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A single tear raced down my cheek, and Kellan wiped it away hurriedly. “You’re not bad,” he said swiftly, turning me to face him. “Just because you have power doesn’t make you bad.”
I wanted to believe that, but how could I? Both my mother and my aunt used their power for bad. Were you born with the good or bad gene? What happened to them to make both so cruel?
“How do you know that?”
The corners of Kellan’s eyes softened. “Because I know you.”
I smiled despite the roller coaster twirling around inside of me. “I’m afraid because I used it that it’s going to hurt me, or ... I don’t know. Consume me?”
Kellan ran the pad of his thumb against my bottom lip. “I won’t let that happen.”
“What if you can’t stop it?” I asked, wrapping my palm around his wrist.
“Nothing has stopped me so far,” he said. “I don’t let the people I care about get hurt.”
I chuckled. “You’re right there. You just fell from a castle for me. Stabbed a dragon and went through hell to find me. I hope my dad pays you well.”
He laughed. “Speaking of, don’t you think we should go see him? He’s probably worried because his wife and daughter are missing.”
I cringed. “I don’t know what to say to him. What do I tell him?”
Kellan stood and stepped off the bottom step. “How about the truth?”
I swallowed the hard lump of nerves in the back of my throat. “I guess that’s all we have to go on, isn’t it? I don’t think he’ll believe the truth.”
Kellan led me toward his old pickup and helped me inside. The cracked seats pressed against the back of my legs as I maneuvered myself to get comfortable.
The engine started after a few moments, and Kellan looked relieved. “I never know if we’re on good terms or not,” he said, backing out of his driveway. “She goes dead on me a lot.”
I chuckled. “She must sense the urgency to get somewhere. Maybe she’ll go dead on the way, and I won’t have to talk to my dad today.”
Kellan reached over and squeezed my thigh. “It’s better to get it over with now, right?”
“If you say so,” I mumbled.
Kellan drove us toward my parents’ house. Guilt weighed on me as we pulled down the driveway and noticed two cop cars parked out front. “He called the cops. Which means he doesn’t think your mother would have gone into the realm.”
I shifted as Kellan parked and grabbed the door handle. Giving him a glance over my shoulder, I stepped out and walked toward the front door.
The door was heavy beneath my palms as I pushed it open and stepped inside. Dad’s voice came from his den. The cracked door let me hear some of their conversation.
“—she just wasn’t there this morning. I don’t know where to look.”
“There was no sign of forced entry, and your alarms didn’t go off. Would she have left to meet someone somewhere?”
Dad’s cry broke my heart. I couldn’t tell this man that his wife was gone. How could I? I turned to look at Kellan when I noticed Luther standing by the stairwell.
I walked over, and he brought me in for a hug. “I can’t believe you’re safe,” he whispered. When he pulled away, he looked up at Kellan. “Thank you for saving her. I knew you could do it."
If he only knew the hell we'd gone through.
Kellan nodded and inclined his head toward the den. “What’s going on here?”
Luther frowned and ran his fingers into his salt-and-pepper hair. “I don’t want to be the one that tells you, but your mother is missing.”
Kellan wrapped his hand around mine as the den doors opened. Two cops walked out into the hallway. They slipped passed us, and I found my way down the hallway to my father.
He sat at his desk with both elbows on the counter. “Daddy?” I asked in a voice that sounded too much like the child I used to be.
