"I didn't take you for much of a hemophobe."
Twenty-Eight
My eyes shot open. Gavon was still standing in front of me, although his expression was much brighter than it had been.
"You're still here?" I said, more breathlessly than I meant to.
Gavon smiled at me warmly. "Yes, you see....there was a little fine print in the pact."
My eyes widened, terrified that I'd, yet again, just made a grave mistake.
"The pact only applies to anyone with the intent to harm members of your Clan," Gavon said. "I tossed that in there, with the rationale that if we ever wanted to renegotiate, we would need to be able to be in the same room. Standard practice in treaties, you know."
I opened and closed my mouth, processing the wording of the pact. I looked up at him, brow furrowed. "So...you're not included?"
"Doesn't appear as though I have any intent to harm you," Gavon said, looking around the quiet park with a smug smile on his face.
My mouth fell open. "B…but you…"
He procured the very document we'd just agreed to, and I snatched it from his hand. There it was, the fine print I'd missed. He was telling the truth. A rush of relief poured through me, as well as a thousand questions. There was so much I needed to talk with him about—almost three years' worth of questions that needed answers.
"Why did you make the deal with Nicole?" I blurted, before I could stop myself.
"Deal?" Gavon said, thinking for a moment.
"You gave her money and agreed to keep your distance."
"Ah, that deal." Gavon looked at the ground. "You found out about that, did you?"
I nodded.
"Well, in life, there are choices we must weigh," Gavon said. "You girls needed help, and Irene wasn't going to give it. I couldn't, in good conscience, let Nicole take on the burden by herself. So I offered my assistance, no strings attached." He chuckled, although there was sadness in it. "As you might expect, she was reluctant to accept it. But she made it very clear that she wanted me out of your lives. So I told her if she let me pay her a sum every month to cover living expenses, I wouldn't as much as check on your grades. I kept my word, up until this year. James was more than I could handle, and I needed to put him somewhere he could be humbled. The best place for that was with you, at your school." His eyes grew sad. "I thought he'd changed."
So had I. But I didn't want to think about James anymore.
"I'm sorry, for what it's worth," Gavon said. "I never meant for…well, I'm sorry. For a lot of things. The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you, Alexis."
"Why do you call me that?" I asked quietly. "Did you name me after your mother?"
Gavon actually smiled. "Your mother hated the name Alexandra. Alexis was our compromise. She fought so hard for it, it feels wrong to call you anything else."
"But why did you name me after your mom?" I said, looking at my hands.
"A few reasons," Gavon said, looking away. "Some of which aren't the most reasonable. It was a little revenge against Cyrus for being the Warrior my mother trained. He might've had her attention, but I was able to pass her magic on to you."
"Cyrus killed her after they wanted you to be Guildmaster, didn't he?" I said, and Gavon nodded. "But…I don't understand why you told them about me? If you had this whole other life that you'd kept a secret from them, what prompted you to suddenly screw everything up?"
"Another selfish, ill-thought out decision," Gavon said with a shake of his head. "I wanted to tell my mother about you. I'd wanted her to keep it in confidence, mother-to-son, but all she saw was the potential benefit to the Guild. And I couldn't stop her from spreading the word and setting off the chain of events that led to so much devastation."
I frowned. "But why me? You didn't want to tell her about Nicole and Marie?"
"Of course I did," Gavon said quickly. "But she wouldn't have understood. She still held the same prejudices against healers and potion-makers as everyone else in New Salem. It would have killed me for her to know about them and not…not love them." He sighed. "I supposed I should've known better than to tell her anything. But I have an unfortunate habit of thinking the best of people."
So that's where I get it from, I thought sadly.
"She told them everything. And when they began talking about making me Guildmaster—after all, I'd been living in this world for twelve years—"
"Twelve!" I said with a gasp. "But Nicole was only four when—?"
Gavon chuckled. "Mora and I wanted to have a few adventures before we settled down."
