Page 38 of Cruelly Fated (Princes of Avari #1)

Thirty-Four

ALLIE

“ Y ou look…different,” I said, pinching my lips.

Grandpa had grown out his facial hair into a beard worthy of a warlock and was now sporting a red bandanna tied around his head.

On the upside, he looked healthier—happier, even.

Still, I had serious reservations about him joining a prison gang, even if it seemed to be working out for him.

He cracked a smile. “I feel different too. One of the brothers shared some mushrooms earlier today— ”

“You’re joking!” My pulse skyrocketed. “You’d better be joking, Grandpa…”

“I am, I am…” He laughed. “Just trying to get a rise out of you. Lately, you’ve been all doom and gloom. You’re too young to give up on life. Look at me—I found my second calling, and I’m practically ancient. It’s never too late to start over.”

I snorted. “I’m glad you’ve found—” I circled the air with my hand. “—whatever this is. As long as it makes you happy.”

“I am happy. I hadn’t realized how unhappy I was, going through the motions. I think I fell into a depression after the love of my life, your grandma, died. I didn’t recognize it until now.” A rare sparkle lit his eyes. Could it be true?

“But what about you now, my sweet child?” he asked.

“What about me?”

“Have you found peace?”

I inhaled sharply. Peace? Such an elusive concept. “I used to think leaving the district would give me that. But now I think what I was missing was closure.”

“About?”

I fished out Mom’s letter. “I’ve read her notes, well, letters she intended to send to my father. But I’m guessing he didn’t leave an address when he disappeared?”

Grandpa’s face fell. He gave a slow shake of his head.

I unfolded the paper, smoothing the creases.

“In her last letter, she wrote: Cyrus, the healer says Allie’s gift is becoming too strong for his spells to suppress.

I have a feeling her powers will awaken on her eighteenth birthday—just like yours did.

You and she have so much in common. Not a day goes by that I don’t see something of you in her…

It’s time she met you and claimed her legacy.

She’s unprotected in Avari, and someone with such a powerful gift in our district is a rare commodity.

They will come for her. I’ve taken a high-paying job to fund our travel.

It’s risky, but the pay is too good to pass up. We’ll see you soon. ”

After I finished reading, I peered at Grandpa. His face turned ashen.

“I didn’t know,” he whispered. “Your mother kept more secrets close to her heart than any creature I’ve ever known.”

True.

“Have you met him?” I asked, referring to my father, Cyrus. He had always been a taboo topic in our house. But maybe now, with everything so different, Grandpa would finally speak of him.

“I think I saw him once, across the street. A handsome fella. He held your mother’s hand… She never introduced him to me.”

“Why not?”

“From what I gathered in the few times we spoke of it, he was someone important. High profile. At first, I thought he used her—like many men in power do. But when I dared say it out loud, she came down hard defending him. Said he had duties in his homeland, that he was an heir of some sort, and his family expected him to marry well.”

Grandpa let out a low, rumbling sound—somewhere between a badger’s growl and a sigh .

“If that’s not the definition of using someone—letting them fall in love when you always knew you’d have to leave—then I don’t know what is. After that, she never mentioned him again. He became the unspoken wedge between us for years.”

“That’s why she never talked to me about him?”

Grandpa’s eyes softened. “She was hurting. Even that cop, such a nice fella, couldn’t thaw her heart.”

I toyed with the paper in my hands. “The only advice she ever gave me about dating was not to trust men. ‘They all leave,’ she used to say.”

“What do you expect a heartbroken woman to say?” he asked, his lips forming a lopsided smile. “I wasn’t the most reliable either. But I’m here now. And something’s weighing on you. I can see it in those little tells you’ve had since you were a kid. What is it?”

I winced. “It’s about a certain man… Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Ah, you women think men don’t go through heartbreak? Yes, spill it, child.”

I sucked in a breath. “I think I’m falling for Kyon.”

Grandpa’s eyes crinkled with amusement. “Ahh, the fire-breathing, tattooed demi-god—”

“Don’t forget presumptuous, arrogant, self-absorbed…”

Grandpa chuckled.

“This isn’t funny.”

“I’m not laughing at you, child. I’m simply happy. You’re not falling for him—you’re already there.”

I blinked, twice, as if I could erase the words from memory. That surely couldn’t be it.

“So what’s stopping you two?”

“Ironically, the same thing that stopped Mom. He’s a prince of Avari. Comes from a long line of dragon kings. What if his family doesn’t approve of me?”

“If he chooses the family who threw him in jail over the woman who’s got his heart, then he’s not worthy of you.”

I pressed my lips together and unfolded Mom’s letter, tracing the shape of her final words.

She’d wanted to see him again. Maybe my powers were the excuse she used to leave Avari in search of him, but she never stopped loving him.

She gave up her own happiness so he could rise to power.

Perhaps this letter was my sign…to let Kyon go, too.

“Hmph.” Grandpa rubbed his beard. “I’m afraid I know where that thinking’s taking you.

And you’re wrong. Your mother never regretted being with him.

Never regretted having you. But she did regret one thing—she didn’t go after him that day he left.

She didn’t tell him how she really felt…

that maybe they could’ve figured it out together. ”

My eyes burned, heavy with unshed tears.

“Allie, I don’t want you going through life with the same regret. Go to him and lay it all out there.”

I hiccuped, choking on the intense emotion of this moment. Grandpa was right—he was a well of ancient wisdom.

Folding Mom’s letter over and over in my hands, I said, “There’s this party tonight… ”

Grandpa chuckled. “What are you still doing here with this old badger? Go.”

I smiled. “Have I told you how much I love you lately?”

“Every day, every time I think of you. Because I know your heart.”

I laughed, running my fingertips beneath my eyes to brush away the tears. “You’re the best grandpa a girl could ask for.”

He bumped his chest with a fist, an odd gesture for him. Prison life had rubbed off on him, and I feared what other habits he’d picked up from his gang of reformed outlaws.

Stepping into the sunlight outside the penitentiary’s door, I felt lighter.

I copied Valor’s address into the navigation app and hopped into my car.

The Valor estate rose in a high-end district tucked away from the city’s chaos, its grounds stretching out beside a sprawling golf course. A uniformed valet stood ready in the circular driveway. He stepped forward, took my keys, and drove off before I could even blink.

“Wait, how do I…?” I sighed, glancing around. One side of the grand mahogany door creaked open, and a butler silently motioned me inside. Still no words. Was there a rule against noise or something?

“She’s here!” a young woman wrapped in a plush robe shrilled from atop a sweeping staircase. She flew down the steps and halted inches from my face, her grin wide enough to flash sharp fangs. My chin tucked instinctively, as if seeking a safe distance.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she said, squeezing my hands and bouncing on the balls of her feet. “My brother never brings his dates home. Let’s get you ready!”