One moment I was lying on the floor, my body giving up on me, the next my eyes locked with Kalen. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel – how to react.
“Lana?” he said, his voice small and broken, he must’ve thought I was dead. Raphael truly did make everyone I know think I was dead.
Kalen shook himself out of his daze. “You’re alive?”
“You know each other?” Natalia asked at the same time the girl I didn’t recognize said. “That’s her?”
I didn’t reply, but instead got to my feet and closed the distance between me and Kalen, throwing my arms around him. His body was tense, but it melted quickly and embraced me as well. Everyone around us disappeared and could feel the sobs shaking Kalen. It warmed my hart to know at least one person cared about me still – and it made me feel guilty for not thinking of him more, for not returning that same intensity.
“While I do love reunions, I don’t love not understanding the context, so if you’d explain, it would be much obliged,” the man who healed me said.
I pulled away from Kalen and was about to answer him when Kalen pulled on my arm to get my attention. I looked at him, my eyebrows furrowed. “Well, look at that. It seems finally I have some leverage. I now know something you don’t, so why should I offer up that information?” Kalen directed at the man.
“What’s going on?” I asked to no one in particular.
Natalia shrugged. “I’m as lost as you are.”
It was the other girl that spoke. “Kalen and I came here to get information about his past, information Wilston here knows but is unwilling to share,” she said, her eyes narrowed at the man she called Wilston. A small bell rang in the back of my head; why did that name sound so familiar?
“Father!” Natalia scolded. “What could possibly be so important about this man’s past that he’s not permitted to know?”
“You wouldn’t understand, you are far too young.”
“Don’t condescend me.”
“In my house I will do what I please.”
My eyes darted between all the unfamiliar people in the room, my head almost spinning again. “Does this have anything to do with Kalen’s eye color?” I asked. It was the only thing that made sense to me… colors had meanings, could show a lineage. Perhaps Kalen’s eyes turning purple was related to the information of his past he was searching for.
Lord Wilston’s forehead wrinkled. “What do you mean, girl?”
“My name is Lana, not girl,” I stated stubbornly, tired of men trying to degrade me with meaningless nicknames.
A strange look passed over his eyes, but he masked it quickly.
“Lana, don’t answer that. We’re not giving him any information unless he relents.”
I narrowed my gaze on Kalen and stepped away from him. “I’m really getting tired of people telling me what to do. Someone please explain to me what’s going on in hear… because I almost died... yet again… and for once, just once, I would like a moment of peace in which I don’t have to worry who is on my side or who is against me.”
Kalen regarded me like I was a wild animal, the girl standing before him no longer the fragile little girl he knew in Andreas’ mansion. The other girl stepped forward and extended her hand toward me. “I’m Mallory, a friend of Kalen’s.”
I look her hand and shook it hesitantly. “And you’re here to help him?”
“I was trying to, but James isn’t exactly the most helpful of people,” she said with a twinge of anger.
I was suddenly bombarded by the memory of my mother’s confession the last time she spoke to me….
“There is something you should know before you are burned,” she said nonchalantly, finally catching my attention. I refused to give her the satisfaction of acknowledging her. “Your father, isn’t your real father. That was why I tried so hard all these years to keep you in line, make sure you didn’t act out. I couldn’t afford him finding out the truth. Your real father wasn’t of noble blood. James Wilston. He was a traveler passing through the land, and he was instantly infatuated with me, or so I thought.”
“James Wilston?” I said aloud. A wave of emotion rolls over me, threatening to drown me. James Wilston, the man my mother claimed was my father. My eyes locked on his, widening in realization.
“You,” was all I said. James kept his expression carefully exposed even though all eyes in the room now trained on him.
“Yes?” he tried saying nonchalantly, but I could pick up the off note in his tone.
“Lana, what’s going on?” Kalen asked as he placed his hand on my shoulder. But I was frozen, my body locked in place. My mind was drawing a blank. I never saw this day coming, never once thought it would be possible… that it will ever happen. He was real – any hope that my mom had made him up in hopes to rattle me before my death were extinguished.
Natalia looked back and forth between me and her father and her eyes started to widen, realization I guessed. “Oh my angels…” she said, covering her hand with her mouth.
Again, Kalen tried to get my attention, and this time managed to break my lock on James. “Lana, what’s going on?”
I stood there, stunned, but somehow managed to find my voice. The words flowed out before I could do anything to stop them. “He’s my father.”
YOU ARE READING
Haunting Shadows (Book 2)
Fantasy"What if my sins are all I've become? Will you still love me if the Andreas you once knew is too far gone to ever get back?" Lana had survived burning on the stake, but at what cost? Every time she closes her eyes, she revisits the horror of burning...
