Deceptive Secrets

by RM Walker

  Nate slid his fingers down her arm as she passed, and she smiled at him.

  They went out to where his car was parked beside Jonas’s MG.

  “Tell me what you saw and heard with Jonas,” he prompted, opening the door to put his things on the seat.

  She told him briefly, how the spell had been agony for him, how they’d been surprised by his findings, but had tested him. She told him what Morris and Hestia had discussed, and he listened carefully without commenting.

  “When you cast the circle, it made me feel—”

  “Go on.”

  “I could feel my magic waking, as if it was uncoiling somehow, like a sleeping dragon.” She snorted. “Nate would have a field day with that description.”

  “You’re getting more settled with who you are, they’ll see it for themselves. But maybe mentioning dragons isn’t a great idea.” His lips twisted, and his eyes narrowed as if he was debating with himself.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I wasn’t telling them, but I’ll tell you. Blood tears are produced under deep sorrow, or intense physical pain. They used to be extracted by torture until it was outlawed. One of the things the Council cracks down on that I agree with.”

  “Your mum.”

  “When I was fifteen my mother fell pregnant unexpectedly. It didn’t go well, the baby was stillborn, and we nearly lost my mother too. My parents were shattered, but my mother especially so. The blood tears were hers, she shed them for my brother and gave them to me. I used them to make this pen. It hasn’t always been used for good.”

  “You told me you had a past with the Council, but as long as it’s the past, and stays in the past.” She hoped he knew what she meant.

  He kissed the top of her head. “It is the past.” He stepped back from her.

  “Was she a seer? Did they get it wrong?”

  He pulled his lips together, a muscle working along his jawline. His eyes lost the happy sparkle and sadness consumed them. She reached out, and he took her hand in his.

  “If she was, she never told me, and I never guessed.”

  “Maybe she didn’t know,” Lily suggested.

  “She would have known, and if she did she could control it enough to hide it.” He ran his tongue along his teeth. “I don’t know why she would hide it from me.”

  “Maybe she knew it could be used against you, especially when she found out who you worked for.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. I love her, so it doesn’t matter. All that matters is she was killed by her own grandmother. And if she ever found out what you are, she’d try to kill you too. I messed up with Sarah, I won’t mess up with you.”

  She blinked away the tears that threatened. “What did you mean? Our time will come?”

  “I felt your anger, it almost equals my own. I knew you’d seen or heard something that caused such a strong emotion.”

  “I’ve never been so angry. If you hadn’t pulled me back, I’d have gone for her. I wanted to kill her,” she whispered, her gaze level with the collar of his jacket.

  He lowered his head until he held her gaze. His hair slid forward, blocking everything from her vision except for his liquid black eyes. She sucked in her breath at the intensity in them.

  “Don’t feel guilty,” he whispered. “She killed your mother, she took you away from me. She’s caused the last eighteen years of your life to be a lie. You aren’t going to want to thank her.”

  “Maybe not. If you hadn’t pulled me, I would have killed her.”

  “You weren’t corporal.” He cupped her cheeks with his palms, still holding her gaze. “You’d have gone straight through her. She’s evil, Lily, she always has been. She ignored your grandad, Fitz. Starved him of love and attention because they believed he was a whinnock.”

  “Whinnock? They said that, what is it?”

  “Someone without any magic, it’s another name for runt.”

  “Like the runt of the litter? That’s a horrible name to call them.”

  “It’s the name the Council gives anyone who has no magic. They’re considered useless, weak. The word goes back centuries and is an indication to the bigotry that pervades them.”

  Anger rushed over her. She’d been so cold and callous about killing Sarah, and wishing she’d killed the three of them at the same time.

  “If she gets her hands on Matt, he’ll be nothing but a shell when they finish with him.” Drew’s words curled around her mind. “You, Matt, the twins, Nate, Jonas, Lynda, me? Our lives will never be as they should be. She’s the sword of Damocles that hangs over our heads. Matt’ll never be safe, you’ll never be safe. None of us will be while she lives.”

