Page 71 of Mortal Blood
I shrugged, and tried for blasé. “Can’t be any worse than what Aodh will do to me if I don’t go.”
“Debatable. I don’t like the idea of losing my plaything.”
“I’m not your—” I blew out an irritable breath and shook my head. “Whatever. I’ve got bigger concerns than what you want.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, pet. Run along now,meetwith your father, and then do be sure to come back to me. I’m not finished with you yet.”
He reached out, stroking his fingers across the back of my hand and I jerked it away, but not before I got a sharp static shock from him. Asshole.
Watching him carefully, I eased past him, then turned and bolted for the academy doors.
Time to go and meet my father.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Once I wassafely outside the academy—and having checked I had no annoying fae tailing me—I pulled out Aodh’s stone and stared at it for a long moment before blowing out a breath and wrapping my fingers around it.
“Okay. Let’s do this. I’m ready to meet.”
I focused my thoughts on my intention to meet with my father, and the stone pulsed warmly in my hand.
“Great. So far, so good,” I muttered. “Now how do I know where I’m supposed to be going?”
But even as the words left my mouth, I knew they were redundant. I could feel a pull running through the stone into me, like a magnet drawing me forward. I followed my feet, letting them guide me through the trees. I made it only a hundred paces before I felt the need to stop. Just enough, I was sure, to cross the academy’s wards. Just as I was wondering what next, the air in front of me shimmered, then split apart as a portal appeared.
I eyed it a moment, then squinted at the Cailleach stone dubiously. “Right. A portal appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the night. I don’t suppose that’s some kind of creepy coincidence?”
But I could feel that same magnet pull drawing me to the portal.
“Fine. But this whole mess started with me needing a portal,” I muttered to the stone—possibly because I was losing my mind. How else had I ended up here, alone in the dark and about to go through a portal that could leadliterallyanywhere? “Aodh sure does have a twisted sense of humor.”
I hesitated only a moment longer, because really, what choice did I have? If Ididn’tgo through, I was pretty sure whatever Aodh would do to me for breaking my contract with him would be worse than anything my father could want. The worsthecould do was kill me.
Shaking my head at the ridiculous shit I’d managed to get myself into this time, I stepped through the portal.
I emerged in a small, grassy clearing.
The clearing was deserted except for the lone figure standing there, watching me through calculating eyes. I searched his face in silence, trying to pick out features I recognized from myself. Because there was only one person he could be, and I didn’t need to see the exact shade of my eyes in his, or the shape of my own lips on his face to know it. My father.
“You came,” he said, watching me across the clearing. “I was starting to doubt that you would.”
His cold, self-satisfied voice was like nails down a chalkboard, and abruptly all I could think of was that this was the man my mom had spent my entire childhood running from…and I could understand why. Something about him triggered the danger response in my head, and I wanted nothing more than to turn on my heel and run.
Instead, I eyed him coldly.
“Aodh required me to.”
His eyes tightened—I guess this wasn’t the warm family reunion he’d been hoping for. Or maybe he was just pissed I wasn’t fawning at his feet.
“You were foolish enough to make a deal,” he said scathingly. “It wouldn’t have surprised me if you were foolish enough tobreak one.”
“Says the man who broke one of the most important laws there is, and is now in hiding from the council.”
“Oh, is that what you believe, daughter?”
I frowned. “You’re a vampire. And my mom is human. That’s illegal. Youarea vampire, right?”
My frown deepened as I looked at him more closely…but it wasn’t like vamps wore an ID tag telling everyone what they were. Still, there was no mistaking the fact he wasn’t human.
