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“I’m sure he wants you to believe that.”
“It was the truth. I conjured flames, and I saw his face. He’d never seen magic before. I’m sure of it.”
Her dad nodded. “Even so, a void is a void. New or experienced, they’re all the same.”
“He’s different.” She hesitated, and then asked, “Can I ask how Russell died? If it’s too difficult to talk about, it’s okay.”
Her father’s eyes dropped to his coffee, and when he spoke, his voice was soft. “It was violent. The void had him for days, and we don’t know what happened in that time, but we know what happened at the end.”
“Oh god.”
She reached across the table to put her hand over his, and after a moment, he turned his hand to squeeze hers gently.
“They found the void a few days later. He took a family hostage - the mother was a witch - but fortunately, the hunters found them before anyone else got hurt.”
“What happened to the void?”
“He was killed.”
“And the family?”
“Physically unharmed, although I’m sure they were traumatised.”
“That’s awful,” Cara said.
“The void corrupts,” Eric said. “It doesn’t matter who you are beforehand. That person is worn away until the void is all that’s left.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is. It doesn’t matter how good or bad Nick is. Soon, he’ll disappear, and a stranger will be wearing his face. For all we know, it’s already happened.”
“He’s not a monster.”
“Maybe not, but that only leaves two possibilities. Either he’s lying to you - and you believe him - or he hasn’t been corrupted yet, and it’s only a matter of time.”
Cara didn’t have an answer for that. “Were they able to kill that other void?”
Her dad nodded. “They got lucky.”
“That’s awful. For the family, I mean. And Uncle Russell.”
“That’s what voids do.”
“It can’t be all of them,” Cara said. “Not all witches are good. It’s not as simple as us being good and voids being bad. That’s what witch hunters are for, right? Witches who leave the path.”
“Depends on the hunter,” Eric grunted. “Many of them are no better than mercenaries.”
“I know him, Dad,” she said. “Nick isn’t a monster.”
“There aren’t as many voids these days,” he said, brushing past her words. “But they’re still as dangerous as ever.”
“Why are there less?”
He shrugged. “It’s a violent lifestyle, I suppose. Also, even if they have children, the void ability doesn’t pass to every child.”
“Like a recessive gene,” Cara said.
“Maybe. Some people believe it’s a curse, passed down from an ancestor who offended the gods. As generations passed, the curse skipped more and more children, diluted in their blood.”