  “Unless she’s stopped.”

  He didn’t say anything, just smiled and kissed her forehead. His lips lingered and then he stepped away, running a hand through his hair.

  Her anger drained away, leaving her exhausted.

  “It’s going to be all right, Lily, I promise. We’ll talk more when you come home with me, okay?”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” She pushed her hands into her jean pockets.

  He studied her, his dark eyes holding hers, and then he smiled. “I’ve got something for you but don’t get cross with me.”

  Intrigued, she went with him to the boot of his car where he dug through a shopping bag.

  “I guess this is going to seem an odd move for a dad to make. I’d tell Sarah I was going to be the worst dad when you started dating. I was going to have a list of questions he’d have to answer. I’d have a shotgun and a baseball bat.” He straightened. “I don’t think you’d appreciate me wielding a gun around, telling them to keep a gap of six feet or more between you. I know I can’t expect the six-foot gap, no matter how much I may want to. So there’s only one thing I can do.” He shoved a hand through his long hair. It flopped straight back into his eyes, and he shook his head to move it.

  “What is it? I don’t understand,” Lily admitted.

  She took the bright purple and blue box he held out to her. The word ‘condom’ had heat flooding her cheeks. “I don’t—I mean, what—”

  “I’m not suggesting you are, or that you should, or anything.” He shoved his hand into his hair again. “But I can’t, in all good conscience, let you go away with them and not try to make sure you’re safe.”

  She didn’t look up from the box, heat still coursed through her, and she had no idea what to say.

  He lifted her chin with a finger, until she met his eyes. “I can vaguely remember being eighteen.” He smiled, and she knew he was trying to make her feel better.

  Emotion rushed over her and she went into him, hugging him tightly. His arms closed around her.

  “Thanks, Dad,” she said, inhaling his scent and closing her eyes.

  “Anything for you, Lily.”

  “Primum Venandi.”

  Timothy Robert Holden was recruited from university at the age of twenty-one by the Reformation of the One Purpose. His job was to help in the Order of the Venarie. Their job was to find magical beings, discover what they were, what they could do, and then send a report back to the Reformation where it was noted in a census. Jonas enjoyed his job, it gave him the ability to travel the world learning different magical cultures. He was good at his job and over six years he climbed the ranks until he was appointed Primum Venandi. He was their First Hunter, but the position came with information that he’d been ignorant of. The Reformation were creating a census, but they were particularly interested in certain types of magic—pure vampires, fae with healing abilities, witches with the ability to alter their appearance for long stretches of time. If these were found, he had to report them immediately to the Reformation with extra information: their exact location, age, family, and a host of other things. It’d struck him as odd and he’d quietly dug about. He discovered that all the people he reported had either disappeared or died shortly after his report had been filed. He had no proof, could find nothing that would tell him what they were doing, but his con
science was troubled. Coincidence only went so far.

  He’d been Primum Venandi for ten years when he was sent to Trenance. The Reformation had been aware of the Trevalian triplets for a long time. The three sisters held no magic, neither did their mother, despite giving birth to them on the Summer Solstice. But her mother, the triplets’ grandmother, had been a powerful hedge witch. When the Reformation discovered the triplets all had babies within weeks of each other, and that the youngest sister had given birth to twins on Samhain, they’d taken extra notice and sent Jonas when they were almost a year old.

  He’d taken one look at them and known that all four were fae, and that Matt was a healing fae. He still had no proof of what the Reformation would do with Matt, but he was not taking the chance. He covered the entire area with a dampening spell that hid their magic and any magical forces in the area. He returned to file his report of no magic and then handed in his formal declaration, retiring from Primum Venandi to continue his research. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone as he’d been talking about retiring to further his education on magic when he’d started realising things weren’t quite so clear cut in the Reformation.

