“Father, I’m really here.” Cal’s voice was low and soothing, as if speaking to a wild animal. “Look at me and see.”
He knelt down and put a hand on his father’s shoulder.
Elias slowly turned his eyes to his shoulder in disbelief and then at Cal’s face. “My boy?” He traced Cal’s jaw.
Cal watched as his eyes, his eyes with that same strange burst of orange, widened, and his face broke into what might have been a grin a lifetime ago. A tear rolled down his skin, ravaged by the torture he had endured. He gripped Cal’s arms and struggled to stand. Cal lifted him with ease, his body frail. His skin clinging to his bones.
Cal turned to Ara, anguish in his voice. “Can you help me with the shackles? There is a dark magic on them. I don’t think my magic alone will break it.”
Ara rushed to them, not seeming to even register the stench of the dungeons. Her tear-streaked face alight with relief. Cal lifted Elias and carried him to the mattress despite his protests that he could walk.
As Ara came closer, he felt the grimoire’s magic awaken in the hidden pocket of his jacket that she wore.
“How do you have the grimoire?” Elias' voice was a whisper. “Cyrus would never part with it.”
Cal shook his head. “How do you–Cyrus doesn’t know I found it. He told me I was foolish to search for it. That it was a myth.”
Elias’s eyes grew wide. “Calder, your uncle and I found the grimoire over a decade ago. If you have it, it’s because he let you.”
Calder thought back to when he found the grimoire. How it had called to him from the depths of the Mistral Hall library like a siren’s song. The levels of betrayal he was feeling threatened to unravel him. He focused on the task before him instead, closing his hand around Ara’s as they gripped a shackle.
He felt their magic come together like two bodies of water joining seamlessly, meandering between each other until he didn’t know where his ended and hers began. The shackles flowed with light green energy before all four fell apart, clanking to the floor.
Elias’s gaze dropped to the floor and then between Cal and Ara. “I haven’t seen magic do that since mine and Illiana’s. It is a rare and beautiful thing for magic to come together like that. A rare and beautiful thing.”
“What happened to you?” Cal whispered, tears finally falling. He let go of his father’s hands and brushed them away, rubbing his palms into his eyes as if to punish himself for his weakness.
Elias frowned as if the thoughts pained him. Ara held his hands in hers, her magic exploring his wounds. He watched as the deep lacerations repaired from the bone up, sinew and muscle knitting back together and veins rerouting.
“The scars of magic are deep.” Her voice was apologetic as the disfigurement of his wrists remained, “I don’t think I can heal the skin any more than this.”
Elias shook his head, staring down at his wrists in amazement. “Are you one of the Marudas sisters?”
She nodded, kindness in her eyes. “Arabella.”
“Father,” Cal interrupted, his voice pleading. “Please, what happened? For ten years I have thought that you went mad and broke Mother’s mind. That Icarus,” he paused, collecting himself, "that Icarus betrayed our family and caused your death. Yet here you are.”
Elias looked confused. “Icarus would never betray you.”
Cal scoffed and got up, walking over to the wall scratched with marks. “I assure you that Icarus betrayed us all. Cyrus–”
He broke off unsure of what to say. Cyrus had kept his father locked in this dungeon for ten years. He couldn’t trust anything he had been told. He traced a groove carved deep in the wall.
He felt a soft touch on his back and hung his head, ashamed. What did it say about him that he hadn’t known his father was alive? That his uncle could have done this. That Cal had been merely a chess piece in a game that had started long before he was ever a player?
Never feel ashamed. You didn’t know. You couldn’t have known.
It doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Ara’s voice in his head calmed him and he was able to turn and face his father. How his father had survived ten years in this rat-infested dungeon he didn’t know.
Elias’ eyes appeared cloudy, and he was smiling at the corner of the room. “Our boy, Ana. Look how he has grown.”
“It’s okay,” Ara soothed him. “His mind can heal. He is no danger to us.”
Cal shook his head, not sure she was right in this instance. “Where can we take him? We can’t keep him here and we can’t take him to Mistral Hall.”
“Calami. Portal us to my room and we’ll find Icarus.” Her eyes were wide with warning. “We have to find Icarus, Cal.”
