by RM Walker
She held out the dagger to him. “You want to clean the blade first?”
He shook his head. “No, you never use any chemical on the blade, or at least not man-made ones. Passing through a flame is enough.”
She wasn’t so sure this was a clever idea now. “What about tetanus?”
“You should’ve had your booster.” He looked at her.
“Yeah. What about hep C?”
“I don’t have hep C, and we’re not sharing blood, Lily.” His lips curved into a smile as he took the dagger from her. “It’s just a prick, a paper cut is worse. I’ll go first.”
Before she could say anything, he lit a candle with magic and held the blade of the dagger in the flame for a few seconds.
“My jumper is maroon, isn’t it?” The tip of the blade turned red.
“I’d say burgundy more than maroon.” She eyed his cable knit fisherman style jumper. “Maroon is a browner red than that.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Can we agree it’s a shade of red?”
“Yeah, a burgundy red.” She smirked at him.
“Just pay attention.” He grinned at her. “When the wax starts to melt, ask me what colour my jumper is, okay?”
He touched the tip to his finger and blood welled up. He dropped the blood around the wick and then lit the end with magic. The flame burned steadily, and the wax began to melt.
“What colour is your jumper?”
“Blue.”
The blood bubbled violently becoming black smoke. He extinguished the candle and brought forward another.
“Ask me something you know to be true.”
He repeated the procedure, and she waited till the wax began to melt. “What was my mother’s name?”
“Sarah.”
There was no reaction at all, and he blew out the flame. “Touch it.”
She touched the blood. “It’s cold, not warm at all.” She wiped her finger on a wipe.
“I didn’t lie. Your turn. I’ll ask you a question I don’t know the answer to. You choose whether to lie or not.”
She nodded, taking the blade and pressing it to her fingertip, it was so sharp blood pooled immediately. She dropped it around the wick of her candle and waited for him to ask his question.
“Which of the boys did you meet first?”
“Nate.” The blood boiled and turned into black smoke. “It was the twins I met first.”
“There you go then. Try again, it’s up to you if you lie or tell the truth.”
She took another candle and let her blood drip around the wick, then she lit it and waited.
“If you could change anything about your past, what would it be?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
She watched as the blood began to bubble and rise into black smoke.
“Liar!” He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “You little liar.”
“You didn’t want me to lie, did you?” she asked, smirking at him.
“Well, I hoped you wouldn’t,” he replied. “What would you change?”
“You may never know. My turn.” She wiped her finger with a wipe.
“Liar and a brat.” He chuckled, bringing the other candles forward and putting the used one to the back.
“No. I want to use the last candle we used.”
He looked at her, and his grin widened. “You’re learning. I’m going to help you, because my goal is for you to trust me. I’m not playing games with you. Be very careful about how you word your questions. I won’t deliberately lie but remember some responses can be worded so that you still won’t know the truth even though you think you do.”
“Okay, but I want you to lie about one of them. But not on the last question, I’ll need more chances to ask it again if I need too.”
“All right. We’ll take these downstairs. You need to think carefully about how you ask your questions. Let’s eat tea and, then after we’ve cleared up, we’ll set it up on the kitchen table.” Her stomach rumbled just as he finished speaking, and he laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He picked up the candle and the dagger and left her to bring the rest.
She needed to think exactly what it was she wanted to ask him and in what order. This was a chance she didn’t want to waste.
A dangerous freak
“Fire away.” Drew leant back in his chair, lifting his ankle to rest on his other knee.
“Can I trust you?”
He extinguished the flame with a thought. “Think about what you’re asking. Can you trust me? Well, you can trust me, but that doesn’t answer whether it’s misplaced or not, does it? Try again.” He lit the flame.
“Should I trust you?”
It went out again. “Not good enough. I could still lie. I think you should trust me, so it won’t register as a lie even if it’s not wise to trust me. You need to word your questions so there are no grey areas, nothing that can be omitted or added.”
She threw her hands in the air moaning in frustration. “I don’t know how to word it. I’m not used to doubting people when they tell me something.”
“Yeah, well, give yourself time, you’ll get to a point where you can count on one hand the number of people you will be able to trust with your life.”
“That’s sad.”
“That’s life. Try again.”
“Okay, so how should I word it?” she snapped.
“What do you really want to know?” He dropped more of his blood around the wick and lit it.
“I want the truth. I want to know if you’re lying to me. If I can trust everything you tell me. That you won’t lie to me as well.” Tears blurred her vision, and she dashed them away.
“Lily, I’m not lying about the Council. I lost Sarah, I lost you, they kept me away from you. You can trust me, Lily, I won’t let you down willingly, and I won’t lie to you.”
The blood remained in droplets, sitting on top of the melted wax. She blew the flame out and touched the cool blood. He was telling the truth. A sob broke free and she covered her face with her hands, the relief almost too much. She could trust him, she could trust her father.
