Destroyed Read Free

back of my neck and leaned against the hood of the car. The air was balmy, still warm even though fall should be well on its way. Kai stood beside me, his arm resting against my back, his power bleeding into me. He was supposed to be a Destroyer, but his power clearly screamed Guardian, full of warmth and sunshine.
    I looked up at him. His dark curly hair had grown out a little. It matched the color of mine. I frowned. It would’ve been nice to have added some blue to my own before I left.
    Kai had a five o’clock shadow. The dark lines underneath his eyes told me he wasn’t sleeping well. He smelled of clove and cinnamon, as he always had.
    He was still Kai. I expected my heart to flutter like it used to, but it didn’t. My heart ached to comfort him, but not in a romantic way.
    “Why are we here?” I asked.
    Before Kai could answer, the door to the house opened and I froze. Standing on the threshold was my father, wearing a dark green shirt.
    No way, this couldn’t be happening. My father. The last person on earth I wanted to see. Okay, so there were others that would’ve been worse: my mother, who was thankfully locked up in a mental institution, Jason, the asshole who betrayed me, and Dwayne. But Father was definitely number four on the list.
    My shoulders tensed and I debated climbing back into the car.
    “What’s he doing here?” I hissed.
    Kai raised his eyebrows at me. “No one knows I’m the Master Destroyer. We want everyone to think it is your dad.”
    “I can’t stay here. Not with him around. Do you have any idea what he put me through?”
    “I thought you’d be okay with this. I know he put you through a lot, but he said you called him on occasion. You know the abuse wasn’t his fault, right?” Kai rubbed his chin.
    “It’s one thing to talk to him, and it’s quite another to see him face to face. It’s going to take time for me to adjust. He tortured me for eight years.”
    My dad still hadn’t moved. The humidity was heavy. I wiped sweat from my forehead. This was a disaster.
    “But that was your mother’s fault.”
    Yeah, my evil Master Destroyer mother influenced a heck of a lot more than my father. The damage inflicted by her had spread way beyond our little house. I wanted to rebuild my relationship with dad, but this was not the time or the place. Especially since I would have to pretend with Kai. I couldn’t pretend with them both.
    Father was probably waiting for me to approach him first. I lowered my eyes so I didn’t have to look at him. Kai nudged my toe.
    “He’s not the man you remember. The greenhouse was his idea. I helped, but it was mostly him. He’s trying very hard to make up for what he did.”
    How in the world did they know I was coming?
    I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath of fresh air wishing I were back in Vegas or Santa Barbara. With Puck. Those places were my safe harbors from the horrors of my childhood home. There was no way I’d pull this off. I hated this house. But if I were going to make sure Kai made it back to the Guardians, then I’d have to stay here. This was my mission.
    I handed Kai my backpack.
    “I’m going to check out the greenhouse.” I waved to my dad. That was the best I could do at the moment. He waved back, but his smile fell when he saw that I was moving away from him.
    Kai set my bag down. “I’ll come with you.”
    “I’d like to be by myself for a few minutes. I really wasn’t prepared for this.”
    He looked at me for a second. “You mean this place? Or your dad?”
    “Both.” I turned so I didn’t have to look at him anymore. I just wanted to get away from everything.
    The grass tickled my feet. The well-worn path that I’d taken from the door of the house to my greenhouse was still there. Though now I wore flip-flops instead of ugly tennis shoes. It felt like I lived here eons ago, when really I’d only left a few months earlier.
    I opened the door. Instantly, I could feel Kai. It was like he