by Amelia Shaw
Tavlor’s hand whipped around Rasslor’s throat and squeezed.
My eyes widened. My mouth dropped. I never expected Tavlor, of all people, to lash out this way against a Council member.
The man’s beady eyes boggled out of his face and the skin of his cheeks went red.
I rushed over to him and placed my hand on his forearm.
“Tavlor. Stop.” I managed to say, though my words were weak and even I wouldn’t have listened to me. Not after all the nasty things he’d said to Tavlor.
“He knows where the High Warlock is,” Tavlor said, his focus on the Council member. “And he’s going to tell me.”
I sobbed, unable to hold it in. My chest ached. My heart hurt. All the hope I’d built up about my father wanting to help me... it was all gone. And in its place was only pain.
“What does it matter?” I asked. I hated how pitiful I sounded, but I couldn’t help it. The plan hinged on my father’s help, and if he didn’t give it, we were done for. “He... He... doesn’t care if I live or die.”
I collapsed on a chair and watched, unable to look away, as Rasslor began to turn purple.
“Okay,” he said between gasps, hitting at Tavlor’s hands. “Okay.”
Tavlor dropped him to the ground. Rasslor coughed and spluttered, crumpled in a heap.
“He’s in a meeting,” he managed to say, clawing at his throat and trying to breathe again. “He doesn’t even know you’re here.”
“And I suppose that meeting will keep him busy all day?” Tavlor asked, his tone threatening.
“Of course.” Rasslor sneered up at Tavlor. “And you’ll never get to him.” He got to his knees with a feral grin on his face. “Once you’re gone, Matlock can refocus on his duties to the Council, and we can choose his next successor from our own families.”
I clambered to my feet. “So that is the plan! You want me out of the way so you can choose your own High Warlock.” Hope sprung anew in my chest. “That means my father hasn’t abandoned me.”
Before I could continue, the inner door burst open.
I spun around to face it as the High Warlock stormed into the room.
Chapter 19.
I never expected to be SO happy to see my father, but a brilliant smile crossed my face the second I saw him. I wanted to run to him, to hug him.
His eyes filled with relief, and he stepped forward. I didn’t want to hope, but it almost seemed as though he had the same thought I did.
We wanted to hug each other. We wanted to be glad the other was all right.
But then his eyes dropped to Rasslor on the ground and his gaze narrowed.
He came to a halt.
“What is the meaning of this?” He pointed his finger at Rasslor. Though it seemed like a dramatic gesture, the fact that one word from Matlock could cause magic to jump from that finger and kill Rasslor was enough for even Rasslor to stiffen underneath it.
What’s he going to do...?
Without warning, Rasslor flew into the air, held captive by my father’s magic.
I blinked. I hadn’t even seen or heard my father do anything. It had happened so fast, it was difficult for me to believe what I just witnessed had actually happened at all.
I gaped at my father. Now, that’s pretty cool. I’d have to ask him how to do that.
If, of course, he was willing to teach me in the first place.
Something slammed into the wall, drawing my attention away from my father and Rasslor. There was a commotion going on just beyond the open door.
I threw my magic that way, closing the door and clicking the lock into place.
Hopefully that would be enough to hold them, whoever was out there.
I wasn’t up to fighting the whole Council today. Not unless I had to.
I made my way to my father’s side. He still has Rasslor with his magic, but he shifted his gaze so he could look at me.
“You came,” I said.
“Of course, I did.” His reply seemed firm, almost as though he was shocked I thought anything else. “As soon as I worked out something suspicious was going on.” He paused. “You didn’t doubt it, did you?”
“Well... you let me go to jail and...” I shrugged. What else was I supposed to expect from this man? He couldn’t even acknowledge my presence once he found out about me. I couldn’t trust what he was going to do.
Tavlor grabbed my hand and squeezed, silencing me from saying anything else. He didn’t actually have to do that. I couldn’t think of anything else to say anyway.
“We need to focus on the items at hand,” Tavlor said. He kept glancing at my father, almost as though he was waiting to be reprimanded for speaking out of turn. The fact that Tavlor was brave enough to do so, however, meant a lot to me. It told me he was finally starting to see himself as important, as more than just a drone who only carried out orders. “Firstly, the act of treason Rasslor tried to undertake here today.”
My father’s gaze shot to Rasslor still dangling in the air.
“Confess your plan and your conspirators,” he demanded.
Orange magic zipped out the end of Matlock’s finger and hit Rasslor in the chest. Rasslor’s eyes squeezed shut so tightly, little crow’s feet punched at the corners. His mouth went wide, like he was screaming, except no sound came out. Clearly, the man was in more pain than even I could imagine.
I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face watching my father hold this man accountable for his actions. I should have felt guilty, enjoying this man’s pain, but I didn’t. He deserved everything he got.
“Treason... no... Matlock...” Rasslor gasped as the orange magic pulsed up his throat and over his face.
“Tell me, Rasslor,” Matlock said, his tone firm. His muscles twitched with the amount of power he possessed, enough to hold a grown man in the air for as long as he was, without breaking a sweat. I wondered how many times my father had to do this before now. “What was the plan?”