I made a face, that horrific magical memory returning with a vengeance. I needed to change the subject. "So if your mom had prejudices, how come you didn't when it came to Nicole and Marie?"
"I did," Gavon said pensively. "But I guess I knew what it was to be the other. Cyrus had received all the accolades when we were younger, and I'll admit it made me jealous at times—especially to see him with Alexandra. But it also taught me humility and empathy. Your mother, too, helped open my eyes to how much can be accomplished without magic. Her family has a very Puritan ideology about magic—it should only be used when all other options are exhausted." He chuckled. "Besides, my entire worldview changed the first moment I saw Nicole. I knew I had to do everything in my power to keep her safe, to help her make the most of her gift. And in learning about potion-makers, I realized they had incredible powers. If she'd let herself, Nicole could do more than even me."
A smile formed on my face. "She's so damned stubborn."
"A trait I found hopelessly endearing in your mother," Gavon said. "My biggest regret is that you never got to meet her. It's incredible how much you favor her in so many ways."
I swallowed. "I sometimes get magical memories about her. Well, you and her…fighting…sparring, I mean."
Gavon's eyes widened. "You mentioned something, but I didn't understand… Are you telling me you remember your mother and I sparring?"
"Yes," I said, unable to look at him. "And I have a pretty vivid recollection of the night she died, too."
Gavon sucked in a breath and for the first time, I saw pure regret on his face. "Oh, Alexis. That's what you meant when… Oh, I'm so sorry."
"At first, it really bothered me," I said, returning my gaze to my hands. "But now, it's like…it's kind of like my own memories of her. I got to hear her voice, to feel what she felt. And that's why I was so good at sparring. It wasn't an innate thing, it was because you trained her using my magic."
He nodded pensively. "I knew your mother had your magic when she was pregnant, but I had no idea you retained a magical memory of it. The same thing happened with your sisters, too. I wonder if they remember any of it."
"I think I'm the only one. I mean, I don't think anything traumatic happened to them." I stared at the space in front of me. "Why didn't you save her?"
"I didn't know," he replied. "I had no idea Cyrus had even found the tear, let alone crossed it. I was stupid for not taking more precautions. I returned home to find it in shambles. I found your mother at the hospital but by the time I got there she was…" He released a shaky breath. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."
The younger man from my magical memory returned—the one who'd flirted and smiled and loved my mother. There was no denying it. Gavon had been as crazy about my mother as she'd been about him. He'd carried the guilt of her death with him all this time.
"I wanted to end my life," he said, shocking me. "I couldn't really see a reason I should continue. My girls had lost their mother because I was too stupid to realize…"
He closed his eyes and the pause stretched between us, filled with almost two decades of self-hate and regret.
He turned to me, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "And then, something very interesting happened. A nurse saw me in the room with Mora. I remembered nothing of what she said until I found myself holding this tiny little girl with a head full of brown hair. My Alexis."
A tear slipped down my face as he l
ooked at me.
"I couldn't believe you'd survived, but there you were. Healthy and pink and perfect. Seven pounds, twelve ounces. Already powerful, and just so…" He brushed a strand of hair out of my face. "It was like the cloud lifted, and I knew what I had to do. To protect my girls, I would take over the Guildmaster, but only until I could close the tear."
I furrowed my brow. "But…it's still open?"
"It has been excessively difficult to find information on something so unique," Gavon said sadly. "I've looked in hundreds of libraries and read thousands of books. Luckily for me, the Guild had no interest in Nicole or Marie, and I was able to delay them for fifteen years by promising you would be our next Guildmaster. Irene helped me a great deal when she placed you under the containment spell until your fifteenth birthday. Since you were bound by their rules, I told the Guild I couldn't touch you."
I eyed him. "But…that wasn't exactly true, was it?"
He shrugged, a little mischievous glint in his eye. "They're rather unstudied in the particulars of magical law." His face darkened. "But in order to keep Cyrus from causing trouble, I still had to keep my distance. I had to let my girls grow up thinking I was a monster." He shook his head. "Marie, of course, never believed it. But I fear my relationship with my Nicole is gone forever."
