“Who is this?” Gordon demanded, impatience dripping through his voice. “And how the fuck did you get this number?”
Cold sweat trickled down Emma’s back. Part of her wished she could just forget everything and throw the phone out the window. If she didn’t say anything, she could go upstairs to the no doubt gorgeous guest room and wait for everyone else to arrive. She could let the Guardians face Gordon. She could run back to the safety of her bakery. She could tell Zach he was right and maybe he would forget that he had given her a choice and she had chosen to leave.
She shook it off and straightened her spine. “Daddy?” The word tasted rotten in her mouth, but Gordon would expect it.
There was a long silence. “Emma?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
He sighed as if she was an annoying child. “What have you got yourself mixed up in?”
She cleared her throat, working to keep her voice steady. “I was in Wales.” She could feel his disapproval even down the phone, but she forced herself to continue. “I got your number from Riley. I want to come home.”
This time, the silence was even longer. “Don’t lie to me, girl.”
“I’m not lying. I….” For the first time since she’d wiped the tears from her face and climbed out of Kay’s car at the station, she let herself truly feel the devastation of Zach’s final words.
“I was with Zach. Uh, the Guardians. I thought we had a future. I thought….” She swallowed. “Zach wanted me to leave,” she admitted softly, letting her misery pour out through her voice. “He doesn’t want me. He said I’m not part of the Dru-vid world.”
It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough to sound believable. And she already knew her father felt exactly the same way.
Gordon grunted. “Well, obviously.”
It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, but she still had to take a moment before she could continue. “I couldn’t stay with him. But I didn’t want to leave the Order either. I came to London to look for you. They… they Healed my Shadows. Not perfectly, but enough. I saw you, in that vision. And I thought… I thought maybe we could be a family again.”
She let the tears that she’d been holding in for hours fall freely. Gordon already thought she was weak. It didn’t hurt to keep him believing it. “Please.”
David was utterly silent beside her, his muscular frame rigid with tension. Emma wiped her cheeks with her fingers and he slowly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. It was stiff, unnatural almost, as if emotional support was the last thing he knew how to offer, but it helped.
Gordon sighed. Maybe his need to control her wasn’t enough to make him take her in.
“I know how to run a business,” she offered. “I can be your office manager. I can help you as an assistant if you need one. Whatever you want.”
“What does it mean that your Shadows are healed?” Gordon demanded, ignoring her suggestion.
“They look better. But they’re still kind of fuzzy. I don’t really know how to use them or if they’ll ever work.”
“You had a vision,” he observed.
Actually, she’d had two visions and spent the train journey forming tiny Shadows, but it was better if Gordon thought she was utterly pathetic. “Elizabeth and the others were boosting my Shadows.”
Gordon was quiet and Emma let him think for a long moment before adding quietly, “Or I can go to the London Circle, I guess. I’m not sure I can go back to the bakery now. Kayleigh mentioned someone called David. Maybe he’ll need some help while I think about what to do next.”
She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, hoping Gordon didn’t see her words for the blatant manipulation that they were.
“No. If your blood is Healed, there might be a use for you here,” Gordon said slowly.
What did that mean?If her blood was Healed? It didn’t matter, she would take whatever chance he gave.
“I’ll meet you at Victoria Station in an hour,” Gordon said through the speaker as David bristled beside her. “Don’t be late.”
One last hour. She leaned back, wishing she could have spent it with Zach.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Zach pulledinto the wide driveway of the Circle House a few hours before dawn. The street was dark and quiet, and the house seemed to loom out of the darkness. Even the spotlights on the trees were off. Only one light was on, high up on the topmost floor—in David’s rooms.
He climbed out of the car and stretched, easing out the kinks from the long, lonely drive. Kay and Ethan would follow as soon as they could, but it would be several hours before they caught up with him and he couldn’t wait.
