Wolf Interval (Senyaza Series Book 3)
Page 28
“You’re mighty relaxed,” he said dangerously, and I straightened up and looked at him. “You seem to have forgotten what thin ice you’re on. Maybe I should—”
I stopped listening and really looked at him. He seemed smaller, too. I saw him and I remembered Ion, who was just the same. They’d both tried to destroy everything that made me, me.
And I’d survived.
He was just one of so many monsters. He lived in a house of monsters and he cultivated the seeds of monstrousness, and he still couldn’t turn me into the kind of monster he wanted me to be.
He’s really bad at this, I thought clinically, watching him gesticulate and rant. I’m his daughter.
I remembered leaping the chasm to catch Amber’s hands. I had to run back into the maw of a monster to get enough distance to do that.
“Actually, I’m not going to do the Halloween thing,” I told him, cutting him off mid-sentence. “And you should try to behave yourself for once.”
He stared at me, his shocked expression rapidly eclipsed by fury. “You need a lesson,” he growled. “Give me your hand. Or would you rather I bring in the pack?”
I raised my hand, spread out my fingers, and looked at it. Then I flicked my fingers, and my dogs bounded out of my shadow to surround me.
Leaving them between me and him, I walked to the trophy cabinet, where I slid open the glass and took my mother’s locket. I kissed it. “This time, Mama,” I told it, and tucked it into my pocket. And I felt better, better than I ever had when I was in LA and under Tia’s protection.
I walked back to the living room. My father, in his grand living room where I simply no longer fit, said, “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m leaving,” I told him.
His face twisted and the pack flowed into the room from the rest of the house. I barely glanced at them as they formed up behind Hunter. I could feel my father’s wrath billowing off him. He was going to punish me now.
Well, he was going to try. But even with his pack behind him, he was all alone.
He lunged, grabbing me. My dogs watched curiously. They didn’t attack him. They didn’t see the need, but he thought they were afraid of him, and he laughed.
Then he tried to break my arm. I felt him squeeze, felt his magic run through me and ground itself below my feet. I wasn’t just his daughter anymore. I was part of the Wild Hunt and I would never be alone again.
He stared at me, his face suffused with disbelieving rage. Then he tried again, squeezing my hand, putting pressure on my arm. “Stop,” I told him mildly. He didn’t listen. So I put my free hand on his chest, and the next time he sent his fracturing magic into me, it circled back around into him and it broke his heart.
He let me go and staggered back into his pack. Shock and pain wiped away his rage entirely and he stared at me like I was a nightmare come to life.
I walked around him toward the door, then turned back to look at him. “Don’t expect me back. Don’t try to get me back. If I do come back again, I’m bringing friends. I’m bringing an army.”
Then I stepped out into the beautiful autumn afternoon, my dogs flanking me. I walked down the driveway, waiting for the roar from within. I was ready if it came. But there was only a wet, pained noise.
I didn’t fit anymore. It wasn’t a comfortable thought. I’d have to learn to live on my own. But not alone. And now, with my mother’s locket in my hand, I was finally ready to go.
I dug out the phone Tia had loaned me and opened the Contacts list. Tia had hundreds, maybe thousands of contacts, and I scrolled through looking for numbers I recognized. They were grouped. There, in Group 1, was Marley and Branwyn and a few other names I knew. And further down, in Group 13, were Yejun and Jen and Cat and Amber and Brynn and myself.
I looked at the list for a while. Then I dialed a number and listened to it ring. When it was picked up, I said, “Hi. It’s me. Can I stay with you for a while? I have some things I need to sort out.”
The End
For information about future Senyaza books, turn the page.
Hi!
Thank you for reading Wolf Interval. If you'd like to know when my next book is available, you can sign up for my mailing list at www.dreamfarmer.net, follow me on Twitter at @chrysoula or like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/chrysoula.tzavelas.
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The next book in the Senyaza Series will be Etiquette of Exiles, a collection of short stories documenting the year after the faeries rejoined the world. It's due in June of 2015! And after that, in the autumn of 2015, comes Divinity Circuit, a full-length novel about Branwyn and Marley.
--Chrysoula
Acknowledgments:
Without whom the book would not be: Kate. Kevin. Raymond. Michelle. Jenna. The denizens of the war room, some of whom deserve their own book. Angie and Stacy, Suzanne and Beth.
And all my readers, who keep me writing.
Robin and Killian, you're here too, in your own special space.
About the Author:
Chrysoula Tzavelas went to twelve schools in twelve years while growing up as an Air Force brat, and she never met a library she didn’t like. She now lives near Seattle with cats, dogs, adults and children. They graciously allow her a few hours to write everyday and one day she’ll have time to do other things again, too. She likes combed wool, bread dough, and gardens, but she also likes technology, games and space. This probably goes hand in hand with liking Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks.
Follow the Author:
www.dreamfarmer.net
Twitter: @chrysoula
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrysoula.tzavelas