“I wanted my flame to be as bright as it could be. Just because mom’s flame dwindled, didn’t mean mine should. She always wanted us to thrive and she did everything to make sure that we did. I would work with Valdus in the morning, and then I would train in the evenings. One day during training, Tranton had me fighting with weapons with Ezra. I was so done dealing with all of his crap. Neither one of us were taking it easy on the other. I was fifteen at the time, and he was seventeen.
“I won’t go into all of the details, but we both took our anger of the situation we were in on each other. When I felt his blade swipe across my face, I pushed even harder. I could feel the blood dripping down my face, but I continued fighting. I wanted to knock that smug look off his arrogant face.
“We both continued to push each other…almost to our breaking points. We could hear Tranton yelling at us to stop, but we both ignored him. I spit the blood that was dripping down my face at him as I swung my sword out. I watched as my blade swept out and hit him. When I saw the blood start spilling out of the wound, I stopped. I dropped my sword and left.
“I left training. I left Rockwood. I just left. I walked out of that training room and never looked back. The only thing tying me to that town was Bragden and Bragden and I had been drifting apart. I barely spoke to him. We exchanged passing glances, but that was all. I gathered up a small sack of my belongings and I walked out of that town. I needed to get away for a while.
“I got into some bad things. I was big. I knew that I was stronger than most humans and I took advantage of that. I got into drugs. Got in trouble with alcohol. I stole things. Had some run-ins with the law. I thought I was better than everyone, and there was nothing anyone could do that would make me believe otherwise. One night while I was sleeping in the park, I had a dream. Mom visited me in my sleep that night similar to what Claire has been doing with you and Colton.
“She told me to man up—to accept my responsibilities and grow up. I was seventeen at this point. I wasn’t responsible for my actions. I didn’t understand how my actions could affect other people. I didn’t think there were other people in my life whom my disappearance would impact. Mom didn’t say much to me in this dream, but she told me to remember the flame. Remember everything she told me.
“I came to my senses that night. I stopped the drugs. I became sober. I stopped stealing. I cleaned up my entire act. I walked into the first tattoo parlor I came to and got this tattoo. From that moment on, it became a constant reminder for me not look back. The future is the only thing that can change. I couldn’t change what had already happened to me, but I could do everything in my power to make sure that I made the most of my future. That year was a flicker in my flame and ever since then, my flame as been burning bright.”
“What happened between you and Bragden? You two are pretty close now,” I ask him.
“While I was out, Bragden had inherited the house. In fact, he got everything that mom left us. I was so scared to come back. I didn’t know how everyone would react, but besides a few people, everyone welcomed me back. I moved in with him. While I was away, I continued training. I grew over a foot in height. My hair lengthened and I had this jagged silver scar on my face. Most people regarded my wearily. I didn’t look like the friendly boy I was before I left.
“I didn’t train with Valdus anymore. Even though I was only seventeen, I had already come into my powers. Bragden and I got closer while we lived together. We realized that we just reacted to mom’s death in different ways. We just needed time to let everything sizzle out. As we started to understand each other more, we pushed back everything from the previous years. I’ve never been as close to Bragden as I am right now. To this day, I still don’t know what happened to Ezra. He left shortly after I did. Like me, he just disappeared.
“Valdus pulled me aside when I was eighteen and told me that Ezra was actually my half brother. We share the same dad. Dad apparently had an affair shortly after Bragden was born and he ditched Ezra’s mother too. Mom never knew, because Dad asked Valdus to never tell her. I don’t know all the details, but Valdus and my father were friends and when Ezra’s mother passed, he promised to take care of him.”
“Does Bragden know?”
“I think so. I’m not sure. I never spoke to him about it directly, but I think he figured it out on his own.”
Liam finishes speaking and neither one of us say anything for a little while. Liam has not had it very easy. I was right with my thought that he had to grow up too quickly.