“Mother?” I called out.
She ignored me completely, just turned and looked at Royal impatiently. “Here she is. You have what you want.” And she held her hand out as if expecting him to hand her something.
Like money.
My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach.
Royal backhanded her so hard that she fell on her butt.
“Whore!” he snarled at her. “Seducing our father! Ruining his marriage!”
“What are you doing?” she wailed. “I did everything you wanted! I got her to move back to town, I told you where she worked, I brought her here today…”
“Get out of here before I tear your head off!”
Oh my God.
My mother had literally sold me down the river.
Twenty-Two
Daphne
The Iron Claw pack moved closer to us, ignoring my mother. Glancing at their vans, I spotted an unfamiliar car parked near them, which was likely hers.
She got to her feet and staggered back a few steps, spitting curses. “You bastards!” she shouted. Blood dripped from her mouth.
Hurt and fury swept over me.
“Are you crazy?” I yelled at her. “Why would you do this to me?”
She swung around to look at me, her face twisting in bitterness. “You! You ruined everything for me. Clive dumped me when I got pregnant—and then he said he was going to take you and he and his wife would raise you. Like hell he was, that lying bastard.”
“That’s why we always moved.” It hit me like a freight train. “You were hiding me from him out of spite.”
And then my half brothers had somehow tracked her down and convinced her to move back to Red Sands—so they could get at me.
“Why did it take so long for them to come after me, then?” I asked, my voice hoarse with sorrow.
She shrugged sullenly. “You wanted to milk them for all you could get,” I guessed. “You probably didn’t tell them where to find me right away. I bet they got sick of your demands for money and you finally had to tell them where I worked.” Her eyes blazed with resentment.
I spun around to stare at Fionnulla. “Why are you involved?” I demanded. “Why would you do this to me? You can’t possibly be jealous of my power. I don’t have any.”
The Iron Claw moved in to encircle us. My heart thundered in my chest. I had made a bad, bad mistake and we were in the middle of nowhere.
Even if I shifted, I wouldn’t be able to outrun all of them.
“Oh, you have a very useful power, and I know what it is,” Fio said coolly. “Me! I figured it out when Melisande couldn’t!” She grinned in triumph. “Every time you’re around, everyone else’s magic gets more powerful. You’re a conduit. An amplifier. You make everyone else’s magic more potent, more powerful.”
A wave of shock hit me. “How…how do you know that?”
Fi rolled her eyes. “Melisande is blind to the most obvious things, like pattern recognition. I noticed how quickly the White Fang healer patched up your leg. How many little magical accidents happened at the festival.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “And how my plants grew more rapidly than I’ve ever made them do so before. You got me disqualified from the Green Thumb Competition without even knowing it. It was your magical signature on my plants.”
I thought about Max accidentally setting something on fire in the kitchen when I was there. The witch at the festival, who had been styling hair and made the client’s hair explode into huge, frizzy curls. Aurora’s powers blazed out of control when she was near me.
If what Fi said was true, I could be used as a weapon.
“I’m not going to help you do anything.” I glared at her.
