by Amelia Shaw
I glanced from my father’s worried face, to Tavlor’s, and back to Thomas. Was there a catch I was missing? Clearly, something was going on here, something I didn’t understand. I waited for someone to tell me. When that didn’t work, I just decided to fuck everyone and ask.
“What else is there?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Well...” Thomas puffed up his chest and held out his hand, magicking up a scroll, a contract of some sort I had to assume.
I wonder if it’s as airtight as the one they’ve already broken.
“What is it?” I asked, looking at him like he was a moron—which he was. How could he be smug over something I didn’t understand and then expect me to get his point?
“It’s the current contract the High Warlock signs when they inherit, or reach twenty-one,” he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I’m twenty-three, I reminded him. I didn’t even try hiding the triumphant grin on my face, being able to correct him in front of all these people.
“Exactly.” He nodded once, his eyes scanning the document. “So, although you won’t inherit for some time, we assume, there are several stipulations you will need to put into place in the next year or so that will need to be agreed to.”
My father took the scroll from Thomas and handed it to me. For some reason, he didn’t read the contract himself. It was as though only I could read it.
His face was pinched, and I wondered if he knew which of the stipulations I was going to balk at.
I opened the contract up and began to read, though the writing was ornate and not at all what I was used to, it was legible enough. I frowned, trying to read fast and get to the part I was supposed to hate.
Thomas continued while I read. “We’ve filled in any relevant parts that apply to you, Ava, although the contract is almost identical to the one your father signed when he came of age.”
Matlock stepped next to me. “Can we have a moment alone, please?”
I wasn’t sure why he was deciding now to be polite. It wasn’t like these people deserved that respect. But I kept my mouth shut.
“I’ll go through everything with Ava.”
My eyes scrolled down the first page and it all seemed pretty standard, until I came across the section on my marriage. I furrowed my brow and read the sentence once, and then twice, and then one more time because I could not believe it was there.
I was going to marry Cedric Cornall, in six months!
I’m fucking... gonna what?
I looked up at Thomas as he began to gather the Council to leave the room.
“Who the hell is Cedric Cornall?” I demanded, handing the scroll over to my father to peruse. He opened his mouth to try and get me to calm down, no doubt, but I held my hand up as though to say ‘stop.’
I was already past that by now.
There were a few too many pleased smiles within the Council as they all glanced back at me. My stomach tightened, feeling like it had been filled with lead. And like an anchor, it was sinking low, to the point where there was no way in hell I’d be able to pull myself up from drowning.
They weren’t seriously trying to fix me up in an arranged marriage the way they had my father? And with someone I’d never even met?
And yet, as I stared at Thomas, as I stared at the Council as they retreated like the cowards they all were, I realized that that was exactly what they were doing.
Thomas took a few steps forward, smiling. “We realized last night that you, being a female, Ava, gave us an unusual advantage. One we have never had before. One we never even considered.”
Oh, my god. This is bad.
“Advantage?” I squeaked out. I cleared my throat, trying to cover up the crack in my voice as a cough.
I swallowed hard against the need to scream and kept my decorum as best I could. My mother had taught me how to fake being calm to get through a conversation, but at the moment I was seeing red and could barely imagine a different outcome other than a screaming match. I could never be as good as she was when it came to patience and keeping my face cool and collected while my insides were in turmoil. Bella, sure, but not me.
Thomas smiled and went on. “Yes. We have a chance to breed into the High Warlock line in a way we never have before. By introducing strong male genetics from one of the families.”
I forced down the lump in my throat, though bile tickled the back of my mouth. Breeding? As in horses... cattle. Dogs?
Was that how they saw me? As a breeding machine set to produce the next High Warlock for them? Like I was some kind of animal and the only thing of value I had to offer them was my vagina. My mind, my abilities, my spirit was nothing to them. I shouldn’t be surprised. Hell, I shouldn’t even be hurt. But I was.
“Oh. And which family does, uh...”—I couldn’t remember his name—“your choice come from?”
I didn’t actually care. I was trying not to lose it in front of these people. I couldn’t look at Tavlor. I knew that if I did, I would break down and the last thing I wanted was for everyone to see me cry.
My father answered before Thomas could.
“He’s Charity’s nephew,” he said. “Which will mean that they can breed in the same genetics they were hoping to with my marriage to Charity, but failed to do so.”
I glared at my father, unable to hold back my revulsion to such an idea.
“No fucking way.” My voice was barely a growl, barely a breath, and yet I hoped my eyes threw daggers at him.
My father glanced at Thomas, not responding to me or my glare.
“Give us a minute,” he said again.
I looked towards the too smug Council, then back to my father.
“You can’t be serious?” I said, barely able to get the words out.
Tavlor’s hand on my arm made me calm enough to hold it all together. I clenched my teeth, swallowed, and counted until the Council finally left the room.
Then my anger exploded. “I will not agree to this!”