Rasslor’s face went blank, and his eyes grew strangely devoid of personality. All the pain vanished from his face.
If I didn’t know any better, I would say he looked dead.
“What’s he doing?” I hissed at Tavlor, my eyes never leaving Rasslor. I didn’t trust this man. I knew my father was powerful but I wanted to be ready to strike just in case.
Tavlor’s grin bordered on malicious. “Truth spell,” he said. “They’re not that legal outside a trial... but he’s the High Warlock, so no-one’s going to hold him accountable at this point.”
I scoffed. “Not that legal?” I said. “Charity had no qualm throwing them at me at my learning trial!”
I turned my attention back to Rasslor.
“The plan for Ava?” Matlock repeated. His voice was crisp and cool, like the breeze of an autumn day. He didn’t even seem disturbed by what he was doing, by the torture he was inflicting on Rasslor. He didn’t even bat an eye.
I wondered if I should be more concerned about this, about what he was capable of. He was helping us now, sure, but what about the people before?
“I was to come and wait for her to arrive, and take her to the executioner,” he said. His voice was monotone, and each word was dull. It was like he was in some sort of trance.
He is, duh!
Matlock hissed like a snake. “Without telling me?” he growled, his teeth clenched together like a wolf snapping at the feet of a sheep. “Without alerting anyone else?”
“She has been convicted and sentenced,” Rasslor continued, sounding like a robot. “There was no need to do anything but carry out the sentence.”
“Those... assholes,” I said, swallowing hard at the bile rising in my throat. All I cared about was hearing what Rasslor had to say. And what he had to say was more than what I expected, even with the truth spell.
Although it shouldn’t matter, that definitely made their crimes worse in my eyes. If they needed to convince me of Matlock’s diffidence, it meant that my father did care. Maybe he wasn’t showing m
e he cared, not yet, but he did.
“And who are your co-conspirators?” Matlock asked, squeezing his fingers closer together but in a way where they weren’t yet touching.
“Charity, Nephim, Sirum, and Thomas.”
Tavlor cussed beside me. I didn’t think I had heard him utter a bad word like that before. If it had been under different circumstances, I would have laughed.
“It’s half the Council,” he muttered.
I huffed out half a laugh. “Really?” I said. “Well, I guess I should look on the bright side. I was expecting the whole lot.”
“Enough,” my father said and released his hold on Rasslor.
Rasslor hit the floor with a thud, and I flinched. I didn’t want to feel sorry for Rasslor, not when he clearly wanted me dead. He lay in a crumpled heap, his eyes staring at nothing.
“Is he... alive?” I couldn’t help but ask, gesturing to him.
I cleared my throat, my belly quivering with nerves. It wouldn’t sit well with me if I was responsible for his death.
“Oh, yes. Just unconscious,” my father said.
I resisted the urge to run to my father. I wanted him to tell me that we’d fix this, that everything was going to be okay. I wanted him to make me feel the way all dads were supposed to make their daughters feel: safe, protected, taken care of.
But that was a childish expectation, grown out of a childhood with no father. I had always taken care of myself. Sure, Mother had been there to teach us, to guide us, but I was the one taking care of her mistakes and it would have been nice, for once in my life, if someone could have been the one to take care of me.
I released a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and shook my head. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things. I needed to focus on the task at hand. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by fantasies of what this show of solidarity meant for my relationship with Matlock. There was a good chance it meant nothing at all.
Instead, I straightened to my full height and looked him in the eye. “Thank you for coming when you did,” I said. I was still angry at him for not standing up for me in the trial, but I could thank him when he deserved it.
“Yes,” Tavlor said, sidling up next to me. “Rasslor had almost convinced Ava that you were deliberately hiding away while they carried out the sentence.”
Matlock looked at me, his gaze wary. “You believed I would do something like that to you?”
Discomfort crawled over my skin. “Well... I know you were shocked when I turned up, and I’ve been nothing but grief for you since I revealed who I am to you...” I let my voice trail off. I didn’t understand why I was having difficulty explaining this to him. I wasn’t trying to be rude, only honest.
Before I could finish, my father grabbed me up in a rough, weird hug that had my heart soaring for long moment while he held me. He didn’t say anything, but he hugged me as though he would never let me go.
He rested his fuzzy chin on the top of my head, his shoulders hunching forward. I closed my eyes, trying to memorize this. I wasn’t sure if I would get another moment like this again. He smelled like musk with a hint of cinnamon. He was growing his beard. His hands were rough, with calluses on his palms. He was warm.
I liked hugs from him. A strange thing to realize, but true all the same. I hoped he never let me go. I hoped this wasn’t an emotional response in a highly emotional moment. I hoped it actually meant something meaningful.
Then he pulled back, clearing his throat roughly.
“I suppose we need to sit down and have a quick talk,” he said.
He didn’t wait for a response, simply strolled over and sat on the couch, and then looked up at me.
