Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (38 page)

“The fruit?”

“Lilith offered me an apple—from the Tree of Wisdom.”

He smiled mockingly. “Have you learned nothing of your ancestor, the First Eve’s, mistakes?”

“‘Do not eat from the Tree of Wisdom’?” I said with a smirk.

Drake nodded.

“Screw that.” I wiped a hand across the air. “If it gets me what I want, I’ll accept whatever God punishes me with.”

“Then it is settled.” He laughed once, bowing low. “And now I must go. Your husband stirs and I have things to prepare for our meeting this afternoon.”

As I took a breath to say something—anything—maybe thank you, maybe goodbye, maybe I still hate you, he vanished, leaving me alone with my worries in the still, too quiet forest.

I looked over at the house, showing in the distance as the sun lifted itself into the sky over the treetops.

In order to keep it from David that I met with Drake, I needed to sneak back up those porch steps quickly, slip in to bed and pretend to wake beside my husband, and for the fear of Safia’s watching spell, make like everything was normal—like I didn’t have a new, even darker secret than I ever had before.

***

David walked quietly, his heavy black boots crunching the fallen twigs on the dry earth. With only hours to go until Lord Eden, Jason and a few others would arrive, David had donned his royal battle-planning attire of combat boots, cargo pants and a black t-shirt, while I dressed similarly dark in a black maternity dress, a pair of woolly stockings and knee-high boots. He looked damn sexy in that outfit, as if he could take on anything—and in my world of dangers, I couldn’t think of a better turn-on.

But sex was the last thing on my mind as we neared our lake. I could smell the water up ahead and the decomposing leaves that left the forest here bare and too open—but more concealed than the house. Despite the evergreens growing in greater numbers there, leaving our little hideout hidden and on most days quite dark, the possibility that Safia had charmed an object and left it there to spy on us made the openness of the lake the most secretive place we could talk.

The trees thinned out a few meters up ahead and the air cooled a few degrees; I could feel that rain I smelled earlier edging in.

David opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn’t say anything until we reached the clearing by the lake. Then he clasped his hands behind his back, rolled his head high, and looked sideways at me with only his eyes. “Your walls are up.”

“My walls?” I said, realising then what he meant. “Oh. Yes. They are.”

“Why are you blocking me out?”

“Can I ask you not to ask?” I asked, mainly just to see his response. In truth, I’d made a decision as we lay in bed talking this morning that went against everything my real father asked of me. On the other hand, keeping it secret went against everything I promised my husband. And unfortunately for Drake, my marriage meant more to me than the concerns of a man that had me tortured.

“I will respect your privacy, Ara—if you want me to,” he said to his feet in a clear yet somewhat weighted voice. “But I’m worried. I can sense something in you and I—”

“Drake came to see me early this morning.”

He stopped walking.

“I talked with him in the forest for a while,” I added.

I could tell he was steaming, and also deeply concerned about the fact that I’d been gone and he didn’t even know. He tried not to show it, but it shone through in the look on his face and the way he swallowed something so hard that his Adam’s apple shifted. “What did you talk about?”

“You were right,” I said. “He did spell that bracelet to watch us.”

“He told you that?”

“He asked me to carry a talisman so that he could keep an eye on us. And he told me that Safia has most likely planted one so she can keep an eye on us, too.”

David’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. “He spoke to you about the witch?”

I nodded. “It’s true—that she’s Anandene’s mother, and… he asked me not to tell you any of this. Especially not near the house, because if Safia hears any of this… she’ll take me.”

“Okay.” He took my hand and led me to our rock, wrapping his arms around my waist as he leaned against it, and held me along the length of his body. “So we’ll just stay out here and talk. What else did he tell you?”

I slid my thumbnail into my mouth and bowed it over my front teeth. I just didn’t know how to say it—how to bring the words from the painful circle in my chest to the surface and tell him.

“My love.” He cupped my head gently in both hands, angling it up, pushing my thumbnail away from my teeth. “Did he hurt you?”

I shook my head like a child without a tongue to speak.

“Okay, did he hurt your feelings?”

A surge of emotion stung the corners of my eyes. I blinked a few times so I wouldn’t cry, but the tears edged their way in anyway. “Drake met Rose once—right after she met Jason.”

“Rose met Jason.” I felt his hands clam up and I was sure I heard his stomach drop. “Did they…”

“No,” I said weakly. “Drake stopped it.”

“Why would he do that?” His voice pitched really high. “He had what he wanted right there. Why—”

“He’s on our side, David—all along, he’s been working to
stop
Anandene being born.”

David’s brow took on that deep crinkle of confusion. “He told you that?”

I nodded timidly, keeping my eyes away from David’s. “He was worried Jason might meet up with Rose again one day, so he made sure she fell pregnant.”

“He chose your father?” David asked. “Or did he have someone rape her?”

“You really don’t think very highly of him, do you?” I said, smiling up at him.

He smiled back. “Sorry. I don’t. But is that what happened? He—”

“No. He slept with her himself.”

I left it up to his clever mind to make the connections.

He did, a little bit faster than I expected.

He didn’t looked shocked, though—or angry, or disgusted. He just said softly, “That explains the resemblance.”

“You think?”

“You don’t?” He brushed his thumb along the corner of my eye. “His eyes and your eyes are a very different kind of blue to your da—” It sunk in. “To Lord Eden’s.”

I closed my lashes over them.

“How do you feel about it—about him being your father?”

“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “It’s still so new.”