I was panting, my chest rising and falling at a rapid rate. I stepped back, away from both of them. I couldn’t be near anyone right now.
“I cannot believe they’d try and pull this sort of shit! Especially... especially since they know how colossally they failed with you and my mother. Seriously, they think I’ll just fall in with this plan?”
My father looked up from his reading of my contract to glance at my face.
“They know you won’t and that’s why they’re doing it,” he said simply.
Tavlor was just standing by Matlock’s side, stoic and silent.
I wanted to smack him. Surely, he had something to say about this? Surely he wasn’t okay with me going off and marrying another man? Where was the anger, the passion I had seen from him last night?
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I demanded.
Tavlor shook his head, but emitted a strange growling sound. I opened my mouth, ready to go off on him about how little he cared when I realized he was pressing his lips so tightly together they were white.
I looked down and saw that his nails were digging into the palms of his hands that I could tell they drew blood, was barely breathing because his body was so tense.
A shiver shook my body as I realized how angry he was.
I nearly sighed with relief. I thought he had returned to that shell he was when I first met him and he followed orders blindly.
I turned back to my father. “What do you mean, that’s why they’re doing it?”
Matlock rolled the contract back up and handed it to me. “The rest of it is standard, they haven’t tried to weasel anything new in.”
“Nothing other than the fact they expect utter submission and complete control over me, you mean?”
My hands tightened into fists, squeezing the life out of the contract, and my heart beat an angry tattoo against my ribs.
Of all the things to want me to do... Marry a complete stranger? Never!
Matlock nodd
ed. “Yes, the role of High Warlock has always been one of service.”
I pointed at him with an angry stare. “No. It wasn’t! It started out as a simple representative of the council, a judge of sorts. Someone to implement rules when the others wouldn’t or couldn’t agree. I don’t know when that changed into what they expect now... but it’s ridiculous! Even a queen can choose who she marries! How can they do this to me?”
My father walked forward and grabbed my upper arms. “I told you, because they know you won’t agree. Now calm down, so we can discuss this rationally.”
He let go of me and stepped away. I shivered with the stress of it all.
Then I blew out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding, and focused on finding a solution. Not an emotional reaction.
“Okay... okay.” My fingers shook as I combed my hands through my hair.
At least it was some release from the pent-up energy, from the magic pushing against my fingertips, wanting to destroy everything, especially that damn contract. “What do we do?”
My father was pacing and Tavlor still stood like a silent statue.
I sidled up closer to him.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a low voice.
He didn’t answer immediately, then he gave a stiff nod.
Liar.
He was not okay.
I cupped his face with my hands, forcing him to look at me. “I am not going to agree to this. They can’t keep us apart. I won’t allow it.”
He blinked, as though only just realizing I’d spoken. “They’ll never let us be together, Ava. Not in the way we want to be.”
I went up on my tip toes and kissed his cold lips briefly.
Then I turned back to my father. “How are we going to fix this?”
Matlock stopped in his tracks and looked straight at me.
“Any chance you’re pregnant already?” he asked bluntly. He didn’t seem to care that I was his daughter in this moment and that he was asking a drastically personal question.
My jaw dropped open and I glanced at Tavlor, then back at my father. “Uh....”
We’d used no protection either time we’d made love, and I had no idea when my cycle was due.
“I don’t know.”
And I also had no idea how easy it would be to get pregnant to a half fae, half warlock sire.
I glanced at Tavlor, who now seemed brighter, and much more part of the discussion. “What do you think?”
He looked from me to my father, and back again. “I hadn’t considered... I don’t know if I am fertile or not. I’ve never sired an offspring before.”
“So what was all that worry about us having children in the future then?” I demanded.
That was one of his main concerns this morning when he’d realized that I’d marry him if he asked me.
He frowned. “There are ways to encourage fertility, magic, Fae healing. I assumed that if you wanted a child, I could find a way to do so. But we’ve only been together twice. What are the odds?”
I turned towards my father, who seemed to be taking this conversation better than I’d expected. At least he was taking it better than I was. Despite the fact that I was a consenting adult with a man I loved, my face still felt like flames had eaten it alive.
He stepped towards me. “There’s only one way to find out and that’s a spell I can do. You ready?”
I took a step away from him, my hands flying immediately to my belly. I wasn’t sure about this.
“Will it hurt? And if I am pregnant, will it hurt the baby?”
Oh, my god. A baby! I’d barely stepped out of my mother’s shadow. What did I know about raising a baby?
My father shook his head. “No. it’s a simple energy test. It’ll take but a moment, you just need to relax.”
I glanced over at Tavlor whose jaw was tight, but he nodded.
I forced myself to look back at my father, then closed my eyes. “Okay. Go for it.”
Chapter 9.
THE WARMTH OF MY FATHER’S spell drifted over my whole body, which was surprising. I’d thought it would focus only on my belly, but instead it seemed to test my entire blood stream. I could feel the tickle on the tips of my fingertips all the way down to the soles of my feet. Even my roots buzzed with activity. I wasn’t sure how this was going to test whether I was pregnant or not, but I couldn’t find it in me to open my mouth and ask. I was too afraid of what the answer might be.
