life. Tearing my eyes from the blade, I encountered Lady Sanguine’s expectant grin as her arms squeezed the cotton from the fragile seams of her worn–out teddy bear.

Flames of darkness and destruction licked behind her glittering rubies with untamed desire for death. Each flame flared to a hushed, internal tune as they scorch what was once Kiya’s purity. The dominant heat of her hatred wrapped its tendrils around my throat and made work to tighten the airways vital for my life. Her mouth promised release, but her eyes promised death.

She has no intention of letting either of us survive.

Isn’t that why she has us here? Lady Sanguine could’ve easily finished my father off, but she went through the trouble of towing me along for the ride, toying with me like a puppet. I recalled her proclamation shortly before she brought here me.

This is all but a game. But the stakes were too high to ignore.

Lady Sanguine is torturing me.

“Why the sudden change in plans?” Dad questioned, annihilating the stifling silence between us three. “Too afraid to take me out yourself?”

“On the contrary, Jonathan.” She purred, running her hand through the bear’s pelt. “Your fate is sealed, whether or not I kill you. But it is up to your son to determine if he should be the one to take you out. Think of it as your parting gift before you die.”

“You’re beyond help.”

“I did ask you if I was crazy when I killed Tristan. Now, you have your answer.

I was confident when I had planned to take my father away from Lady Sanguine, but now, I’m entombed between two impossibles. If I kill Dad, Kiya, when she comes back, won’t live with his death on her hands. However, will letting Lady Sanguine watch have the same effect? I picked up a chipper sigh as she started. tapping her foot.

“Neron.” Onyx mind–linked. “Do it. There is no other alternative. He’s lucky enough to die by your

hands.”

Is it? Dying by Gane or Lady Sanguine’s hand is a fare worse than the death bell. The male Dad suffer until he expels his last boeart, Lady Sanguine especially Dying by my hands is an act of men, bene din

this, he doeon = defame I. TeLO

Semifer of

ended of waling dinner the

But after what Dad has put us through, including the car cash them

strided to take the blade. A deep part of me didnt want world without a family. That part engized the man my

Mom’s needs, loving with Noria and me and queall a man I looked up to and warnet

The man D

hurt and pain he put me through. His declarations that was nothing but a failure u tim genuinity of his smiles at park–related thing. He used is smile whenever I drew permits of tim……

heart wouldn’t

gentle ingens cures underest my cum pulling my rest un Lats Sanguine peened into my sout, but the fated sensations of

digits. Her touch,

the day the left

not

you

benestar 1–he

She murmured, he treats creating

didn’t respond. She turned and exhaled. “I remember a day when I was sing away

pelling. He was screaming

from the doon, holding your face est my head down, but anyone could see the red blossoming De your skin like

reprimanded me

for a full week, and he was in one of it trunken cages. Smiled me a mile

I couldn’t even sitter gates because Dad nk so much starvard that I was petrified that he’d stopped breaming in his office & sumeen–year–old boy szuggling to stake his

yet

my eyes and Lady Sanguine sock notice. Brimson dans spark with delight as her hand dried from my chin

failure? Useless? An idiot? Did you think you were the only one he said those things 1, shamefully, leaned into her touch as her thumb caressed the underside of my eve is preposteroGS DO defend a lousy excuse of a

me Dad maried, tugging at his chains. My eyes

Chapter 70–Father Dearest

truly going to take that sordid belief to the

than a deranged home–wrecker, I would’ve snapped your neck at the first opportunity!” Dail thrashed against his chains like a ferocious beast, the song of his imprisonment playing sour,

pace. “But you had many opportunities to execute me, although you let them pass you by. Why is that? Is it only because of my connection to Neron, or is there something

“I should’ve killed you.”

Sanguine guffawed. “It all

heat of his glare pulled my eyes to his. “Make the wrong decision, and you’ll live to regret it! If your mother and

burning away the edges of my skepticism. A fierce headache throbbed in my skull as Dad’s well–known tactics of manipulation hooked themselves into my psyche. The nerve of him mentioning Mom and Nuria! I snarled, snatching my face away from Lady Sanguine’s dark touch. “Quiet! You always

truth is, your mate

see that you’re the reason she and I suffered because I couldn’t do every

discipline, and I taught you that! I taught you the family, and the pack come first! You can’t turn your back on your

a long time

open. Bronzed arms snaked themselves around my torso, pressing my back to a cushioned front. The dark energy emanating from the touch made me lightheaded and dizzy, sinking into my skin like a lethal poison. A head rests on my back with soft lips pressed over the fabric right where my

around my chest. “Isn’t that what mates do? You failed me before, so it is now your chance to make

Failure chipped away at my heart as my father’s years of belittling I’ve buried for the sake of peace. Dad growled in front of

end this once and

Neron. Underneath all that nastiness inside your father is love.” She

Chapter

“loved you. However, he ruined

into the

came back to kick

Kiya. If Uncle Zain hadn’t come to kill Mom and Nuria. If Dad was still

my Dad’s. He started the fire, and

“I’m so sorry…”

anguished groan escaped my lips. underestimating how sharp her nails were. “Rid the world of the man who ruined us. Unless you were lying to me all this

lied. Ever.” I shot back. “I regret everything I’ve done to you,

“Lady Sanguine.”

You’re

“Maybe, maybe

kept

me off. Neither trust me to follow through with my intentions, Lady Sanguine was expected. But from Dad? I’ve been too afraid to admit this to myself with full conviction,