The Traitor by A. Lombardo (i can read with my eyes shut TXT) 📕

identity and hiding me from my real father gave me a chance to have a normal life with a man who loved me and treated me like a son.”

New tears welled in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks—Iver was dead, and it was his fault. “Alenga showed me Iver’s fate. Saving my father was never my mission; I now believe that my vision was to help me let him go. I had every opportunity to embrace my future in Katori, but I thought I knew better. In my arrogance, I imagined I could best Nola. Even Riome tried to warn me that Nola’s brainwashing was unbreakable. I wanted to be the hero and save everyone, but instead, I lost everything.”

Unable to control his own words, his inner pain poured out. “Alenga asked me to bring her people home, but I ignored my mission to reunite Katori. Because of my choices, I have lost Katori, too. Rayna, I left you behind because I thought I had to do everything on my own. I was a fool.”

Guilt was a funny thing. It had a way of giving your mind clarity while punishing your soul. Kai pulled his stone from inside his shirt and let it dangle between his fingers. “Now that I know a Beastmaster can transform without their crystal, as painful as it is, it means that my mother chose to stay trapped. All this time, I thought she did not have a choice, but she did.”

Rayna touched his arm. “Your mother was thought to be dead. You know as well as I that she could not return to Diu without revealing the Katori secrets. What other choice did she have?”

Hearing the truth did not make it any easier. “Recently, I imagined what would have happened if my mother did come back and stole me away. We would have spent our lives on the run unless the Elders welcomed us back. Which I am sure Keegan’s spies would have discovered us, surely he would have returned to Katori for my mother and discovered me.”

They sat in silence for a few moments. There was so much raw emotion bubbling inside Kai; he felt as if he would crack if he opened his mouth again. Rayna seemed to know his next thoughts, and she let them out slow and easy so he could accept them in small bites.

“I cannot begin to imagine the shame Mariana felt given what Keegan did to her—knowing what her country thought of the man, and how she carried his child. I understand why she never returned to Katori, and why she lied about your origins. She was lucky Iver found her.” Rayna must have sensed that her point had settled in his soul, and she continued. “I cannot presume to know her reasonings beyond keeping the Katori secrets, but your mother spent a decade trapped by men who used her as a weapon. What a terrible life.”

His mother’s sacrifices were etched across his imagination. Was he strong enough to make the same? His time on the ship with Keegan showed him the horrific life he might have lived had his mother not given up her heart’s desire to live in Katori—and maybe even return to Ryker. All to save him from his father.

“There is something I do not understand,” Rayna said, interrupting his thoughts. How did Mariana’s crystal force her to become a dragon and pull her across the ocean to Iver?”

“When I first awoke on Keegan’s ship, feelings of anger and hate overwhelmed me. The room was thick with desires that were not my own. The scariest part was when my dragon claws sprouted from my fingertips, then receded as though they were never there. Our crystals are connected to our magic—to us specifically. For us, the stone amplifies magic; it softens the raw nature of power and provides the ability to enhance our gifts. And, it would seem, the wielder: us or another can control part of our magic.”

Panic bulged Rayna’s brown eyes. “Do you mean to say, with our stones, anyone could control us—use our own magic against us?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I thank Alenga nobody has discovered this–otherwise, all Katori could be weaponized against our will. If Keegan had witnessed my hand change while he held my crystal, we would be in a totally different sort of trouble now. My father seemed to hope he could use the power within my stone to his advantage for more power; his disappointment was obvious. I asked my grandfather Lucca what happens to the crystals after death. He said the stones are crushed and the magic returns to Alenga. All of Katori believes they only channel magic, and while that is true, the crystals are also tied to the owner.”

More truth poured from Kai’s thoughts. “My mother was in a no-win situation. She must have understood the same thing when it happened to her. When I was old enough to listen and not cry, my father told me a story. As he sailed across the Caprizian Sea, maybe a half a day’s journey out from Port Anahita, pirate vessels attacked his ship. They outnumbered him three to one. Fearing he would not ever see my mother and me again, he held her necklace and wished for the old days when dragons fought alongside Diu. And as his story goes, a dragon came to him and saved him and his crew. I never knew he kept the dragon and wielded her like a weapon. I guess that explains his success. He and his dragon secured trade routes and brought in wealth to our kingdom. No ships dared attack a Diu vessel in those early days for fear of his dragon.”

“What a miserable life.” Kai could see the empathy in Rayna’s eyes as she spoke. “Torn between keeping the Katori secrets and being with her husband and son.”

The weight of his mother’s decisions and his