His chair squeaked, and then he was beside her, his arm around her shoulders. “She’s destroyed all your trust. I don’t think you even trust the boys completely, but I hope you know now you can trust me. I’ve been unable to protect you for eighteen years, please, let me try now.”
“One more question, please.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Let me ask you one more question with the candle.”
“As many as you like,” he said. “You won’t even need to keep re-lighting the candle. If it doesn’t turn to black smoke, you know I haven’t lied.” He went back to his chair. “Fire away.”
She relit the candle and the wax began melting. “Did you want to bring me up?”
“Yes.” The blood remained still.
“Were you really kept from seeing me by someone else? Other people, witch, fae, human?”
“Yes.” There was still no reaction.
“Does the Council still exist?”
“Yes, in one form or another, the Council will most probably always exist.”
“Do you think Jonas is bad?”
“No.” Still the blood remained inactive. “I don’t think he’s bad, but there is something going on there. He knows more than he’s letting on.”
“Do you know why he’s not letting on?”
“No.” He crossed his legs, leaning back in his chair. “But there’s definitely a secret there he doesn’t want those boys to know.”
“Do you like the boys?”
“Yes.” The blood bubbled, and thick black smoke curled upwards.
“You lie!” She pointed at him, laughing.
“Well, what do you expect? Of course, I don’t like them. They have nefarious intentions concerning you.”
“They don’t.”
“They like you, but you can bet your last penny you’re fantasy material for all of them. If you asked them if they jerked off thinking
about you, the answer would be yes.”
“Did you have to say that?” she cried out, screwing her face up.
“That’s boys for you. Believe me, I was one once.”
“That’s even more gross. Urgh, shut up.” She covered her ears with her hands.
He laughed loudly. “Come on, let’s set up another candle and you can reveal my darkest secrets.”
“No more mention of the boys.”
“You brought them up.”
“Yeah, well now I’m burying the topic.”
He made a slit in his finger. “Good, I want to keep my food down.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he grinned at her.
“Easy one. Did you love my mother?” she asked.
“Yes.”
The blood remained still as she expected.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes.”
Her smile dropped at his words and she caught his gaze, his dark eyes were serious now, no sparkle of humour remained.
“Do you want to be my father?”
“I am your father,” he replied. “I will always be your father, but I really want to be your dad.”
“You don’t know me,” she whispered.
Sadness seeped into his eyes. “I didn’t bring you up, but I still watched and learnt all I could. I know candy floss is your favourite ice cream flavour. I know you can draw like your aunt, but you don’t have the same passion for it she does. I know you love acting, and I’ve been to every one of your school plays. Autumn is your favourite season, but if you catch a cold it goes straight to your chest. You’re afraid of spiders, clowns, and rats. You won a goldfish at the fair one time and called it Petrova. It died a week later and broke your heart. I know you’ve never left the country, you don’t even have a passport. You hate Brussels sprouts with a passion, but you like soft cheese, and your camembert baked. You prefer tea, which is why I’ve never offered you coffee. You don’t like sports and getting up early. You’re kind, loyal, stubborn as a mule, and have my temper. You’re not naturally reclusive but you don’t put down roots. You don’t get close to people so that it doesn’t hurt so much when you leave—”
“Stop.” She was overwhelmed. “You know all these things about me, and I don’t know you at all. It’s freaky, it’s scary someone can know all about me and I had no idea.”
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said. “I’m trying to tell you I love you. I’ve never been far from you, and you’ve never known it. I loved you from the moment Sarah said you were growing inside her. I loved you when we swung the pendant to find out you were a girl. I saw you being born, Lily, you were a miracle. You had my love at conception, but you stole my heart with your first breath.”
The melted candle wax dripped down the sides like tears of blood. She struggled to process what he was saying, it was heart-breaking, but it was unreal as well.
“Do you want to stop?” he asked.
“No.” She pushed her thoughts to one side. She’d deal with it all later, there were things she still needed to know.
He took a new candle and added his blood around the wick. “Ready when you are.”
“Why did Sarah really leave you?”
Pain reflected in his eyes before he blinked it away. “I was—am—powerful. It was one of the reasons I was recruited, and the reason they wouldn’t let me go. We decided it was safer for Sarah to get away from me for a while. Lynda already knew Sarah had been unhappy when she thought I’d been having an affair. It wasn’t hard for her to convince Lynda she was running from me because she feared me. I didn’t see Sarah nearly as much as I wanted to, but I was with her when you were born. I wanted to stay with you both, but it still wasn’t safe. I had to leave you there. It killed me, and in the end, she died anyway. I should have kept her with me. I might have been able to—” He stopped, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was struggling to get a grip on himself and it tugged at Lily.
There was more still unsaid, but it was emotionally draining. She could ask him more questions another time. The candle was proving he wasn’t lying to her, that she could trust him. The rest could wait. She changed the subject for him, and herself as well.
“Do you think I’m a Seer?” Her question surprised him, and she saw him hesitate before answering.
“I’m not sure to be honest. When you first said it, I dismissed it out of hand. You said all you’ve seen so far is past events. I know you’re a witch, but a witch seer is very rare.”
