David knew every single one of Zach’s tricks. Hell, David had taught Zach most of them. Slowly, inexorably, David forced him backward.
Zach stumbled on an abandoned book left loose on the floor, but he surged back with another violent thrust.
David parried him away with a rough swipe, nicking another shallow cut in his arm. “Yield.”
“No.” Zach thickened his sword—building it up with extra Shadows—gripped it two-handed, and swung it in a lethal arc right at David.
David blocked him, their swords meeting together in the air. They held them, quivering together, but then David heaved Zach’s sword to one side, stepped inside Zach’s space, and shoved him backward.
“I don’t”—David gasped in a breath—“know why you’re fighting.”
“You’re in my way,” Zach grunted out.
“I’m trying to help you!” David forced Zach back another step closer to the Shadow wall. Zach glanced back. He was almost touching it.
A coil of Shadows whipped out from the wall and grabbed Zach’s sword arm, lifting it up and back, holding it fast. He struggled, trying desperately to free his arms. He had to get to Emma. “Let me go!”
David dropped his shoulder into Zach’s chest and shoved hard, forcing him back into the Shadow wall. It immediately softened into clasping vines. The thick tendrils wrapped themselves around his arms and legs like tentacles, pinning his sword arm above his head.
Zach shuddered, letting his sword fade as he desperately tried to free himself. He sent out wave after wave of Shadows to combat the leeching wall behind him, but he couldn’t break free.
He was helpless. Helpless like he’d been when he’d stood beside Laura and realized they’d lost her in the night. Helpless like the night they’d battled James—the cold earth under his knees, the acid burning through his blood, the sucking tentacles burrowing into his mind. Helpless like he’d been while hovering at the back of Bryn’s living room listening to Emma’s living nightmare.
His muscles trembled as he fought to stop himself from screaming. Screaming like James had, night after night. Like Emma had.
Zach stopped struggling and lay heavily in the wall of vines. Tears burned as grief clogged his throat. “She’s there right now because of me. I have to… I have to….” He didn’t even know what he had to do. Only that he had to get to Emma.
David flicked his hand and dismissed the Shadows. The wall shimmered and then disappeared, and suddenly Zach was free.
He stumbled and almost fell, but David caught him. David caught him and held him like a father would hold a son. And he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. A sob tore out of him, carrying all the loss he’d held in his heart for so many years.
David held him tighter, supporting him through the maelstrom of emotions as he wept. For himself. For Laura. For James and for Emma. For all the times he’d pushed away his feelings. Pushed away people he was terrified of losing.
Slowly the storm of grief passed. Eventually, Zach was able to step back and take a shuddering breath. But David didn’t let him go. He gripped Zach’s shoulders in his hands, resting his forehead against Zach’s.
“I understand,” David murmured. “I know how you feel, Zach, and you are not alone.”
Zach grunted out a strangled sound of disbelief.
“I know what it is to be afraid,” David said. “I know what it is to cover yourself in armor and push away the people you love because if something were to happen to them, it would devastate you. I understand that you want to wrap her up and keep her safe. But you can’t imprison her like that.”
David’s hands tightened on Zach’s shoulders. “Don’t make the mistakes that I made, Zach. Please. Let me help you.”
God. David was right.
“I never had children,” David admitted into the quiet room. “If I hadn’t been such an idiot when I was younger, maybe….” David shook his head. “Emma said that I remind her of you. That she was afraid you would turn out like me—sitting all alone in this mansion after pushing everyone away.”
David slowly released him and met his eyes. “She was right. And she was wrong. I am alone, but I’ve also had you. All three of you. You’ve been the children I never had.” David grunted, the sound filled with pain. “Although I obviously wasn’t much of a father figure.”
Zach opened his mouth to disagree, but David was still speaking. “I never told you that I love you. I never told you how proud I am of you. You should have known that you could trust me, but you didn’t.”
David wiped his face, his eyes gleaming wetly. “God. James getting into so much hurt, Kay running off trying to fix it on her own, and you, Zach, the most like me of all, bottling it all up inside. Emma was right. I pushed you all away and ran to the only safe place I knew. I ran to my work and my commitments and my lonely mansion.”
Zach swallowed. The lump was back in his throat, thicker and rougher than before. His eyes burned and he wiped them with the back of his hands. Emmawasright. Zach had hidden away, but she had broken him free.
David squeezed Zach’s shoulders one more time, then let him go. “Fightforher Zach—not against her.”
Zach nodded jerkily. If he wanted to show Emma that he truly trusted her—that he understood exactly how strong and brave and capable she was—he had to let her do this. But he didn’t have to let her do it alone. “I won’t try to stop her,” he said softly. “I’ll find a way to help.”