Tavlor receded to the corner of the room, becoming strangely invisible in his stillness, but I knew he was there. And it was comforting, despite the strangeness of the situation. I liked the fact he didn’t need to involve himself in something that wasn’t about him. His ego, his pride, wasn’t wounded because Matlock and I needed to talk without him.
I sat down opposite my father and smiled. “We’re back where we started, I suppose,” I said, looking around. The room looked the same and yet felt different to me. “This is where we had our first conversation.”
I was trying to make a joke, to lighten the conversation, but my father’s lips turned down instead. His bushy eyebrows furrowed and it almost looked like two fuzzy caterpillars were crawling over his eyes.
“Yes, in retrospect, I did not handle that conversation well at all,” he said. He cleared his throat like he was trying to find the right words and was coming up empty. “I was... conflicted, and felt incredibly guilty for not being there for you when you were younger.”
“Were you? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Oh, yes,” he said, missing the sarcasm in my voice. “So many times through the past twenty years I’d wished that I’d run away with your mother when she’d asked me to. Had a life with her... But I’d been raised to be the High Warlock, to see the responsibility of my mantle as more important than any selfish needs or wants. I also... didn’t want to hurt Charity. Back then I believed her to be a decent woman, and I did care for her, to a degree.”
I snorted, and he smiled.
“Well, yes, I can imagine it’s hard for you to see my point there, but people change a lot in twenty-five years, and well... she was clever in hiding some of her personality traits that I did not agree with,” he continued. “But once we were married, it was too late. At that point, she felt safe enough to reveal who she really was. I did not agree with some of her more intense beliefs, but since we could not have children and since she was my wife, I did not think anything of it.”
My heart tugged in my chest for the lost dreams, and love, and the life that could have been.
“Why did you stay with her?” I asked. This was the question I had been dying to ask, and yet, it almost felt too intimate for me to know. Was it my business as his daughter? “I mean... my mother came back three times after you were married.”
“This was something I always regretted also,” he said. His eyes dropped to his lap and he turned his hands over so he could look at his palms. “I had my chances, more than one. But in those early years, Charity had multiple pregnancies that she lost... or so I was told. I didn’t want to abandon her...” He shook his head. “I made mistakes on all sides. As much as I did not particularly like my wife, I should not have been unfaithful. I just felt trapped and your mother, well, I saw her as my own version of freedom.”
He trailed off, his lips pinching on the side.
“How ironic,” I said, though I knew it wasn’t his fault that my mother had hidden us from him.
“I know. I’m so sorry, Ava. If your mother had told me about you, or your sisters, things would have been different. I promise.” His eyes snapped up and locked with mine, as though he wanted me to know he meant what he said.
Somehow, I believed him. I nodded, hair falling in my face.
“But that would have meant sacrificing your life, everything you’d built... and I think my mother knew that was too high a cost,” I said slowly. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure how my mother would have felt knowing that everything might have changed if she’d been honest, but I hoped she would have been understanding.
And it did make sense... It was just such a waste.
“But I want you to know,” my father said, “I regret not working out a better plan with you when you arrived. I never should have turned my back on you. You’re my child, and I’m proud of you.”
I blinked at him. That was the last thing I expected someone like him to say. Perhaps he regretted his treatment of me, sure, but to hear he was proud of me?
“You are?”
A grin tilted his lips. It was small, but it was more than I had seen before. It lifted my spirits slightly and a warm feeling flooded through my chest.
“Of course, I am,” he said. “You’re powerful and fiery, and don’t take crap from anyone.” He laughed. “S
o many traits that your mother had, that I’m lacking in.”
I smiled back. The similarity to my mother didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.
“I’m a bit more balanced and logical than mother,” I pointed out.
He nodded, the grin slipping. He looked back down at his palms, and his shoulders sagged. There was a solemn look on his face, his lips pressed together, eyes focused.
“Well, I hope you got some traits from me,” he said quietly, almost as though he was afraid to vocalize the words out loud.
“I think I did,” I said, lifting a shoulder. I didn’t exactly want to talk about this, not when I wasn’t sure where this was going. There was no point getting my hopes up for nothing. “So...”
Where was he leading with all this?
“So, I want you to know that although I had to lie about our connection in your trial, I am sincerely sorry,” he said, snapping out of whatever thoughts seemed to be plaguing his mind. “I needed to make sure I got the right people in my corner before I revealed the bigger plan.”
“You have a plan?” I asked, surprise obvious in my voice. I didn’t realize he had even been thinking of this. Tavlor had said he had been, but it had been difficult to fully believe. I thought we would figure it out as we went along.
“Yes.” He nodded once and then cleared his throat. His eyes found mine. “I want you to be my heir. Legally. And Tavlor and I have been researching ways to do that. Although, I am afraid to say, we haven’t really been able to come up with very much to aid us on this quest.” He inclined his head slightly to the side. “I have to assume that you’ve found something?”
I looked over at Tavlor and back to my father.
My father seemed to understand what I meant because he turned around and gestured to the corner of the room. “Tavlor, join us.”
Tavlor was by my side in a moment. He sat on the couch without touching me, but close enough so that I could feel his strength, feel his presence.