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He didn’t, though. Instead, he stared me down. “I thought you cared about her.”
“What?”
“Hera,” he growled out, as if the answer were obvious. “I thought you gave a damn about her! It’s why I ignored you two, why I asked you to help her, why I accepted the idea of your fucking bond with her, and now you’ll break her heart like this?”
“Like what?”
“You’d drag her back? She did theonething she wanted, the thing neither of us thought possible—she got out of Larkwood. How can you tolerate the idea of stealing that from her? What? You think she’ll just go along with it? That she’ll happily play the part of the little woman for you when you get back?” Deacon bared his teeth as he spoke, his purple eyes brighter than usual. Metas really were troublesome, weren’t they?
“No, I don’t expect that.”
“Then what? You’ll rip away her free will? Turn her into just a shadow of herself? Just a puppet for you to play with?”
Him even asking nearly caused a rush of anger from me. Perhaps it was less anger at him and more fury at the idea that it had nearly happened, that my own daughter had almost destroyed the woman I loved.
Still, I kept that to myself. I hadn’t quite come to terms with the fact that Lilianna was a wendigo, that she was at Larkwood. I didn’t doubt the information at all—a part of me suspected I’d known already, that I’d just refused to let myself believe it. I just didn’t know how to handle it. I couldn’t break her out, not yet. I wouldn’t leave her there forever, either. Hera was in the most immediate danger, though, and I could do something about that.
That was a benefit of living a long life—I had time to think about things, to develop plans. I didn’t have to rush into things with Lilianna. She was far too vital to the Warden’s plans for her to do anything to my daughter, which would keep her safe, at least for the moment.
Deacon made a rough sound, full of annoyance, and I realized I’d let myself become so lost in thought that I’d failed to answer his question.
So I shook my head. “No. Believe what you’d like of me, I’m not about to steal Hera’s free will.”
“So whatareyou doing going after her?”
Deacon might be connected to Hera, might even love her, but that didn’t mean I planned to divulge my personal feelings to him. “That is my business,” I said, leaving no room for argument or ambiguity.
Deacon didn’t wilt at my sharp words. “I know you might be at the top of the food chain, but make no mistake, I’ll do whatever it takes to take you down if you threaten her.”
I offered him a chilling grin. “I’d expect nothing else. In fact, if you weren’t willing to do that, you wouldn’t be worthy of our troublesome siren, and I might just turn you to dust right here.”
Deacon snorted and put the car back into drive. “At least we agree on something, huh?”
This was going to be averylong road trip.
Chapter Four
Hera
Seeing so many shades together outside of Larkwood felt odd. I’d grown up with an intense fear of shades, with the voices of my parents and everyone else around me warning me just how dangerous they were.
Seeing them together would have sent me screaming.
While I didn’t bolt, my unease said that, despite my year as a shade, I hadn’t quite shaken that fear.
None of the shades who wore identification bands were high level, telling me they hadn’t escaped from any academy. Instead, they either were Level 3 or 4 or wore no band at all.
They all lived inside what looked like an old, rundown church, and as I went through it, I found all sorts of rooms.
Where I’d woken seemed to be an infirmary, and beside that, a school room, a kitchen, a living area, and in what seemed to be an old classroom area, with lots of smaller rooms, the living quarters. I didn’t walk into those, of course.
In an odd way, it reminded me of Larkwood. Well, not exactly. The general threat of Larkwood, the intense unease, that wasn’t here. These people lived together out of necessity as well, but their daily lives were their own.
Though, at the same time, they lacked many of the amenities. Windows had boards over them and the floors were aged and rough. Everyone wore clothing that had seen better days and there were far more people than space. In short? They might have some level of freedom, but they had little else.
And yet these were likely some of the luckier shades in the world.
The reality caused an ache in my chest that refused to go away.