“Do you know any others?”
“Yes.” His answer was reluctant.
“Who?”
“The Council has one. I’ve met her, and I hate her. She was one of the ones who bound me. She’ll burn for her sins. I can’t talk about that. Not yet.” His eyes went solid black, no whites at all, the veins around his eyes were black and Lily shot from the chair to the door terrified.
“Shit! No. Oh Merlin, Sorry, please.”
The door handle dug into her hip, and she reached behind her to grab it. He was standing, hands gripping the edges of the table. His eyes had returned to normal and only regret showed on his face, but her heart still pounded, her blood ice in her veins. She turned the handle, pushed it open and dashed into the living room.
“Lily!”
She almost made it to the living room door when it slammed shut. She grabbed the handle, but it wouldn’t open. He had her trapped.
“I never meant to frighten you. You know I will never harm you, you saw the truth in the blood magic. I’m sorry. I overreacted to a memory that I struggle with.” He was approaching her slowly, palms held up.
She looked to the window, but it was shut, and if he could slam doors he could stop her diving through a window. Panic closed her throat as her gaze darted back to him.
“Please, Lily, one last chance. When you know everything, when you know what happened, you’ll understand it, I know you will.”
She didn’t want to understand anything. She just wanted to go home and hide under her bed.
“Please, I’m begging you, Lily.”
“I...I should go—”
He’d stepped forward and she brought her arms up to protect herself. She heard a thump and peered over her arm, terrified by what she’d see. Drew was lying in a crumpled heap beside the fireplace, a bloody streak on the wall behind him. Her head was fuzzy, stuffed up, as if she had a heavy cold, something dripped from her nose and over her lips. She lifted a shaky hand to her mouth; her fingers came away covered in bright red. Had he hit her? No, her face didn’t hurt. She blinked several times, trying to shift the heaviness that wanted her to slide to the floor and sleep. Her hands were tingling similar to when they’d re-done the circle in the woods.
Magic. She’d used magic. She’d done it. She’d hurt him. She looked over at where he still lay crumpled, not moving.
Not moving. The blood on the wall was his. She’d killed him.
She rushed across the room, fighting through the dizziness that swamped her. Dropping beside him, she lifted her hands, not sure what to do. Panic bubbled up in her. Tears dripped down her face as she leant over him. She put her fingers on the pulse point of his neck and relief filled her at the steady thump beneath them.
He wasn’t dead. She hadn’t killed him, but he did need an ambulance. Her phone was in her coat pocket, hanging up in the hallway and she jumped up, rushing over. She found her phone and hastily opened it, turning to look back at him.
He was gone.
“Lily.”
She whirled and saw him sitting on the sofa, holding a cloth to the back of his head. She froze, her mind blank.
“It’s okay.” He laughed and then winced in pain.
It broke her immobility and she went to him. “I’m going to ring for an ambulance.”
“No.” He lifted one hand and her phone shut down. “We don’t need an ambulance.”
“You hit the...I...bleeding. You’re bleeding, we must make sure it’s not bleeding on the inside as wel
l. Swelling can—”
“Lily, I didn’t hit it that hard.”
“I knocked you out,” she shrieked, panic getting an edge.
“Just for a few seconds. I cushioned most of the impact, I just wasn’t fast enough to absorb it all. You caught me off guard and it was my fault.”
“I don’t...I don’t know...I’m sorry.”
“I frightened you badly. What did I do?”
“What?”
“To make you run, what did I do?”
“Your eyes. They were black, the veins black.”
“I lost control.” He was annoyed with himself, she could hear it in his voice. “It wasn’t aimed at you. It will never be aimed at you. Merlin, you’re all I have left.” He grunted. “I’ve done it again, haven’t I? Two steps forward, three back.”
“Please, let me call an ambulance. You were knocked out, they really need to see if there’s any internal damage.”
“I don’t need a doctor or a fancy machine to tell me I’m fine. I can tell nothing’s wrong.”
“But what if it happens later? That’s happened before, people have banged their heads, felt fine and then later haemorrhaged and died. I don’t...want you to die.”
“I don’t particularly want to die either.” He looked at her with a half-smile. “Your nose is bloody.”
She stared at her hands. Somehow, she’d connected with her magic on a subconscious level and attacked him without even knowing how she did it. Her mother was right. She was dangerous to be around, unable to control it, not even knowing she was casting magic.
That must have been what her vision was telling her at the pool. She was going to get everyone hurt because she wouldn’t listen to her mother. It would be safer if she took the tablets and moved far away.
“Sweetheart don’t cry.” He stood up. “I really am fine. It’s just a little bump, and if it makes you feel better I’ll nip along myself. Okay?” He put his hands on her shoulders.
“I hurt you.” She lifted her face, and he sucked in a breath.
A worried frown creased his forehead, he lifted his hand and wiped a tear from her cheek. He brought his hand back, and she saw the scarlet drop on his fingertip. “You’re crying blood,” he whispered.