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“Is that decision up to you?” my father asked in a jeering tone. He turned back to me. “Always controlled by a man, I see. First me, and now him.” He shook his head in mock pity. “You were always so easy to manipulate. So easily controlled by your emotions.”
“Shut up,” I spat out, my rage and fear making me shake. I was in a tenuous position and as much as I knew I should just destroy my father, I couldn’t sacrifice my mother to do it. Even though I knew there was a chance that he was lying, I was unable to get past the fact that my mother’s soul could still be alive.
“Assuming that you’re telling the truth, how do you do it?” Ryan asked, looking at him skeptically.
“It’s more of a question of who than how,” my father said. “Only a few select vardogers can do it by using palladium.” He nodded towards the balding man. “Philip is one of the most powerful vardogers I’ve ever met. He overtook his person when he was only an infant and his powers have grown incredibly strong. It took a while to find such a strong vardoger, but once I did I knew it was time to visit Caitlin again.”
Philip beamed at his words as if he was being praised by a proud parent, making me want to throw up in disgust.
“This is a trick,” Simon insisted urgently. “He’s not just going to save your mother and hand her ove
r to you. He’s going to find a way to destroy you both.”
I was intensely conflicted. I stared at my mother as a dozen emotions roiled through me. I wanted to reach out and touch her, to take her hand, but her expression told me she would recoil at my touch.
My father sighed impatiently. “Fine, you want a show? You’ll get a show.” He turned to Philip. “Push the vardoger back so her mother’s soul can surface.”
Philip pulled out a piece of palladium on a chain around his neck that had been tucked under his shirt. He put a hand on each of my mother’s arms as she struggled violently, cursing at him and then mewling in fear, begging him not to do it. He ignored her and closed his eyes, muttering under his breath. She began to struggle even more until her body suddenly went limp. Her head fell back as if it was too heavy to be supported by her neck. I almost expected her head to start spinning around like the Exorcist when she suddenly snapped her head towards me.
“Don’t do it,” she pleaded in a hoarse voice. “It’s a trick. Destroy him and save yourself.”
Her eyes bored into me and I started to tremble, feeling myself losing my grip on sanity. Her eyes held fear, urgency and desperation but it held another emotion that I recognized instantly: love. In that moment I saw my mother and I knew it was true. She was trapped in her body along with the vardoger. I couldn’t imagine the torture she had experienced all these years by my father’s hands, yet her only words were a plea for me to protect myself. I wanted to collapse onto the floor and weep bitterly for the mother I had thought was dead all these years. It was bittersweet because she had been kept alive only to be tortured.
I steeled myself against my emotions. I needed to think clearly, logically, or my father would get the best of me. He looked angered by my mother’s words. “Shut her up,” he spat out to Philip, who nodded and started muttering again while gripping her arms. In mere seconds her body went from limp to rigid and tense again.
“I fucking hate it when you do that!” she screamed and I knew the vardoger was back in control. My father ignored her as if she hadn’t spoken.
“There’s your proof,” he said. “Now what’s your decision?”
I felt like I was going crazy. I didn’t know what to do, but doing nothing wouldn’t solve anything either. “Get rid of the vardoger inside her first and then we’ll talk.”
My father shook his head as if he were disappointed in me. “Do you really think I would do that? It would be too easy for you to go back on the agreement. I’ll guess we’ll have to do this the hard way then.”
The next thing I knew, the house exploded with bodiless vardogers. They seemed to come crashing through every window, pouring into the house in a constant stream. As dozens came rushing towards me, I saw Simon run towards my father and slam into him and they both fell onto the ground. I had no time to pay attention to what happened next as the vardogers hit me like a ton of bricks. They attacked in an endless stream. As soon as I had destroyed the ones clamoring to enter me, there were more behind them waiting for their turn. I felt myself growing weaker with each attack but I powered through, telling myself there was no way I was going to let my father win, especially now that I knew my mother was alive.
When I finally destroyed the last vardoger, my body felt like it had been through the wringer. I felt like collapsing but my adrenaline kept me standing. I wasn’t prepared for the scene before me. Simon was lying on the floor and I felt sickened when I saw blood streaming from his head. My father had my mother in front of him, shielding his body, as Ryan stood opposite him with his gun raised. Philip was standing behind my father like he was a small boy.
My father looked at me in amazement. “You’re even more powerful than I thought. No other seer could have destroyed all those vardogers.” He nodded towards Ryan. “He shoots and your mother dies too.”
Ryan glanced at me. “We can’t let him get away.”
I shook my head. “You can’t shoot my mother.” That didn’t mean that I couldn’t destroy my father’s vardoger. He had stupidly told me how to destroy the vardoger inside my mother and all I needed was Philip. There was no need to spare my father’s life.
My father’s expression darkened when he realized what I was doing. What he didn’t realize was that I was starting to panic. I had used up all my energy destroying the vardogers and my powers were barely a flicker even though I was trying as hard as possible to summon them. My powers dissipated completely when my father pulled out a gun from his waistband and held it against my mother’s head.
“You won’t be able to destroy me before I blow her brains out. I can feel you gathering your power to use against me. Do it again and I’ll shoot her.”
I held my hands up in surrender since he didn’t realize I didn’t have enough strength to use my powers against him. “Okay, I won’t use them. Just put the gun down.”
My father’s jaw tightened to the point where a muscle started twitching. “I’m offering this for the last time. Trade places with her. Otherwise, I’ll take the situation into my own hands.”
Before I could respond, I heard a sharp crack. My father doubled over, howling in pain as he gripped his thigh which was spurting with blood.
“Shoot him again!” I screamed at Ryan but my father had already straightened and my mother was still between him and Ryan’s gun. His pant leg was soaked with blood and he was grimacing with pain, but his eyes were still bright with hate. “You’ll regret not taking my offer.” He turned to Philip. “Summon the rest of them!”
I watched horrified as more vardogers started streaming through the broken windows. They rushed me with such force that I was thrown back onto the ground. I tried to gather my powers but they were nothing but a whisper. I heard screaming and then realized it was coming from me as pain seared through every part of my body. I didn’t have the strength to fight back and I felt my body start to shake as if I was having a seizure. Instead of my soul being pushed out, it felt as if it were being pushed down and being buried deep inside me. The pain was too much to bear. It felt as though fingers were actually digging into my heart, stopping it from beating and ripping out all my humanity.
I was on the edge of consciousness when I suddenly felt the pressure lighten, incrementally at first, but then it started pulling back more rapidly. My eyes fluttered open and I gasped as I tried to take a full breath. Ryan was kneeling over me, his teeth bared as sweat poured down his tense face.
