“That was happening before I moved back home.”It had to have been because Taya was already living there.
“All houses make noise, but they don’t suddenly go quiet.This doesn’t happen.”He pointed at the mess on the floor.
“Dogs do dumb shit.”
“Perhaps, but so do teenage boys.You’ve been speaking to your mother’s friends.”
I laughed.“I don’t know any of her friends.”Not even Farrow had met her.“And I don’t know what she was mixed up in, but I do know she was murdered.”And now I was sure he’d done it to protect me.“Her friends didn’t kill her.You did.”My words hung in the air between us.I wanted him to deny it and claim that I was delusional, anything but silently stare at me.“Dad?”
It was a few more seconds before he spoke.“You need to leave.”
“What?”I must have misheard.
“Leave.I will not have another sorcerer living beneath my roof, extracting magic from children.”
“I’m not?—”
“Leave, or I will have to notify my people, and I do not want to kill my son.”
My eyebrows lifted.What the fuck was he talking about?“Your people?”
“Do you think we allow sorcerers to manipulate children and the world so they can have whatever they want?They have the power to control the government.The stock market and everything else.”
“You let her buildyourwealth.You used her.”
His lips twisted, and he lifted his chin, righteousness burning in his eyes.“I didn’t realize what she was when we married.When I was informed, I acted accordingly for the greater good.”
“Liar.”It wasn’t that I was pro-sorcerer, and I wasn’t sure that I was one, but killing people was wrong, no matter who they were, just because someone else claimed they were bad.What if Mom and her dragon friends were doing something good with magic, like fixing pollution or encouraging the government to help the poor?Perhaps they created money to donate to charity, or to pay for therapy for all the children tormented by monsters?“You are the one with dangerous friends.Friends who tell you to kill.”
“We’re protecting the children.”He slapped his chest.“I protected you, and I’m doing the same now.Stay away from Taya and stop using whatever magic you’re playing with because there are people who will find you and kill you.And get rid of that bloody tattoo.”
That was his real fear behind the ink—one of his friends might kill me.“Fine.It was never about me failing a class, was it?It was about making sure her friends, and yours, hadn’t found me.”
“Everything I’ve done has been to protect you.”
“No.”I drag Bunny with me because I don’t want her cutting her feet open on the glass.I never wanted to move back home, but I had nowhere else to go.I almost wished my mother’s friends would show up.
Now I had to worry about sorcerers and sorcerer-hunters.
And monsters.
I slam my bedroom door and flop face down on my bed.Bunny jumps up next to me and licks my arm.None of this is her fault; she made the mess trying to catch Farrow.
No, all of this is his fault.
And mine.
If I’d done what he asked, none of tonight’s mess would’ve happened, and I’d still have a place to stay, and I wouldn’t have learned that my father killed my mother because he is anti-sorcerer.
Protect me?
It was never about me.It was hatred wrapped in lies to make it taste better.
I turned my head and stared into Bunny’s dark eyes.“What am I going to do?”
She licked my face, which wasn’t helpful.Could I slide through the golden glow to Farrow’s world?The world where my mother died.Once there, would they let me live, or kill me?
That would mess up Farrow’s human porn plans.