For that particular subject to be broached by an invasive spell by my father, I didn’t have any time to figure out what I actually wanted.
When the nice, sunshine feeling stopped, my eyes popped open and I looked at him expectantly.
“Well?” I asked.
When he didn’t say anything right away, my stomach twisted with anxiety. I wasn’t sure which way I wanted the result to go, and I wouldn’t know until he told me since I didn’t have any time to think about it.
Finally, he shook his head. “No, you’re not,” he said. “Not yet at least, which is disappointing. That would have been an easy way to get out of the forced marriage.”
My father walked away, circling around us in a strange sort of pacing.
I slowly lifted my gaze to Tavlor, unsure how I felt about my father’s assessment.
Tavlor came straight for me, cupping my face with his hands and pressing our bodies together.
“Did you want it to be positive?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes scanning mine. I knew part of him wanted to read my mind so he wouldn’t have to worry about me lying to him.
Hot tears sprung to my eyes, filled with disappointment and pain. “I... don’t know. But I...”
I didn’t know how I was feeling. I didn’t want a baby, not yet. Not with all this uncertainty, and not until Tavlor and I had gotten to know each other better.
But it was almost like I’d been promised a family, a connection to the man I loved, then it had been taken away.
It must have been how my mother had felt when she’d gotten pregnant with me. So happy, but so uncertain.
Wanting something to remember your lover by. Wanting, if only, a small piece that you could claim was yours, something no one could ever take from you.
I closed my eyes and let forgiveness wash over me. For my mother. For this situation. For love, in all of its forms. I might not be in the same situation she was, but I understood it all the same, and that was much more than I thought it could be.
Tavlor kissed the top of my head and I looked up into his eyes. I sucked in a breath, controlling the tears that threatened to spill. I sniffled lightly, hoping I didn’t need to wipe my nose with the back of my hand.
Of course, the tears fell despite my best efforts. At least I wasn’t a hot mess, bawling so my mascara clawed its way down my face.
He used the pad of his thumb to brush away the tears. “When it’s the right time, it will happen,” he said, nodding once, twice. “If you want it to.”
I bit my lip. “I do. Speaking of which...”
I let my voice trail off, pushing myself away from the warmth and understanding of Tavlor, and back into the coldness of the trial room. The place where they were trying to make me marry a man I didn’t even know, and would never love.
It was impossible. I was my mother’s daughter. I’d already found my mate, my lover, the man I was meant to love for all eternity. I wouldn’t be able to change my feelings now. I couldn’t marry someone, commit to someone, have a child with someone I didn’t know.
Impossible.
I looked towards my father who was clenching his jaw and huffing like a grampus.
“What can we do, Dad?” I asked.
It was the first time I’d said it, and I couldn’t help but almost choke on the word.
Matlock’s head came up, his gaze intense as he stared at me.
He didn’t say anything, and I started to feel like I’d overstepped the mark.
“Is that okay to call you that... or would you prefer Father?” I cleared my throat, d
ropping my gaze to the floor. “Or just Matlock? I can do either. You know, maybe we just forget I said it at all?”
I sincerely hoped he didn’t just want ‘Matlock,’ despite the fact that we’d agreed on that.
His lips tweaked up at the edges. “Father... or Dad... works for me,” he said slowly. The words came out crisp but only because it seemed like he wanted to test them on his own lips. “Whatever flows easier for you.”
I managed a smile, despite the intense squeeze inside my chest. I’d wanted a father my whole life. Not just in person, but in name. Someone to call Daddy if I wanted to.
Even though I was an adult, even though I was used to not having a father at all and could survive without one, I found that I still wanted one, someone who would be there for me, protect me. Someone who wanted me, who loved me.
“Thank you,” I managed to get out. His acceptance of me was more than I could put into words so I didn’t try. “So, Dad, what are we going to do about this?”
He scratched his head, messing up his once pristine look.
“Unless Tavlor has another idea, or a stalling tactic, we may need to consider what they’re saying,” he said.
This was exactly what I didn’t want to hear.
“And what are they saying?” I asked. “Because if it’s all or nothing, then we’re gonna have a problem.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I mean... they can’t literally be saying, accept all our terms, or we’re back to execution. Are they?”
Because that was just so screwed up if they were.
My father shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I think... well, I certainly hope that all treasonous accusations are off the table completely.”
“Then spell it out, I’m obviously missing something.” I raised my brows, emphasizing my words. He needed to spell this out for me because I clearly wasn’t getting it.
He ran his hand through his disheveled hair. “That you may need to decide if you want to be my heir, and take all that come with being the High Warlock, or... not.”
My mouth fell open. “That’s one of the choices? I can just be your daughter and not worry about any of the other responsibilities and crap that come with the title?”
He nodded. “I should think so.”