“I said stand down,” I growled in a low tone and glared at Tiernan.
“I vowed to behead her if she issued one more insult,” Tiernan shrugged casually and pulled his sword from mine with a long hiss of metal. “I could not break my vow,” he sheathed his sword.
“Tiernan, whatever kind of point you're trying to make, I think she got it,” I whispered as I sheathed my own sword. When I looked up, Ewan was staring at me with a strange look. “Dad,” I reached a hand toward him but his mother slapped it away.
“You're no kin to us,” Briana said in a shaky voice.
“Mom, please,” Ewan sighed. “You're taking this too far.”
“You just renounced her to me,” Councilwoman Sloane frowned at her son. “Now you want to take her side?”
“Denying that she's my daughter and calling her a bastard are two different things,” Ewan growled. “She had no control over her own birth. Leave her be.”
“You need to cut all ties with this changeling child, Ewan,” Briana scolded. “Emotional ties included.”
“But I don't need to insult her to do it,” Ewan shook his head. “You've always had a mean streak, Mother but it's never horrified me till now.”
“So you want to side with the bastard of your slut of a wife against your own mother?” Briana huffed. “You're a disappointment, Ewan.”
I was about to stand up for my mother when Ewan did it for me.
“Call my wife a whore one more time, Mother and it'll be the last thing you say,” Ewan's eyes lit with life, giving me a glimpse of the man he used to be before my mother's death.
“You ungrateful brat,” she slapped him but it barely nudged his face and he just continued to stare hard at her. “Now you threaten my life? My own son?”
“I didn't threaten to kill you,” Ewan shifted so that he stood beside me. “Just to cut out your poisonous tongue.” Then he offered me his hand. I gaped at it for one brief moment before I snatched it up like the gift it was. “Now if you'll excuse me, I'm heading inside with the woman I raised.”
So maybe he hadn't reclaimed me as his daughter but it was enough for me. I smiled brightly as he escorted me inside the castle, my Star's Guard and puka following us closely as my Uncle Uisdean laughed his ass off.
Chapter Fifty-Four
“Thanks, Dad,” I said when we came to a stop in the main hall.
“I'm not your father, Seren,” Ewan said sadly. “I wish it weren't true but you belong to another family now. I've accepted that and I think I can at least be civil to you but that's the most you can expect from me. We're done. Goodbye, Princess Seren,” he held his hand out to me.
“Goodbye, Extinguisher Ewan,” I said brokenly as I shook his hand. I watched a blurry Ewan Sloane walk away from me.
“You've got one screwed up family,” Sarah observed as she stepped up beside me.
I blinked away the tears and squeezed Tiernan's hand, which had somehow made its way into mine.
“Yeah, you have no idea,” I sighed. “I need to get everyone settled and then I'll take you and Tristan over to Fairy.”
“Alright,” Sarah nodded. “We'll wait down here. I could use a drink anyway.” She headed towards the dining hall.
“Are you alright?” Tiernan whispered as he eased in closer to me.
“Yeah, I'm good,” I whispered back. “Thanks for that ridiculous display out there.”
“No problem,” he grinned. “It's not like you haven't made similar displays of ridiculousness for me.”
“You weren't actually going to kill her, right?” I lifted a brow. “You knew I'd stop you.”
“Sure,” he looked away and cleared his throat.
“Tiernan,” I gaped at him but before I could say anything more, one of the house attendants came over to help us find rooms for everyone.
It took hours to get us all rooms and then another hour for me to get showered and changed. It must have been around 8 PM when I finally made it downstairs to look for Sarah and Tristan. Tiernan, Conri, and Cat would be joining us on our short trip to Fairy, so they walked with me to the dining hall. We found Tristan sleeping on a wooden bench and Sarah sitting next to him, staring woodenly at the ceiling.
