AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That would be wrong.
“Yes. It immediately comes to me if he dies,” Michael repeated.
I frowned at him. “I don’t want to kill your father. He’s my high warlock too, even if he is a little... strange.” I was trying to be kind to Michael, using that word, but the high warlock was a lot more than simply strange.
I didn’t need to be concerned for Michael’s feelings. His next words confirmed that his eyes were well and truly open when it came to his dad. “He’s way past strange, Monique.” Sadness was evident in his dark gaze. “I think he’s going insane. I’m worried for everyone in this realm, to be honest.”
I took a deep breath to absorb his words. “Are you saying, you want to kill your father?”
“Oh, God no.” Michael said.
Relief saturated me. “I didn’t think so.”
Then he tilted his head and glanced away. “But should he still be running this realm? I’m not sure.”
I lifted the lantern a little higher so I could see his face more clearly. “What do you mean?”
He sighed, heavily. “I mean... we were talking about leaving... all together. And I’m not sure I can, Monique. I can’t leave my people, my home. Not when he’s like this.”
A lump formed in my throat and I swallowed hard to get it down. “Oh, I see.” And I finally did. He wanted to stay. He didn’t want to come with us.
He reached out for me, not letting go of the curtain. “No, it’s not that I don’t want to be with you. I do. Desperately. But... how can I walk away from this, Monique? All these people. They trust him to look after them.”
I shrugged. He had done it before. He’d been gone for years.
The ache that wrapped around my heart was worse than I’d thought it would be. Even though initially I hadn’t even wanted Michael in our family, the idea of living a life without him now was... painful.
“It’s okay,” I finally managed, taking a step back and waving my hand. “Let’s just fix this problem first. Then we can talk about all that stuff.”
Because if my wolves were killed, or me for that matter, this conversation would be totally moot anyway.
Michael glanced at the curtain, still holding it open with his hand. “I think we should do a spell to keep this open, so we can go rescue Xander and Kyle, then come back this way. It’s way simpler than going around the town and trying to find another hole in the veil.”
“True, but how would we do that?” I certainly didn’t know any spells for that sort of thing.
“Well, that’s kinda why I brought up the whole blood spell thing in the first place.” He sighed. “I didn’t mean to actually tell you all the other shit.”
I magicked up a hair elastic, placed the lantern on the ground, and swung my hair up into a high ponytail. It was a distraction, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about the blood magic. “Whatdidyou mean to tell me then?” I asked at last.
“That because I’m the high warlock’s heir, I think the veil will respond to my blood. I think I can actually keep this door open.”
I reached for the lantern, then held it high once more. “Seriously?”
“Yes. It’s not really blood magic, not the dark kind. It just involves using my lineage and future abilities to work on this barrier.”
That made sense. Once he was the high warlock, he’d control this whole place, so why not draw on some of that power now? “So, what do we have to do?”
That’s where his lips thinned. “We need a potion, and a spell, and my blood. I’ve got all the details here. I kind of had the feeling it might be needed.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper.
When he handed it to me, I was disturbed to see one of the edges was frayed. “Did you rip this out of a book?”
You just shouldn’t do that. Ever.
He shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, had to. It came out of one of my dad’s books that no-one else has. He keeps all the best spell books for himself.”
I snorted as I read the potion ingredients. I could well believe the high warlock would do something as selfish as that.
I frowned as I read the page to the bottom. “This isn’t an easy potion, Michael. I’m going to need to go back to my place and hunt up some of the ingredients.”