  He went to the Outer Hebrides for a year, studying Kelpies, and it was all he’d hoped for. He’d then started a zig-zag across the world that would take him three years. He’d been followed for a while, but eventually they lost interest and he disappeared. If they wanted to look for Timothy Robert Holden, Primum Venandi, he was last seen deep in the Amazonian rainforest, and was now presumed dead.

  No one took any notice of Jonas Rutledge, a teacher in a small primary school in Cornwall. He kept his head down and took the boys under his wing. He could never teach them the truth because of the curse, so he resolved to spend his entire life protecting them. Where they went, he would follow.

  It took Jonas a couple of hours to tell them this. It was overwhelming for Lily to hear it, but for her boys it was heart-breaking, humbling, and exhausting. Emotions were raw, and she’d asked if they wanted her to leave, but none of them did. He’d tried to gloss over the torture he’d endured to keep them safe, but Nate wasn’t letting it go.

  “It’s an old curse, it just made sure I couldn’t see or hear.” Jonas picked up the drink Lily had made for him.

  “It was torture.” She’d never forget what she’d seen, and tears filled her. “You were so brave.”

  “I was a captive participant, I knew what was involved and I don’t regret any of it.”

  “They sealed your ears and eyes and then what?” Nate’s voice was subdued.

  She didn’t know why he was pushing it, but when she looked at him, she saw guilt in his eyes. She placed a hand on his thigh under the kitchen table they were sitting at. He gripped her hand tightly.

  “They remove the tongue, cast the spell, and re-attach the tongue.” Jonas held Nate’s gaze. “This is not on you, on any of you. I was already aware that I’d leave them sooner or later. I’d talked about it often enough. I knew there was something going on, and I didn’t want to be a party to it anymore. You four gave me the reason to stop talking about leaving and do it. I knew whenever I left this curse would be mine to bear no matter the reason. The only ones responsible for any pain inflicted on me is the Reformation. But there’s something else I haven’t told you yet.”

  “It won’t make a difference to us, nothing will,” Matt said.

  “I had to wipe your parent’s memory because they knew you were fae. They’d all known your great-grandmother Hazel, who was a witch.”

  “Why? Why wipe their memories?” Lily asked. “Surely the protection would be more if they knew to keep them hidden.”

  “Because I couldn’t take the risk. Just the slightest slip could bring them here. They can never know. I’m sorry, boys, if I could have done things differently I would’ve. I know this is the biggest betrayal and—”

  “There’s no betrayal here,” Nate insisted. “You gave up your life for ours. We can never repay that, Jonas, never.”

  “I don’t want repaying. You’re like sons to me, and I’m happy with my life. I didn’t think anything would upset the status quo. I was happy to spend my time researching and teaching at the primary. Then Lily came along and blew our world apart.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lily said.

  “You had no idea, and besides, sometimes things need blowing apart,” Jonas said to her. “Don’t tell him, but I’m relieved Drew is your father. He’s a dangerous man, make no mistake about that, but he loves you, Lily. And by default, he’s going to protect them because of you.”

  “Lily May, don’t bite my head off, but we’re pretty sure Drew’s planning something about the Council. Has he said anything to you?”

  “Plans? To do what?”

  “Take them out,” Matt answered. “Revenge.”

  “He hasn’t said anything. He just said if they ever found out about us, we’d be hunted to the ends of the earth.”

  “You will be,” Jonas agreed. “Taking on the Reformation and winning isn’t possible. He’s an arrogant idiot, but he’s not suicidal and that’s what it’d be.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Nate didn’t sound convinced. “Even the tiniest hint from him, Lily, and you’d better fucking let us know straight away.”

  “Language! You all have the vocabulary of scholars, and yet you will insist on foul words to get your point across.”

  “My apologies. Lily, if he should mention anything in the nature of revenge we would appreciate it if you would let us know expeditiously.”

  Jonas’s lips twitched as he rolled his eyes at Lily. “I give up.”

  “The twins had a brilliant idea they wanted to implement. A swear box. They suggested putting a fiver in every time a swear word was used.”

