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Someone was slapping my face, but my arms were too weighted to reach out and punch the offender. I hadn’t slept in I don’t know how long, and my body was begging for a pillow and a nap.
My eyes fluttered open, and flooding my vision was Sandy— er, Levi. He had hazel eyes, and long auburn and light brown dreads tied back in a leather lace. He had Ollie’s square jawline, Allie’s smaller ears, three freckles on his left cheek, and my... my everything. I wanted to run, but I was too mesmerized. Too entranced. I hadn’t let myself need a father growing up because one simply didn’t exist. Now he was here, bracing me so I could sit up while I gawked at him.
I didn’t have any words. I’m sure I should be pissed, reaming him for leaving us with Bev. But if he’d been a dog, what could he have really done? Would he have been a better parent than Bev in his dog form? Did he love us? He couldn’t be totally negligent, since he’d taken up residence right next door to be near us. Did he love us? Had he wanted us, and not walked out rather than stick around? Did he love us?
“You fed us,” I remarked, wishing the first words I was saying to my father were more meaningful and eloquent. “When we were starving, you brought us food.”
A fierce emotion beamed through his whole being while he clutched me as he knelt on the floor. “You were so small. I was afraid you might die so many times. I don’t know what happened. Beverly wasn’t like that when we were together the first time. I watched her for months before I took my chance, used all my strength and turned human for the night. She was kind, meek and funny. Then over the years she grew... I was wrong about her.”
My clumsy finger lifted up and poked at his face to make sure he was real, and that I wasn’t hallucinating. I depressed my finger to his cheekbone, his jaw, his forehead. “It was the stone. She had the sagrado stone hidden in her hoard. It poisons humans, so it warped all of us in one way or another. She was a full human, so it bent her mind the worst.”
Levi’s arm behind me froze as his expression fell into horror. He took a moment to process the blow. He swallowed thickly, his eyes filled with palpable shame. “I gave her that stone shortly after Allie was born. I thought someone was following me, so I told her to hold onto it, that I’d be back for it someday. I had no idea it would be bad for her.” He hung his head. “I did that? I turned her into a monster? I’m the reason you were beaten and neglected?” I didn’t expect tears to form in his eyes, but when his nose turned pink and his voice caught, I found I couldn’t look away.
Ollie rarely cried. Allie broke down when the dark moods struck her, but Ollie was steadfast. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one, but watching Levi’s three tears roll down his cheeks blew my mind. Every detail about him added a new explosion to the vivid image that was my new dad. “You stayed. You couldn’t be a person, but you still stayed? Why? Was it because you wanted to watch the stone?”
Levi shook his head, letting out a nervous scoff. “I couldn’t care less about the stone. I couldn’t have used it to save Terraway if I tried. I put a blessing on Bev and you kids so you could touch the stone without it turning you to rock. Same one I used on myself to steal it in the first place. I didn’t realize it would mutate Bev’s personality.” He shook his head, his tone mournful and angry. “I stayed because of you kids. I so wanted to be there, to have you call me Papa, to take you away from that awful trailer and build you a house. I wanted to bring home firewood and take you three on trips. I wanted to do homework with you, and take you all hunting to kill a beast and bring it home for Beverly.” He clutched me with just enough fire to make me believe that someone actually wanted to claim me, to put his last name on me and work hard so I could play.
I hadn’t played in so very long.
“You wanted us?” I knew it wasn’t wise to ask a question that could so easily go south on me, but there it was, the only thing I really wanted to know.
More tears slid down his unshaven cheeks, making his voice catch, and tugging at parts of my heart I’d thought were long dead. His answer came out in a fierce whisper. “I would have treasured you, my girl.”
Philip’s voice interrupted the tender moment, which made me want to double kill him. “You had the sagrado stone? You stole it from the Kapre?”
Levi glanced over his shoulder to his friend. “He deserved it for what he did to us. He imprisoned you first, and I knew I was next, so I took the stone with me Topside. Terraway knew he had a spare sagrado stone; he deserved to be persecuted when he lost it. Did they make him suffer?”
“No, I did. I found my first subject to control, and knew exactly where to aim him. Our master didn’t see it coming. I avenged our pain as much as I could, brother.”
Levi seemed satisfied with this answer, though he never took his eyes off my gaping expression. “None of it matters anymore. Had I known it would warp Beverly, I would never have trifled with the stone at all.” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m so deeply sorry I did this to you all.”
I didn’t have words, so I stuck to gripping the back of his neck to make sure he didn’t up and disappear on me.
Philip broke in with annoyance in his tone. “I needed that stone. I searched everywhere, raised whole armies to find it!”
Levi shrugged, still supporting my weight with his arm. “I would have given it to you, had I known you needed it. Our master banished us for being power-hungry and wanting too much control over life, and he goes and keeps one of the few sagrado stones to himself in his collection of precious gems? It was the worst kind of hypocrisy. So I stole his treasure. What did you need it for?”
Philip was incredulous. “It’s not one of the few sagrado stones anymore, it’s the only one left! Terraway gave up hope it even existed. They’ve been relying on the Omens to fuel the suns. Terraway’s been withering for the last couple years. It’s only because October found the stone and split it between the nations that they’re alive at all.”
My eyes narrowed as my fight came back. I sat up on my own and barked at Philip. “You don’t give a crap about Terraway. You wanted to destroy the stone so everyone would have to rely on your rations.”
Philip looked down his nose at me. “That’s where you’re wrong, darling. I only needed the rations so I could send out my spirit into dulled souls. If I had the stone, I could grind it up, bless it and use it to break my imprisonment. I could be free of this island if only you would’ve brought me that stone! So many times I tried to get you to tell me where it was.”
“You’d grind it up? You’d let Terraway die off just so you could get off a tropical island?”
Philip’s fists clenched at his sides as he shouted at me. “You have no idea how many decades I’ve been here! I would do anything to be free! I don’t care if the whole of Terraway burned up under its suns. I would be free!”
Levi slowly helped me to stand, taking care with my unsteady form so I didn’t collapse again. He moved his body to position his shoulder between Philip and me as a partial shield. “You’ll not raise your voice at my daughter. And you don’t know what you’re saying. You wouldn’t let Terraway die. You must know of another sagrado stone if you were set on grinding one of them up. I only took the Kapre’s because I knew there were others to keep the suns regulated.”
“You had your family. You had freedom to move around and explore a whole world! I’ve had nothing but this island for over a hundred years! Nothing!”
I didn’t expect Levi to wrap his arms around Philip. Philip wasn’t a super huggable guy to begin with, but Levi didn’t seem to mind. He squeezed Philip and kept his voice steady with a tinge of sadness. “Brother, what happened to you? I loved your grand dreams once upon a time. Why are you chasing nightmares now?”
Philip’s voice came out mournful, dripping with utter loss. “I can’t be alone here anymore. I need to conquer, to explore, to feel a woman’s touch. I can’t do this anymore!”
“We’ll get you out,” Levi promised. “You used the Kapre’s ruby to break me of my curse. I’ll find a way for you to be free, too. Now that I can help you? You’ll be out in no time at all.”