“You must feel
something
.”

“I guess… I kinda feel relieved—to know my real dad. And I also feel… I mean, he’s not as bad as I always thought. I kinda like him.” I looked down at my hands, thinking back to the day at the castle when Drake taught me how to use my Cerulean Light. “It’s nice having someone that’s just like me, you know—that can help me understand more about what I am.”

David leaned down and kissed my head, his lips staying against my skin.

“And he confirmed it for me—” I looked up at him, “—that he killed the children to give the blood to Safia.”

“That still doesn’t make it okay.” His lips stiffened around a clenched jaw.

“No, and I will wish every day for the rest of my life that he hadn’t, but… I understand why he chose them.”

“Ara.” David let go of me and took a very deliberate few steps away from me. “How could you say that?!”

“I’m sorry, David. I was born with the gift of empathy and I can’t help it.” I showed him my hands as though they were the source of the problem. “I can’t help but understand why people do things and, from that, I can’t help but forgive them.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“David, please,” I begged, my eyes brimming with tears. “I’m sorry, I—”

“Just stop!” he said firmly.

I snapped my mouth shut, biting my lip.

“Don’t ever apologise for your empathy, Ara.” He appeared in front of me, taking both my hands. “It is the most amazing and beautiful thing about you.”

“You don’t have to lie to me,” I whispered to the ground. “I know you hate it.”

He cupped my chin and pushed it upward until I moved my eyes onto him. “My love, it’s easy for you to forgive. But not so for me. And I’m sorry if I sometimes accuse you of being overly trusting or forgiving, when, the truth is, I need to be more like you.” He leaned down and kissed the tip of my nose. “So please forgive
my
ignorance and just remind me each time that the problem is not in you; it’s in me. You have every right to forgive Drake and to want to love him as your father.”

“Father,” I said the word to myself. “God, that sounds so weird.”

“But not at all peculiar,” he said, looking up as a flock of birds left the wiry branches on the island and coloured the grey sky. “I almost feel like I should have seen it all along.”

“A lot of stuff does make sense now—if you take into account that he was working against Safia all this time, while pretending to work with her. He must have had so many lies going all at once.”

“And all for what? To stop Anandene being born?”

“And to protect me. And also…” I wasn’t sure I should tell him this; he promised me so long ago that he would find me a sister in his search for my real family. How would it destroy him to know he killed the only one I had? Even if she was a horrid little bitch.

“Also?”

“Lilith never had a daughter named Morgana…”

His mind started shifting puzzle pieces around before I even had to say anything. But he didn’t quite catch on.

“Drake and Anandene had a daughter—”

“Morgana.” He covered his face with one hand and moved away from me, letting go of my waist at the very last second.

“Yes.”

He faced the tree line then and folded slightly forward. “Ara. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” I appeared behind him, my hand on his shoulder blade. “After what she did, if you hadn’t, I might have killed her myself.”

“No.” He faced me again. “You wouldn’t.”

“Okay, you’re right. I wouldn’t.” I tried to smile. “But you can’t take back what’s done, and I don’t want you to hate yourself for the rest of our lives.”

“I won’t have to.” He rocked his jaw, taking a deep breath in what looked like preparation. “Do you know how long it takes to burn a body?”

I screwed my nose up. “Ew. No.”

“A lot longer than one evening—to burn it completely, that is.”

“And?”

“And I knew that—knew there would be no way to burn Morgana on bonfires around the manor.”

“What are you saying?” My heart raced with the first ray of hope I’d felt in a long time.

“I cut off her head, Ara, but… I didn’t burn her.”

“She…”

“She can be restored,” he said with a nod. “I hope.”

“You hope?” I raised my voice a little. “Can she or can’t she?”

“If she’s like you, yes. But she was born of Drake and… wait…” His eyes drifted as his mind ticked. “So she inherited her witchcraft from Anandene. Not Lord Callon?”

“Yes. He was just her uncle, but he raised her from birth until early childhood to protect her from an assassin, hired by those that hated Anandene.”

“Did Morgana know—that her father was—”

“No.”

He exhaled, moving at human pace over to the rock, then he leaned his butt against it and rested his head in his hands. “If we can’t put her back together, then I am responsible for taking your only sister away—”

“Then let’s just hope we can mend her. Then again, for your sake, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

He looked up, grinning. “She’s going to be pretty pissed if she wakes up.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Things might change, though, when she learns that she has a sister.” He reached over as I walked toward him, and stroked my cheek.

“Can you still love me, though—knowing I’m a direct descendant of Drake?”

“Somehow…?” He waited until I prompted him onward. “I think I love you even more. And I can definitely see where you inherited your dark side.”

I laughed, then stopped suddenly. “By the way, he was the one that told your mother to switch you and Jase at birth.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hm.” I nodded. “Cheeky, right?”

David’s attention faded away to deep thought. “He was working against Safia even back then?”

“Since roughly twelve years after Anandene died—when he fell in love with someone else.” I cupped his hand against my face and rolled my cheek into it. “We’re going to be okay, you know?”

“What makes you so sure?”

“I’m going to ask Lilith if she knows how to kill Safia, and if she doesn’t, Drake is going to lock himself and Safia away in a tomb—for the rest of time.”

David dropped his hand from my face. “And you’ll never see him again?”

I shrugged. “As long as we’re safe, and the baby, and… Jason.”

He angled his chin to the sky and nodded. “I don’t even want to think about what she’ll do to him if she finds out the baby is soulless.”