Deviant Descendants (Descendants Academy #2) - Belle Malory Page 0,40

door in her face.” He winced, shame washing over him. “If I had given her the chance to speak…if I had known about you…I would have done things differently. But I didn’t know, and I didn’t find out until you were placed on my doorstep with that damnable stone tablet.”

What Petra told me in the Underworld suddenly came back, her voice filling my mind.

There I was—humiliated and pregnant. My mother was so angry, she disowned me. Since Daniel was with Selena, I had nowhere to go. Thomas was my only option. I fled to the Underworld and begged him to let me stay.

Maybe I was quick to judge Petra. The man she loved shunned her, her mother did the same, and then her own father trapped her in a world full of monsters. She literally had no one but me, and I was kidnapped, cursed, and sent to live with my father.

I hated that Petra was a hollow. I hated that she had tortured and killed people, but I had to admit—it was no wonder she became who she was. I would’ve become the Darth Vader of the Underworld if I experienced half of what she had gone through.

“Why did you leave them in the Underworld?” I said, trying to understand Dad’s side of it.

He let out a shaky breath. “I’m not proud of this part, but I want to be completely transparent.”

I nodded, bracing myself.

“Like everyone else, I believed the rumors. I assumed it was Petra who cursed you, and that she kidnapped and murdered Selena out of spite.”

I swallowed. Just like me, he believed the worst of her.

“The thing is,” he continued explaining, “she was known to go off the rails when she was angry. At the time, I didn’t know what else to think. Now, I’ve had years to go over it in my mind. Yes, she had a temper. And yes, she beat the hell out of anyone who got in her way, but to murder someone?” He ran his hands over his face, slowly shaking his head. “I know Petra could never do what people said she did. Deep down, she had a kind heart, and she loved animals. I once watched her heal a bird with a broken wing with magic. She never would have killed anyone, much less curse her own child.”

He was right on one of those counts, but the Petra I knew had no problem killing nowadays.

Dad shook himself, then continued on. “But I was young and foolish. Since I was in pain, I wanted to believe the worst of her. You and your sister became all that mattered, and that I had to be strong for the two of you. I made the choice to leave Mythos, hoping that by doing so, I could keep you safe for as long as possible.”

Well, there it was.

The story I had been waiting for, and I don’t know if I felt any better now that I finally heard it.

No one had come out a winner. Least of all, Riley and me.

And if I felt bad, I couldn’t imagine the guilt Dad felt. I don’t think he could have helped either of our moms escape, but I knew him well enough to know he wished he would have tried. He wasn’t the kind to turn his back on someone who needed him.

“What did Petra say when you met her?” His hands muffled his voice. “Does she hate me?”

I gently touched Dad’s arm. “She’s probably not the person you remember.”

He let his hands fall away to look at me, then nodded. “Seventeen years in the Underworld would change anyone.”

I thought of the way Petra grieved over the dead dragon though, and I wondered if traces of her old self remained.

“It’s your turn.” His tone took on a serious edge. “Tell me everything that happened when you met her.”

I knew it was best to be honest, even if it hurt him to hear the painful details. I told him Petra pledged herself as a hollow, that she had served the council for years by torturing prisoners with her mind control at the Hollowed Castle. I also told him she had mistakenly assumed she kidnapped Riley, and most importantly, that she would have killed me if I had been Riley.

The news didn’t bother him as much as I expected. He just stroked his chin, lost in thought. “I don’t know that she would have gone through with it.”

“It was premeditated, Dad. And she’s a trained killer. She