Atticus Deleted Scene - Home Invasion

I deleted this scene for two reasons. Firstly, I felt like Atticus lost his morally gray character voice during it. Second, it messed with the upwards pacing of the book.

I’m jarred from my sleep from a crashing from the first floor. My back is sore from sleeping on the ground. I push myself up. Sleep still entrenches Haylow.

I whip the door open and shut it behind me. Another crash resounds as I lean over the banister, seeing Vec.

“Get out!” Vec yells at someone. There’s an intruder. He charges immortal magic in his palms, propelling a ball of invisible air into the foyer, just where my view is obscured.

“Vec!” I yell.

“Atticus! Get back in your room! Lock the door!”

“What’s going on? Who’s there!”

Before Vec can respond, he’s knocked back by an invisible force, sending him crashing into the drawing room. I run down the stairs and stop halfway as two shadows emerge from the foyer.

I back against the wall of the stairwell and hold my hands out, charging up gusts of air. But I know it won’t be enough. I need herbs, and even then, they are almost as useless as spike cotton seeds.

“Atticus Desimir. Just the boy I was looking to see,” Konstantin says.

Konstantin and Austrie stand there, sickening looks of amusement on their faces.

“Get out. Both of you!” I yell.

“Then give her back,” Austrie says.

“Give who back?”

Konstantin narrows his eyes. “Don’t play dumb. You have my daughter!”

“I wouldn’t touch your daughter if she was the last venitrix on earth.”

Vec emerges from the drawing room, his hair frayed from his fall. He has herbs in his hand now. Hemshade to be specific. The herb can release an explosive, poisonous gas within a small vicinity. “Atticus has no business with your daughter. Now get out.”

Konstantin tilts his head at him. “Herbs are a lot less threatening when you can’t die, Vec. You should know this.”

“Recovery or not, it doesn’t mean that having your skin melted down is fun. We still have nerve endings,” Vec says. “Your daughter is a university student. She’s probably off dallying with some boy.”

“Haylow was supposed to come home tonight.” Konstantin purses his lips and looks from Vec, then to me. “If my daughter doesn’t return to me soon, I will hold you personally responsible. And the Desimir line will end with you, Atticus.”

I want to lunge at him and slash his throat, regardless if he can feel pain or not. It would be delightful.

“Come on, Konstantin,” Austrie, the immortal who sliced my mother’s throat, says. “Atticus is a weak child. Not even he could take Haylow in a fight.”

My shoulders are shaking. I destroyed your daughter from the inside out., peeled her psych from her mind and annihilated the woman she once was. You won’t even recognize her again. I reach in my boot for my dagger, but stop short. Vec glares at me and shakes his head.

Austrie is trying to rile me up, so I’ll admit I’m holding her captive. And if I submit, just because of pride, I may never get a chance to truly avenge Juni and my parents.

He gives me one last stare, linked with a smile. But I avoid caving, no matter how much I want to.

“Fine,” Konstantin folds his arms. “Haylow is a strong girl. If you have her, as I suspect you do, don’t underestimate her.”

Konstantin and Austrie give us one last glare and leave. I slump down, sitting on a step.

Vec lets out a long breath, then reinforces the locks on the door using some immortal spell.

He walks up the steps toward me. “What did you do?”

I don’t look up at him.

He slides past me, stomping up the stairs toward my bedroom.

“Wait!” I reach after him and then stumble to my feet. He’ll never forgive me for this one.

Vec throws my bedroom door open, then lowers his head. He doesn’t move from the doorway.

“She—she threatened to tell Dominic my origins. I didn’t know what to do.”

Vec ventures into the room and I follow close behind like a guilty child. He opens one of Haylow’s eyelids and throws his head back when he sees it.

“You ruined her!” Vec grabs his hair and takes a step back.

“I—” I have no adequate excuse, but I’ll try. “She insulted Juni. I lost it. All control left me.”

Vec turns and sits on the edge of the bed. “I always knew Desimir magic was sick. But this is another level!”

“I’m sorry.”

“A sorry won’t bring her mind back!”

“That’s not true. She’ll come back, eventually.”

“You know the remnants always remain. She’ll barely be able to live a normal life, all because of you.”

I grow angry. “You know what? Maybe Haylow deserved it. She said Juni’s death was justified. Do you really think someone like that should walk the streets?”

“Konstantin and Austrie raised her. They have lied her to her entire life. They poisoned her mind. And now, it’s been poisoned because of you.”

I don’t want to accept Vec’s words, but they absorb before I can stop them. The woman Dominic once loved is broken. The weight of guilt presses on my chest. I sit on the right side of her bed, staring down at her. “You have immortal magic. Is there nothing you can do?”

Vec stays silent for a while. So I’ll take that as a yes. “I learned regeneration magic within the last century. But it’s not typically used for mental wounds. Her heart could give out.”

“Then risk it.”

“You remember how it felt when Dominic healed you, don’t you? Regeneration magic takes in order to work. She’s already in mental anguish. She has nothing left to give. Using it on her mind is almost pointless on a ruined mind.”

“Then I’ll take some of the brunt off.”

“How?”

“I’ll—I will think about my pain while you help her.”

Vec’s face softens. “Atticus, no. I can’t afford another bender, and neither can your body.”

“Konstantin will be dead soon. I can handle it. I must.”

Vec looks around, his expression hesitant, before finally giving a slight nod. “Fine. But if you need to stop, then do so. And just know that even if this works, she’ll still be a different person. Pain changes people. Not even magic can heal the pain of the soul.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Then let’s begin.” Vec places one hand on her forehead and the other on her abdomen.

I take off my gloves and hold her hand.

Vec’s hands glow, a white light emitting underneath them. As he started the spell, Haylow stirs. Tears stream down her sleeping eyes. She writhes around in the bed. Then she’s crying out, mumbling unintelligible words under her breath.

“Atticus, take her pain quickly,” Vec commands.

I lower my shoulders and close my eyes. Then I bring myself back to that dark day.

I remember Alano stubbing my father with a sword. Then my mother’s neck being slit by Alano.

Haylow’s cries soften slightly. But she’s still in pain.

Then I think of Juni. I never let myself relive that moment intentionally. But my memories of her death don’t last long. Instead, the part that actually causes me pain rises to the surface. The thoughts of the life that she could have had. It overtakes and consumes me. The way she never got to grow into a young woman. How her hopes and dreams were ripped away from her, and in turn, mine.

Haylow stops crying. Her shaking turns to almost nonexistent tremors.

I remember how I refused to play with Juni the day she died. And how, if I could go back in time, I’d do anything to spend every free second with her. I regret all the times I turned her down. Why did I have to be so selfish? Once I turned twelve, I was so focused on becoming a man, and I forgot to cherish the times I had with her. And now they’re gone, never to be returned.

I’m so lost in the thought, I whisper. “I’m so sorry, Juni.” It takes biting my lip to stop tears from spilling.

It feels like hours have passed, but I know it’s only been a few minutes. Vec touches my arm. “It’s done.”

I open my bloodshot eyes, thankful for my glasses. Haylow’s face has softened. Rather than appearing to be a girl confined in a casket of suffering, she lives in a tranquil slumber.

“She will probably be out the rest of the night, but she won’t be stuck for months like before.” Vec says.

“Thank you, Vec.” My throat is dry.

“May Konstantin die soon, for all our sakes.”