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I turned around, my heart skipping a beat. There he was, my father, a strange expression in his eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was anger or relief. Perhaps it was a bit of both. He rushed towards me with open arms, and he flung them around me, holding me tightly. Warm tears trickled down his cheeks.
“Kadie, oh Kadie, I’m so glad that you’re safe. I’m so glad you’re back. What happened? Why did you leave?” he asked, the questions rushing out of his mouth in one breath. I lookedbehind him at the open door, gaping like a hungry mouth. I pushed it shut, fearing that, if the door was open, someone else might be intrigued and enter to figure out what was going on. It was going to be hard enough to explain things to Dad.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I said quickly. “And I’m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye. But I’m fine, I really am. And I just… I came back to see what was happening and now I think I’ve seen that so I should probably go,” I inched towards the door, but somehow, I knew I wasn’t going to get away that easily. I cursed myself for lighting the candle. It had been one risk too many.
Dad looked troubled. “Kadie,” his tone was less gentle now. “What’s going on? I thought you had been captured.”
“No Dad, of course I haven’t. I just needed to get away, that’s all.”
“But why?”
I pressed my lips together. I had really hoped that we wouldn’t have to have this conversation. “Do you really need to ask that?”
He looked at me blankly. I huffed and crossed my arms. “Dad, I left because of all this,” I said.
“All what?”
I looked around. “Ilvar.”
“What about Ilvar? He wanted you to be his mate? It was a great honor. I don’t understand why you left,” he seemed wounded, as though I had caused him shame that was equal to the honor, he would have enjoyed had I accepted Ilvar’s proposal.
“And I didn’t want to be his mate, Dad. I know he’s our leader and we should all respect him, but he’s not a nice man and I certainly didn’t want him to be my husband. And you were supposed to protect me. Why didn’t you tell me what he was planning? Why didn’t you even ask me what I wanted.”
Dad looked mystified. “Because I thought you would want it too. Why would you not want to be with such a great man?”
“Because he’s not as great as you think he is,” I said, and that was enough to take the wind out of his sails. Then, it was as though he suddenly realized the incongruity of the situation. The surprise of seeing me had now faded, and he saw that I was sneaking around Ilvar’s home by candlelight and there was only one question on his mind.
“What are you doing here?”
“I really wish you hadn’t asked me that, Dad. Just… just let me leave and we can forget that this ever happened.”
“I’m not sure I can do that, Kadie.”
“Just forget that you saw anything. You can leave this house, and if anyone asks, you can say that you were mistaken, that it was just an owl or something.”
“An owl can’t light candles,” he said softly. I feared that, if I pitted his love for me against his loyalty to the thunder, then there would only be one loser.
“Please Dad, please just let me go. Just pretend that this is a dream or something. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Why would there be trouble Kadie? I don’t understand. You were always such a good girl. This isn’t like you…” he said, and his tone was wounded. I pitied him for having to see his little girl grow into a woman like me, a woman who would go against his wishes.
“I am a good girl, Dad, at least I’m trying to be. And that’s why I couldn’t marry Ilvar.”
“But why? He wants nothing but the best for us.”
“And what about the rest of the planet? He’s going to destroy this place in the hope that we can find Drakon again, and there’s no guarantee of that anyway!” I cut myself short as I realized I was raising my voice. I didn’t want to get any extra attention.
“It’s our birthright,” Dad said, although I knew he was parroting lines from Ilvar.
“That’s him speaking, it’s not you. Is it our birthright to destroy this planet? And why does our birthright trump the birthright of humans?” I shot back.
He winced and turned his head away from me. “You don’t know what you’re saying Kadie. If you just listened to him.”
“I listened to him enough. You need to listen to me now, Dad. I know he’s persuasive and I know you think that he’s doing what’s best for us, but he’s not. He’s going to hurt people and I don’t want to be a part of that.”
He flailed a hand through the air as if it was enough to dismiss my words.
“We can talk about this all later. What’s important is that you’re home now. We can move forward. You’ve had time to think about things and now we can relax.”
