Chapter 96

• It’s been a week. A week of regrets, of bad decisions and even turmoil. I can’t believe that Thomas would betray my father like that. My father had treated him with nothing but respect. The whole council with respect and this was the way he’d been treated in return. Murdered by his own right-hand man. Murdered for wanting to do nothing but the right thing. The only thing he thought mattered most. I refused to believe he was going to put Xavier in charge, especially given the words he’d uttered on his death bed. At least now I had the comfort of knowing my cousin had nothing to do with my father’s death even if he continued to infuriate me.
• It's been a week of starvation and thirst, and Thomas no longer looks like the arrogant bastard he had before. He looks thin, pale and his lips are cracked and dry from dehydration. He’s swinging from a hook on the ceiling, his body limp and almost lifeless, although as if he’s sensing my presence, his head swings up sharply and he begins to stare at me. I refuse to let him intimidate me. I smile broadly, hiding my pain, my anguish and step closer to examine the man who has effectively ruined my life.
• “You look as though you’ve been in the wars” I said conversationally and then narrowed my eyes at him, “but that would be a lie wouldn’t its Thomas? While I was out there fighting for our survival and to bring the races together, you were here, with my father, like a true coward, cowering away.”