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“Does she? I think Kane hopes she’s like him.”
Clay laughed. “I was the same, but you took after your mum in everything but your eyes.”
I smiled as I turned to Clay, looking into his eyes. “That’s why your eyes did that molten gold thing at my ceremony, isn’t it?” I said. “Because you’re my father.”
“It is,” he said. “You made me very proud that day. In fact, I’ve always been proud of you. I hated you showed yourself but so proud of you at the same time.”
I laughed at that because it wasn’t what he said afterwards. But it wasn’t time to bring up that argument. “You didn’t want me to dance and go to New York,” I said.
“It was me who wanted you to have a normal childhood. Elizabeth put you into dance lessons, but Dan hated it. But yes, New York could never happen. I think you appreciate that now.”
“I suppose I hoped you’d stay as king and I could have my ordinary life. Then, if I knew more about the dark king, maybe I would have done things different. But don’t hate my father, Clay,” I said, and I noticed as he grimaced. “With everything that is happening, the more magic I know, the better.”
We finished the stroll down the corridor and stopped at the door to the veiled room. Kane smiled as he wandered around carrying Aria in his arms and my heart beat so hard seeing him with her.
Loving her.
“Lacey... you know Aria can’t go back to the University with you, don’t you?” Clay said beside me, looking at Kane too.
“I guessed you say something like that. So what have you already decided? I want to keep her safe,” I said.
“Me too. She’ll live with me during the time you’re at the university and I’ll get a nanny.”
“Clay, don’t take over,” I said. “I’ll be coming home every weekend and maybe a mid-week visit. Don’t be expecting visits at the end of term only.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else,” he said.
“Thank you, Dad,” I said. I leaned into him as he pulled me to him. He pushed my hair back as he looked at me. Dragging me closer to his body and he wrapped his enormous arms around my shoulders and for the first time in my life I heard Clay Summer, my dad, cry.
Chapter 9
Lacey
Thesummerbreakwasblissful, but now we were back at the university and had been for a few weeks. But luckily, life was quiet. I’d spent each Wednesday driving back for a brief visit and each Friday we drove back home, desperate to spend the weekend with Aria, and hated leaving her every Monday morning to leave for the university.
And Clay was a grouch with anything to do with his granddaughter, and up to now we needed a third nanny and my wonderful housekeeper Maggie had taken over more and more nanny duties and I sensed she was going to be a permanent addition.
Clay was overly protective, I noticed, but as much as Maggie helped him out, she told me in secret he was a very hands-on grandfather and that was the most special thing I could have been told.
Perhaps the real reason I now called him Dad.
Talking about parents, Kane had taken me to the place where my parents lived. We’d not gone as far as seeing them. That was too hard because they wouldn’t know me for a few years. Clay had already told me they have no memory of me until I got to twenty-one. I just hoped I got there.
I etched those memories and the memories of every single moment Kane spent with Aria. He loved her so much, and my heart beat harder for him than it could ever have done before. I never wanted it to end.
I had to ensure it would never end.
Seb turned out to be amazing and once Aria smiled, she saved a lot of those smiles for Seb. Of course she did. He would make a wonderful and fun father, and I promised he would be next.
Ryan, as expected, was the more serious of the three and was the one who liked to read to her. He seemed to turn another corner. We were getting back on track. He wasn’t gaming as much; he seemed to prefer to spend time just watching Aria sleep as he read her fairy tales. I noticed his favourite book to read to Aria was Beauty and the Beast. It seemed Aria liked it, too.
Which made me think of the dark king, not sure why I thought of him as a beast. But in all reality—he was. He’d been quiet for a few months and I had the impression, though I hadn’t asked, that Clay had put extra spells around the home because of Aria.
Not that I was complaining, I preferred she was behind the veiled walls of the kingdom and whatever means that took; I was fine with.
I’d only been back at the university for a short time, and I already missed Aria every single time. She was in my thoughts each minute. How would I cope for another two years commuting like this?
I tapped my pen on my notepad as I waited for Safir to turn up with Zena. My thoughts were not where they should be. But everyone told me it would get easier.