"So why show up on my fifteenth birthday?" I asked.
"I knew Jeanie would be telling you about magic, and I wanted to be nearby just…" He looked at his hands. "I liked to check in on you three. Talk to your teachers, make sure things were going well. I'd slip them a memory charm afterward so they wouldn't remember. But when I saw the look on your face, I couldn't not help you." His gaze lifted to the skies. "And, if I'm being completely honest, I just wanted to have a conversation with my little girl. Even if she couldn't know she was talking to her father."
A dull ache echoed in my chest.
"I didn't mean for us to become so close. It was supposed to be one conversation and set you on your way. Then you showed up the second night, and the third. And you told me about Irene's disinterest." His gaze hardened. "I had wanted her to take over your training, but—"
"But she's afraid of me," I said. "She thinks I'm going to take over her clan or something."
"She's always been a proud woman," Gavon said. "But if she'd seen past her own pride and helped you, I would've been able to leave you alone, and none of this would've happened."
I swallowed. "So you never would've told me?"
"I…" He sighed. "Maybe once I'd closed the tear. Once the threat of danger was gone. But Cyrus had been looking for any weakness, and just talking with you had put me on thin ice as it was." He sighed. "And when you collapsed and I had to bring you to New Salem…that was when he found out we'd been sparring. It gave him the opening to inform the rest of the Council, and well, the rest is history."
I remembered the warm day Cyrus had first appeared outside. He'd certainly looked like his birthday had come early.
"You have to know, I never intended for you to learn to fight, to be introduced or inducted into the Guild. James was…" Gavon sighed. "James was supposed to be the answer."
James was supposed to be a lot of things. My friend, possibly my boyfriend. Definitely my first love, my first kiss, my first…well, I doubted I'd tell Gavon that James and I had slept together. There were just some things a girl didn't discuss with her…paternal figure.
"But now we have a pact, and the Guild won't be bothering you anymore," Gavon said, producing a large envelope. "And I don't want you to suffer because of decisions I made ever again. So here."
I took the envelope from him and cautiously opened it. Before I even pulled out the first document, I saw the Georgetown seal. "Gavon, I can't afford Georgetown."
"I can," Gavon said with a bright smile. "Your tuition bill has been prepaid for the next four years."
I stared at him, because he couldn't possibly have said what I thought he said. "What?"
"I've paid your tuition in full," he repeated. "As well as your housing and food costs. I've also arranged for a small monthly stipend to be deposited into a bank account for books and other incidentals. Just please try to not spend it all at once, okay?"
A nervous laughter bubbled out of my lips. "You're fucking kidding me."
He cast a stern glance in my direction, but I didn't even care.
"You paid for my college?"
"Yes," Gavon said with a small laugh. "As well as—"
"Oh my God," I whimpered, collapsing into my hands. My emotions were fried, and I had nothing left to keep them at bay. So relief, glorious, beautiful relief and excitement, and happiness and gratitude, and a thousand other emotions rocked my body. I sobbed into my hands for a few moments, unable to believe that after so much had gone wrong, something could go so damned right.
"I'm glad you're pleased," Gavon said, patting my back.
I lifted my head, furiously wiping away tears. "How did you…what did you… What do you want in return?"
"As and Bs?"
I sniffed. "I'm serious. This is so much money…"
"But you're worth it," Gavon said. "All I've ever wanted is for you and your sisters to be happy. And for you to know how proud I am of all you've accomplished—magically and otherwise." He paused for a moment. "To know how much I love you."
The remnants of my emotional barriers blew away and bubbled forth in whimpered sobs. "You've never…you've never…"
"Oh, Lexie," he said, pulling me against him in the kind of embrace I'd wanted since I met him. He pressed his cheek to my forehead and let me cry like a little child into his chest. "I've loved you since before you were born, and I'll love you even after I die."
