King Helmut and the queen were here. A couple of staff members watched. I found Dad leaning against the wall watching with arms folded and my eyes skidded toward the woman in the center. She wore loose black pants with a white shirt. Her arms were covered in black sigils as she played with the dark fog in her hands.
“What is that?”
“Magic you have to earn.”
I looked at her again. She had brown short hair. The dark fog danced into her palms and her lips kept moving. She was tall, too.
The dark became gray and then faded to white. Bright light pierced through and it illuminated the entire hall.
I had to look away as it burned my eyes.
Everyone applauded. Dad too.
The woman bowed, and Dad took me to her.
She smiled.
“Elena, I want you to meet Micha Le Clerk.”
“So the king finally got you here.”
“Sorry?” she asked, and I let out my hand.
“Elena, please don’t say the p word.”
She smiled. “Micha.” She grabbed my hand and shook it.
She was the Ancient guard. Lucian told me everything he could about her. How they assigned her to kill the Rubicon when he became dark.
“Please tell Adolph again, my gratitude. I’ll owe him forever,” Dad said.
“Please, he literally pushed me out of the door this morning with a bag and told me to go.”
Dad laughed.
Adolph was the Ancient that stared at me and dismissed the hearing. She was his guard?
“May I have a few minutes alone with your daughter?”
“Of course. You are going to learn a lot, bear. Soak up what she is going to teach you.”
I shook my head at my dad. I’d been soaking up everything with every one of my trainers.
We walked out one of the side doors.
“So Adolph wanted you to train me?”
“Yes, he did. I obviously demanded him to tell me the truth as he was extremely smitten with your birth mother. We always wondered what that was about and then he told me this morning. I had to admit, that was the last thing that ever crossed my mind.”
“Are you going to share that part with me? He kind of freaked me out when he stared at me.”
She laughed. “Can you carry a secret, Elena?”
“Of course I can.”
“Adolph is your family?”
36
