Page 13 of Shadow Weaver
“I didn’t lie. I didn’t know. Not for sure …”
Heat stole up my neck as the full extent of this revelation finally sank in. Payne was my father, not Baron. I wasn’t connected to that hateful man biologically. I was … free.
A small, shrill laugh fell from my lips, then another, until I was full-on belly laughing, tears streaming down my face.
“Miss Justice?” Brunner’s voice penetrated the fog of mirth. “I understand that this may have come as a shock.”
Shock? It was hilarious. I’d spent my life trying to be loved and love a man who was nothing to me. A man who’d been duped into calling me his daughter. A man who’d been mourning a son that had never been his.
“I’m sorry,” my mother said. “So sorry.”
The mirth snapped off as if someone had flipped a switch, and rage blurred my vision as I turned on her.
“Sorry? Yes, you are sorry. You’re a sorry piece of work who doesn’t deserve to be a parent.”
“Indigo.” She stood and took a step toward me.
I lashed out, pushing her away. “Don’t fucking touch me. Get out. Just go. You’re dead to me, you understand me? Dead.”
“I wanted to love you,” she said. “I wanted to, but Baron … He was so overpowering and—”
“Enough!” Payne grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the door. “You had nineteen years to love her. Now, it’s my turn.” He opened the door and gently propelled her through it. “Go back to Baron and get on with your life.”
Her eyes grew round. “Oh, God. What am I going to do? He’ll know by now. The news would have reached him by now.”
Payne’s smile was a jagged, wicked thing. “Yes, news has a way of finding its way to the rich and powerful. If I were you, I’d make sure this news comes from you.”
He shut the door in her face and stood for a moment with his back to the room.
“Carter?” Brunner prodded. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “I’m … I’m fine.” He turned to me, his gaze scanning my face as if seeing it for the first time, and that look he’d given me earlier in the corridor made sense now.
He was in shock, just like me. Processing just like me.
“Hi,” he said with a small smile. “I’m your father.”
A lump formed in my throat and speech was momentarily impossible. Another father, a different father, but that didn’t mean anything. Baron had known me and failed to love me. I couldn’t expect anything from this man. I swallowed the ball of emotion and took a shuddering breath.
“Nice to meet you.”
Brunner cleared her throat. “I understand that you both have a lot of catching up to do, but we must address the issue of the fact that you are a weaver.”
I blinked, breaking eye contact with Payne, and focused on Brunner. “What do you mean,address it?”
“Please sit, Miss Justice.”
I slipped into the seat my mother had vacated. It was still warm with her body heat; heat I’d longed for and rarely received. No. Don’t think about her. She was a closed chapter now.
Brunner steepled her fingers. “As a weaver, training in the use of your weaver power is compulsory.”
“But I’m a shadow cadet. I have the gene.”
“Yes. You do. Which puts us in an unprecedented position. Weavers with the shadow gene do not have an active weaver gene. And they are never nightbloods.” She peered at Payne, who tucked in his chin.
He’d broken legacy family law by siring a child outside of the weaver bloodlines, heck, by siring one at all. He had the shadow knight gene and so was forbidden from any procreation. What would the consequences of his actions be?
“I have consulted with the head weaver,” Brunner said, “who has suggested you be trained in both applications—shadow knight and weaver—and be allowed to choose which path to commit to once your training is over.”