  “What the hell?” Matt glared at them. “What on earth made you come up with that insane idea? We’ll all be skint before the week’s up.”

  “It wasn’t for us.” Josh narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re gonna get it for this, Lily Pad.”

  “What?” She looked at him as innocently as she could. “I thought it was an excellent idea, Joshua.”

  “So do I,” Jonas said before they could respond. “But I would have to say a fiver would render them penniless in less than three hours. Ten-pence should suffice, boys. Every swear word to slip from your lips in my presence and you can donate to the Jonas Rutledge and Lily Adair ice cream fund.”

  “Oh, yes!” Without thinking she lifted her hand in a high five to him and he responded, laughing.

  “Oh, fuck, they’re going to gang up on us, aren’t they?” Matt muttered.

  “We are indeed. Lily, would you do the honours?” Jonas waved his hand and a money box appeared on the table in front of her. Jonas’s and Lily’s ice cream fund was inscribed on the side.

  “Brilliant.” She pushed the box towards Matt. “Ten pence, please.”

  “You bl...” he ground to a stop and fished ten pence from his pocket. He put it in and smirked at her. “We will get revenge, you do know that, don’t you?”

  “It was the twins’ idea. You need to take it up with them.” She put the box in the middle of the table. “Could we cast a spell that would keep a running total even if they’re not here? Y’know, like house points are magically recorded at Hogwarts.”

  “You really hate us, don’t you?” Matt caught her eye.

  “No, silly, I don’t hate you, I just love ice cream...a lot,” she teased.

  Jonas was laughing, the strain gone from his face, but she noticed there were more grey hairs than before. The absolute agony he’d been under and all because of a greedy viper of a witch, who she shared blood with. It made her sick to think about it.

  She knew that Jonas didn’t think anything could be done. But sometimes you couldn’t sit back and let something slide. Sometimes the only moral thing to do was fight to stop it. And if it meant Matt was safe, then that was reason enough for her. Maybe they’d even be able to tell their parents, and it might even heal the r
ift between Harold and Matt.

  “Forgive me, for I have sinned.”

  Matt and Nate were snoring like freight trains either side of her. The twins were just as bad, and it was driving her mad. No matter how many times she kicked or shoved them, they’d just shuffle about and start up again.

  One of them wasn’t so bad, two was annoying, but she could usually sleep through it. But four of them? She didn’t remember them being this bad at the manor, but she’d always fallen asleep before them.

  She sat up, taking the sheets with her, and looked at them in the dim light from the streetlights outside. Nate was flat on his back, mouth open, one hand on his stomach, the other behind his head. Matt was on his side, facing away from her. Neither of them disturbed as she worked her way to the bottom of the bed. She pulled on her socks and opened the door before creeping out of the bedroom. Tiptoeing down the corridor she could hear snores coming from Jonas’s room. It had to be a man thing. She’d never heard her mother snoring like that.

  She crept down the stairs and into the living room. The fire was banked, but she added a few logs and willed it into a roaring fire. She settled on the chair, her legs under her as she watched the flames flickering.

  “Hey, are you okay?” The twins came into the room, closing the door behind them. Their pyjama trousers were low on their hips, chests bare, and their hair hanging in their eyes.

  “I disturbed you, I’m sorry.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Josh said. “We heard the door open. Aren’t you tired?” They came over and knelt in front of the fire.

  “Yeah. I am, but you four were competing in a snoring competition, and I wasn’t sure who was winning.”

  “Ah, damn, sorry, baby. We’re knackered, and the more knackered we are, the more we snore.” Jake stared into the fire as he spoke.

  “Go back to bed,” she said. “I’m fine here.”

  “Nah, we’d rather stay with you. We’ll sleep on the floor, try not to snore.”

  Lily chuckled and ran her fingers through their hair, pulling it out of their eyes. “I’ll come back to bed. You’ll never sleep on the floor.”