Page 30 of Wings of Lies
“You’re lying to me,” he said, crossing his thick arms over his chest. His spotless white long-sleeve bunched at his waist, showing a belt with a dagger and a feather.
The dagger was odd enough, but a feather?
“We’ve been over this!” she cried. “You drilled me and drilled me the moment I brought her home. I told you the truth. You know I told you the truth. She’s just—” My mom glanced back at the hallway, and I ducked behind the wall. I wasn’t sure why. It was a memory. It wasn’t like it mattered if she saw me. But maybe since I felt like I was eavesdropping, it was instinct. “A miracle,” she finished.
He grimaced, looking like he wanted to throttle her. “Then explain to me what I felt today. What I saw.”
Her black hair stuck to the tears on her cheeks. “She’s just growing into her power. We’ve never experienced someone like her. That’s probably why your senses were heightened today. That’s all,” she said with wide jade eyes, begging him to believe her.
“My senses are only heightened when I feel?—”
She grabbed his arm, pleading. “I know. But you know I’m telling the truth.”
“Or you think you are. She should be sent to the council.”
My mom’s arms fell away as she stepped back. “So, you’re going to turn in your family?” she spat, her eyes flashing purple.
He pursed his lips and raised a blonde brow. “Is that how you speak to me now?”
“Is that what you want for your daughter?” she countered.
He jerked as if she slapped him. “Quiet.” The veins in his arms popped as he made a fist. She flinched, closing her mouth, but continued to stare at him with a heat of a hundred flames. “Iam willingly breaking the laws for you.Iam allowing this on the groundsthat it’s unheard of. But if you cannot manage your part,Iwill turn her in and leave you here to live out your punishment. Alone,” he snapped back.
How could he talk to her like that?
A fierce flush hit her cheeks. She stood, lifting her chin in defiance. “Is that what you truly want? For us? For Lucille?” Her head shook like she couldn’t even comprehend the suggestion.
I almost stumbled out from my corner like a dimwit, not believing my ears.Hewas my father?
“They will always come first. Right?” she scoffed. “Or maybe turning us in would put you in their good graces so you could finally rule with your own law. Is that it?”
I admired how she held her shoulders back, acting like she had a foot on him when he stood two heads taller. Her fists clenched, almost like she wanted to hit him. The smoldering anger in her expression made me question why she didn’t, but I also noticed something broken and fragile holding her back.
He lifted his arm, and she flinched. “If that were true,” he smoothed down a piece of her inky hair, leaning forward so his bared teeth almost touched her ear. “She would already be there.”
She jerked away from his touch. He didn’t look so happy about that.
A new round of tears streamed down her face. “I won’t let you take her to them,” she said, stepping out of reach. “And if that’s the only reason you came, then maybe this visit should be your last.”
“Don’t say things you’ll regret, my love.”
The endearment sounded almost sweet if I ignored his foreboding tone and the tension in my mom’s shoulders.
“I want you to leave,” she said, turning her back on him to grab a washcloth and scrub the cleaned counters. So she never saw the flash of regret that interrupted the steel in his eyes or the split second of sadness as he glanced toward the hall, where I watched them.
His eyes narrowed before turning back to her. “Since I cannot sense any lies, we will keep our arrangement.”
My mom laughed humorlessly, staring at the ceiling, pausing her cleaning. “To continue to check if your precious wife and daughter haven’t become something you despise?”
“Wife?” he said with disbelief. Anddisgust?
I clenched my fist as the purple film hugging the edges of my vision covered the rest. My view of my father’s pristine white clothing was now a girly lavender. What a perfect color for the tiny man. My mom’s clothing remained black.
“That term and any term like it is not allowed to grace your beautiful lips.”
She said nothing in response, turning to the stove and wiping the rag across the shiny surface.
He took another step, lifting both his arms, then stopped, dropping them to his sides.
