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She just wished they were on the same side of the fight.
“You came down,” Eric said.
She took a seat across from him. “You sound surprised.”
He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Coffee?”
She nodded, and he rose to make it. Neither of them spoke until he returned to the table with two steaming mugs.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the one he offered to her.
“We shouldn’t have hidden things from you,” he said.
“I thought you weren’t going to apologise.”
“I’m not. I stand by my decision. In hindsight, we waited too long to tell you. You’re older now, I understand that, but you have to understand why I did it in the first place. You were a child, Cara. You’re still a child. You’ll always be my child, no matter how old you get. No one wants to tell their children that the world is dangerous and scary and full of monsters.”
She sipped her coffee. “I suppose I can understand that.”
“There’s more,” he said. He pulled something from his pocket and laid it on the table.
“What’s...” She tilted her head, recognising the photograph. “Uncle Russell. What does he have to do with any of this?”
“He didn’t die in a car crash.”
She looked up at him. “What?”
“I told you that because I didn’t want to scare you. You were barely eight years old, and the truth was too much.”
“What truth?”
“Your uncle was killed by a void.”
She went cold. “What?”
“Russell was killed by a void,” Eric said.
“Oh my god. But... I thought you’d never met a void before.”
“It’s not something I talk about.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“There’s no need. You weren’t responsible. Most witch families have similar stories, although most of them aren’t as recent. The older generations lived in fear. A single void could destroy entire bloodlines, or twist them into something far worse than death.”
“Worse?”
“The voids often kept their victims alive to use as magical batteries. They could drain us again and again, waiting for us to recover our strength before doing it all over again.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yes, it is.”
She frowned. “That’s not what Nick is doing with me.”
“Are you sure?”
“He’s never taken my magic. Except the first time,” she added quickly. “But that was an accident.”
