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It was like she was looking at a stranger.

And, from my father, it was like he was looking at a threat.

“Since when does Mother require your protection?” I asked him. He knew better than to patronize her with that.

“She is with child.”

I started. “She’s… what? I thought… I thought it wasn’t possible following the complications of my birth?”

“We have been blessed with a miracle,” my mother said, actually softening, but only as she laid her hand over her belly.

She wasn’t showing at all yet, so this had to be very new.

Of course it had to be. She hadn’t been pregnant before I’d left. I would have sensed another heartbeat among us, an unborn dragon baby in our midst.

“This is what you intend to announce, what you wanted to impart to me first,” I realized aloud. “I will have a sibling.”

“Wewill have another child. A true heir,” my father spoke.

I tensed. “A true heir? You already have that in me.”

“You will be our true heir no longer, Vorzyr,” my father told me, and I watched my mother grasp his shoulder in a physical show of unity.

“What are you talking about? I’ve done everything you asked. I didn’t fight my punishment of being sent away to Maven Academy to learn and even betamed,as much as I abhorred the notion of the latter.”

“I sent you away to weaken you, boy.”

“What?”

“Living among thoselesser beings,as dragon, you are forced to rein yourself in constantly, to live as less than you are, and get used to doing so, until it would eventually become your natural state. Given more time, we’d believed it would make you vulnerable,” my mother explained.

“Vulnerable to attack,” my father finished. “The aim was to make it easy to incapacitate you without the threat of horrific collateral damage, and attention of the Guardian Movement being drawn to such an undertaking, something they would foolishly not approve of, given that you are currently marked as Heir to House Titanus. They would believe it to be a risk of instability.”

A chill rolled down my spine. “Youdidrecognize the signs in me, then. That was really why you cast me out, yes?”

“Indeed. It became undeniably apparent to us both.”

“We also felt you activate the Stone of Recollection,” my mother said. “You were not supposed to do so. The sins that your grandfather committed were supposed to die with him and the Beast. It would bring great dishonor and even invite challengefrom other Houses if word were to spread of the corrupted bloodline.”

“I’m not going to spread it around. It’s not something I want known either. The fact that Malrik did what he did with Draco makes me sick.”

“Yet, it is still a danger that you know.” My father gestured at my mother’s belly. “This child was not infected the same way you were. His blood is not tainted like yours is.” He glared at me. “Heis not an abomination like you are. We thought we’d have to make do with you, and find a way to suppress those abominable additional abilities that you possess when you seemed to be our only chance of producing an heir. But we were finally successful in conceiving another child.” His eyes flamed. “Now, boy, you have become irrelevant. Nothing but a threat that needs disposing of. As of this moment, you are denied your birthright. You are no son of ours and certainly no heir.” He snapped his fingers, and a rush of soldiers in black and crimson armor teleported all around the room, surrounding me. “Malrik’s corruption of our bloodline ends here.” He spat in disdain. “Withyourfall.”

Adrenaline thrummed through me white-hot.

“This stays with us only,” my father called to his ten soldiers. “As far as the realm and the world beyond will know, Vorzyr Titanus fell tragically through arrogant and foolish actions.”

“That won’t fly,” I warned him.

“It was just going to be us nullifying your dragon fire, tearing it from you forevermore. But that was when it was necessary to keep you alive when you were the only possible heir to House Titanus. With this new child, we no longer need to take precautions to control your abominable, tainted nature—we can instead eliminate you altogether.”

“I am your son!” I cried, looking between both my mother and father. “Your family. Your own blood!”

“No longer are you any of those things,” my father hissed.

“It is for the best,” my mother had the gall to say, while looking at me blankly, with absolutely no emotion or upset that her son was about to be murdered right in front of her. “It wouldn’t have been long before your unnatural abilities consumed you and you had to be put down anyway. At least this way it is by your family.”

My family?That was the most sickening part about it.