Chapter 25: Truth or Lie

I rear back, breath catching. "What? What...are you saying--what does that mean?"

He turns from me sharply and his broad shoulders bunch up with tension as he stares at the wall. "Your ancestors have spun lies for centuries, pushing a narrative that is all but untrue, hiding the truth of what they have done to me and why I am really here, beyond the Void."

I laugh. I hug myself and laugh harder. "You're lying."

I don't doubt my father. Or the stories that I listened to every night as a child, woven from my grandmother's lips. I have heard of what my people went through at the hands of this tyrant. His brutality and cruelty that threatened to wipe out our existence. I don't doubt it for a second.

"Sit."

His command leaves no room for argument or fights and I hate that my legs are moving of their own volition. Somehow, against my will, I settle by the edge of the bed. I glare openly at his figure. "I am not interested in whatever lies you wish to speak."