The Half-Giant's Guide to Seeing the Future

The Day I Slapped My Mother

My mother really was trying to get me killed. Why else would she pull me out of my body in the middle of a battle? It made me sick how quickly she'd changed her mind from having me captured to intentionally sabotaging me.

Her smoky form stood in front of me in a proud stance as if she'd seen nothing wrong with what she'd just done. In her eyes, I was just a naughty child that needed to be disciplined. She didn't care if it cost me my life. It was the stupidest, most entitled thing I'd ever seen her do. She was a complete and utter psycho.

Have I mentioned I hate my mother?

"Send us back," I demanded.

I still hadn't mastered that trick. I was starting to wish I'd asked Victor to teach me better control here in this weird, smoky realm, in or around that well of magic. No matter how much I wished it, I couldn't return to my body.

"What is it that human mothers do?" Ellenora's voice was sing-songy, as if she were about to burst into motherly nursery rhymes. "I know, Theresa. This is time-out."

That made me want to scream. I didn't need a time-out. I needed to get off the battlefield. I remembered Tytan's warning about sabotaging me, but I hadn't realized my mother would take us both out in the middle of a skirmish.

"Time-out?" I fumed. "I'm not six years old. News flash, Mother, you missed my childhood. I'm an adult."

"You're acting like a child," she sang.

"So are you," I said. "Drop the act. Stop the voices and the crazy delusions. What do you really want?"

"My son," she sang again.

I raised my smoky hand and backhanded her misty form. My hand went straight through her body, but I didn't care. I was done with this. I couldn't deal with Ellenora and her stupid fantasies one second longer.

"You stop this," I said. "You are the worst parent ever, and you're going to get us both killed."

"You can't hurt me," my mother laughed. "I'm all broken 'cause my daddy took out my heart years ago. All I want is the throne for my troubles, sugar."

It was my turn to laugh. "You don't deserve that. From what I can tell from our family, none of us deserves it. We're the worst."

"No," a dark voice chuckled. "We were chosen by a higher power."

I whirled around to see the smoky form of my grandfather. Tytan Nikone seemed to radiate power in this place. It was almost like he could trick the magic into bolstering his strength.

"Tusi," Ellenora sang. "The benevolent mother of all. Incarnate majesty and savior of Jontun. You'd think that Tusi wouldn't entrust their creations solely to a self-centered nepotistic giant who's never done a day of hard work in his life since he offed his own father for the throne."

"Tusi chose our line," Tytan said.

"But Tusi didn't say that only men could take the throne," Ellenora said. "That was someone's silly idea later formed out of the ridiculous notions of no Nikone bearing a firstborn daughter for six generations."

Tytan looked at his daughter and even in his smoky form, I could tell that he was filled with derision and disgust. For just a moment, I thought about what it was like to be my mother—a girl told repeatedly that she was unworthy for her birthright. It must have consumed her, leaving behind a bitter and resentful husk.

I could almost even forgive her for it. Unfortunately, I knew better. My mother was a product of her own poison. Eventually, all that evil would swallow her alive.

"You cannot rule Jontun," Tytan said. "You both are just silly little girls who don't understand weight or the consequence. The crown on your head, daughter, would cause our entire world to shatter and break. Therefore, you should not even dream of achieving the throne."