Chapter Thirty

After I’d finished unloading the details of my life for the past few months, Dad sat beside me in silence, his bare feet dangling in the water off the edge of the dock.

“Can you please say something?” I asked when I couldn’t take the quiet any longer.

“Not sure what to say. Other realities with other kinds of creatures. Dead spirits or wraiths or whatever are possessing people. And my daughter is the head of some secret group that’s the only chance for us all to survive this.” He turned to me, then, worry clouding his eyes. “I’m really hoping this is some crazy dream or you’ve pranked me or something, because this can’t be real.”

“I wish it was a joke, but it’s not. You’re actually taking this better than I thought you would.”

“Oh, I’m pissed all right, and terrified, but I think some part of me knew you were something special right from the get-go. Your mother’s involved in this Mortal Machine business too, isn’t she?”

I shifted my knee up on the boards so I could face him. “Why would you ask that?”

He gave a bitter laugh and took my hand, folding it in his calloused one on top of his thigh. “Because it would explain a whole lotta things that never made any sense about her.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like why she appeared out of nowhere in my headlights the night we met, and I almost ran her over. Like why she always said she didn’t want to talk about her past. Like why I found her outside shouting at the sky to some guy named Izan, begging him not to do ‘this,’ whatever that meant, after she found out you were in her belly.”

I squeezed his hand. “She knew what I’d become and that eventually you’d lose me. That’s why she said it would be better if I was never born. At least, I’m hoping that’s why.” Tightness cut off my air for a moment before I went on. “The bad guy has her, so I’m guessing I’ll meet her for the first time when I face him at dawn. And it sucks, because I may never really have a chance to know the woman who found the strength to walk away from her baby so I could live.” The wraiths had been drawn to me, and her presence would have attracted them even worse. I cleared my throat. “Did you love her, Dad?”

“Of course I did. I couldn’t have…well, you know…with someone I didn’t.” He gave a halfhearted smile. “She came around once in a while after you were born, always after you were in bed. I never mentioned it, because I knew how much talk of her upset you. I finally get why she told me never to let doctors look at you, even after the schools said you should see a shrink because of your anxiety.” He gave a tired sigh. “This whole business is why you spent so many nights sleeping outside my bedroom door, isn’t it? You were seeing these rift things eating away our house. And that’s why you had to dash off so fast that last time you came to see me.”

“I didn’t know you knew I was out there. I didn’t understand what I was seeing back then, but I was scared and didn’t want you to worry, and I still felt safer being closer to you.”

“Every time I came out, you’d run back to your own room, so most nights I just sat down on the other side of that door and listened to you cry. Didn’t know what else to do.”

“Oh, Dad. I’m so sorry. I wish I could have said something, but I didn’t think you’d believe me, and I couldn’t risk getting locked up in some loony bin where I couldn’t run from the rifts.” We stared out over the water for a while, and my mind drifted back to Mom. “I know you don’t like talking about her, but can you tell me what she’s like?”

“Wow, uh…” He scratched fingers through his short, graying hair, and laughed. “She has red hair and the personality to go along with it. Family meant everything to her, even though she’d get angry when I suggested starting one. Every time a lady with a baby’d go by, she stopped and stared with this adoring smile on her face. And she had this intensity to her that grabbed hold of me, you know? Fiercely kind, but also had this fire in her belly that made me think she’d stand her ground against anything. Under that, there was this softness…oh hell.” He pressed a hand over his eyes.

I looped my arm around him and rested my head on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Dad, you don’t have to say any more. I should probably warn you that if I do manage to bring her back here tomorrow, she’ll look exactly the same as she did the day you met her. Part of this gig is that we’re sort of…immortal if nothing damages our vital parts.”

His back went ramrod straight. He stared at me as if I’d pulled a Houdini and appeared out of thin air. “That would explain why Glenna stopped coming around after you were about seven or so.” Leaning harder into me, he patted my knee. “So, not only have I raised a warrior princess savior of the world, she’ll also be eighteen forever. As far as strange days goes, I think this one takes the cake.”

Shifting to look at me, he gave me that stern glance he did whenever he was about to talk about something serious. “You never actually went on any archaeological dig in South America with that professor fella, did you?”

“Well, no. Look, I’m sorry I lied to you, but we couldn’t exactly tell you the truth about why I was dropping out of university.”

“Uh-huh. You didn’t really murder two people and rob a museum, right?  I saw you on the news. Didn’t know it was you at the time, but I had this feeling…”

I grimaced. “No to the first, but I guess the museum part is technically true. Only because I had to, though.”

He sighed, giving me a dad look, head tilted forward, one brow raised. “You love him?”

“Yeah, I really do.” I smiled, couldn’t help it.

“He’s good to you?”

Wow, how to answer that one… “We had a bumpy start, but only because he was trying to protect me, kind of like Mom did. He’s been looking out for me since I was little, even though we never saw him. Can you be nice, please? He’s had a hard life with an abusive father, and he adores you. And respects you.”

A smile picked up his lips. “Oh, stop with those big eyes. Never could say no when you did that, but that don’t mean he and I aren’t gonna have a long chat, man to man. You’re my baby, and if he doesn’t treat you right, he’ll answer to me.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his hand up and said, “Just tell me what I can do to help, and don’t start shaking your head. I might be old, but I’m not useless. If you think I’m going to sit on my thumbs here in this…whatever this place is while my baby goes to war, then you don’t know me like you should.”

“I don’t want you involved in this fight, Dad. You can’t see them, anyway, but…” Movement farther down the lake caught my eye. Kyle stood at the edge of the water, gazing over it as if thinking about jumping in and never coming back up. “Maybe there is something.”

“Name it, and it’s done.”

“Uncle Oliver told me you helped him, you know, before he decided to come out. He wasn’t specific about what you did, only that it changed his life.”

“My baby brother was gonna kill himself because he loved a man, Addy.”

“I know. Do you see that guy down there with red hair?”

“Yeah. He in a bad way, too?”

“You can cut through the crap better than anybody. His name’s Kyle, and his partner in the Machine is a man I’m pretty sure he’s had a crush on for a while and can’t accept it. Maybe you could take him fishing, maybe giving him a good working over. You know, the kind of talk you give me when I need one, and I don’t even realize what you’re doing until I suddenly get what I’ve been missing.”

I summoned my storm and imagined two fishing poles, and a moment later they appeared in my hands. Another bit of concentration assembled an aluminum boat with a motor at the end of the dock.

“Whoa, you always been able to do that?”

“No, that’s new.”

He gave me a wary glance before he smiled. “You’ve always been handier than a shirt pocket, but that is something else. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get used to all this, but I’ll suck it up and do my best.” Taking the rods, he kissed my forehead. “What are you gonna do?”

“There’s a bunch more people out there who are afraid and lost, and we need to plan for tomorrow. When you’re done, come to the meeting hall farther down this trail, the one with the red roof.”

“You got it. And Addy?”

“Yeah?”

“Your man ever tries to take you from me again, I’ll hurt him where it counts.”

I laughed and started up the hill to the trail. Strange that my life had been in shambles only yesterday, and today, piece by piece, I was finally beginning to get a glimpse of the elusive happiness Asher had promised. If only I didn’t have a dragon mantis threatening to take it away from me, I might have raced out to grab it with both hands.