“Trion may be a shitty son, but I’m still his father. Before allowing him to stay, you should have asked my permission!” Raaz repeatedly poked at Lith’s chest in fury, uncaring for the broken nail he got from it and the bleeding it caused.
Whoever the person in front of Lith was, he wasn’t Raaz Verhen. Not anymore.
It was a wounded animal wearing his skin. A rabid beast that would bite anyone who came close to him, in the hope that spreading his disease would relieve his symptoms.
Seeing how low the man he loved and respected had fallen, made Lith’s heart tighten. He felt terrible at the idea of having left his mother alone for so long, ignoring the problem while he spent his days happily with Kamila.
‘Thank you. If not for you, I would have let this fester, believing that Dad just needed time to recover. Thank you for being here with me.’ He said via a mind link while holding her hand and letting Raaz vent his anger.
In that unexpected storm, she was once again his silver lining.
‘That’s what family is for.’ She replied while squeezing his hand to give him strength.
“You are right, Dad. I’m sorry for hiding it from you.” Lith said, his eyes low like an unruly child scolded by his father.
“You better be. Now bring that asshole here. I’ve waited years to give him a piece of my mind and I’m not going to wait one second longer!” Raaz said.
The left feathered wing popped out of Lith’s back, revealing the red-veined black feather bearing Trion’s rune. The sight triggered something deep inside Raaz’s mind. He instinctively recognized the mystical rune as the one he had named his son after.
Yet it didn’t make him feel any better. Quite the contrary, the memory of the effort to find an auspicious name for their secondborn, just to receive so much pain from him made Raaz’s anger flare again.
A flick of Lith’s wrist conjured his brother, yet he didn’t look like a Demon. Trion was back to his human appearance, 1.65 meters (5’5″) tall, his face similar to Raaz’s.
He still wore his uniform of first lieutenant, the shadows that composed his hair shaped like a military cut. If not for his features flickering in shades of black and white, it would have been hard to believe that he was dead.
“Hi, Dad.” He said.
“Don’t you dare call me dad!” Raaz replied. “You lost that right when you walked out of my home, our home. You have always been a failure of a son, a bastard who made his mother shed countless tears, but we were stupid enough to never stop loving you.
“Tell me, young man, do you think that just because you are dead everything is forgiven? That you deserve a free pass for all the shit that you did while you were still alive just because for once you did the right thing?”
The two men were about the same height, but while the older looked bigger due to the frenzy possessing him, the younger looked as small as a shameful child.
“No. I don’t think so.” Trion replied.
“Well, look at that. It seems that death finally gave you a working brain and a heart.” Raaz said with a voice full of sarcasm and spite. “When you were still alive, you were so stupid that you wasted years of your life indulging in self-pity.
“You were so self-centered that you never bothered thinking about the pain you inflicted us. Saving your mother was a noble act, but it’s too little and too late. It doesn’t take much courage to step up when you have nothing to lose anymore.
“It’s easy acting strong when you were just leeching your brother’s power!”
Raaz hated the word “leech” because it reminded him of Orpal. Just saying it made his stomach twist into a knot, yet he couldn’t help himself. His wrath demanded retribution and using that word made him feel like he had finally switched positions.
He was now like Orpal, finally in control, and Trion was Raaz. He could hear Elina’s sobs, but he didn’t care. He could see the faces of his children twisted with anguish at his frenzy, yet it didn’t matter to him.
The old Raaz would have been horrified by the thing he had become, but the new one loved that feeling of empowerment. He was tired of being a helpless victim. He wanted to get ahold of his own life again and stop fearing his own shadow.
Raaz just wanted that pain and humiliation that haunted him to end. He was willing to do anything, to sacrifice anyone just to make them stop, even if just for one minute.
Panda Novel “You know what, little bastard? There are two words that describe your current condition: poetic justice! You had everything. Your mother and I gave you everything we had, even at the cost of having nothing ourselves.
“And what did you do? You threw everything away and pushed your family out of your life. All because you were an insecure brat afraid of living his whole life under his brother’s shadow.
“And that’s exactly where your foolish actions led you to. You are not Trion anymore. You are nothing! Just a shadow that wouldn’t even be able to show its disgusting face if not for the mercy of the man that you spent your life hating!”
After yelling non-stop for so long, Raaz was out of breath and was forced to take a break. He could see the suffering that his words inflicted on his lost son, feeling poison dripping on his heart as he let his temper run wild.
Yet it was a sweet poison that easily rolled off his tongue and made him feel better. The idea that Trion was and would always be in a much worse situation than his own made Raaz feel better about himself.
“Well, mister Proudstar? What do you have to say in your defense? Are you going to blame Lith again or do you prefer to pin it on your mother and me for not coddling your wounded ego enough?” He said once the silence grew longer than he could bear.
“You are right.” Trion finally rose his head and looked his father in the eyes.
“What?” Raaz took a step back, the answer hit him like a slap.
“I said that you are right. I deserve everything that happened to me. To be honest, I think I got it too easy.” Trion clenched his fist, taking deep breaths to find the strength to admit his mistakes.
“During the past few days, while I slumbered inside Lith’s feather, I kept reliving the happiest and the saddest moments of my life in an endless cycle. They reminded me of who I am, of what I did, and why I can’t just die like I lived, like a coward.
“No matter how many times I witness my life, the story is always the same.
Every good memory I have, every happy thought I have left that gives me the strength to fight, belongs to when I was still a part of your family.
“Even my career in the army wouldn’t have been possible if you didn’t feed and take care of me.”