I quieted my hysterics and pushed away from him. "And Marie and Nicole?"
"Of course," he said with a shake of his head. "Even though Nicole refuses to speak to me and Marie is a pain in the ass." He brushed a tear off my cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't know she wasn't with you, or I would have found her sooner."
I smiled. "Why didn't you tell me where she was?"
"She didn't want to be found," Gavon replied with a sad shake of his head. "She was very angry with me, and with you and Nicole. I had to make a deal with her that if you sought her out, she'd listen."
"And in return, she got that swanky apartment?" I asked with a laugh.
"I think she genuinely wanted to make amends, but her pride wouldn't let her," Gavon said with a wink. "So I gave her an easy excuse."
"I don't care how it happened, I'm just glad she and Nicole and me are all on speaking terms again." A nasty thought popped into my head. "You aren't going to stop paying for Nicole's apartment are you? Give her the money you gave me. I don't need to go to Georgetown—"
"I've got plenty of money to go around. Though I know I can trust you not to spend it all at once. With Marie, we've had to work out a stipend system." He chuckled. "And with Nicole, she'll receive the money whether she wants to or not."
I look down at the papers again. "She doesn't want me to leave, you know. I think she's going to be really lonely."
"You're just a transport away," Gavon said, echoing what I'd said to Nicole earlier. "And besides, if that boy I saw her with is any indication, she might be a little more amenable to some privacy."
I gasped. "Gavon! What do you know about that?"
"A few weeks ago, I became aware that Nicole was spending a lot of money at a mechanic and I popped in to have a chat with the man. When I realized there was nothing truly wrong with her car, I might've suggested that he return the money or suffer consequences." He cleared his throat. "I had no idea it was some elaborate ploy to ask for her number."
"Well, please stay out of it," I said, wiping the rest of my tears from my face. "She's skittish enough as it is."
"I plan to," Gavon said, growing somber. "Now more than ever, it's important that I find a way to close the tear. That's the only way this ends without any more bloodshed."
"Didn't creating it take a hundred mag
icals?" I asked.
"To create the world, and leave enough magic in there to sustain itself, yes. But closing the tear should be much less taxing. I just haven't been able to figure out the magic for it."
"I could help you," I offered. "I mean, help you look?"
"I don't want to—"
"Gavon, I want that tear closed," I said. Then, hesitantly, I added, "But I'd like you on this side of it when it happens."
He tilted his head. "I don't deserve to be in your life."
"I want you in my life. And I want to help."
He stared at me for a long time before nodding. "As long as it doesn't interfere with your schoolwork."
"It won't," I said with a grin. "I've got all summer, too."
"Fine, Alexis—"
"But you'll call me Lexie," I said, and then, heart pounding, I added, "And I'll call you Dad. And no more secrets between us. Deal?"
His breath hitched, and he stared wordlessly at me for a moment. Then, clearing his throat, he smiled. "Deal. No magical pact required."
As always, thank you, dear reader, for going with me on this adventure. As an indie author, I rely on my awesome folks like yourselves to help share the word about my work. Please consider leaving a review on this or any other fine book retailer
Sneak Peek from Book 3
"Gavon, good man. Look sharp."
Cyrus was taunting me, but that was nothing new. My superior in magical power, technique, and confidence, he was taking great pride in showcasing all three during our morning sparring match in the empty arena. Our daily training sessions were supposed to prepare us for the day the New Salem Warrior's Guild would re-enter the world from which we'd been banished generations before. But more often than not, they were an excuse for Cyrus to show off how much better he was at sparring than me. After all, he was the Chosen One, the Warrior who would bring great victory to our Guild, long suffering in this land of darkness and magic. I, on the other hand, was simply the spare.
Another of his gray fireballs landed hard against my shoulder, taking advantage of my disinterest. I'd bested him only once in the past three years. It was a mistake I wouldn't make again. For a man who'd been handed everything, his ego was rather fragile.
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