Chapter 23 #2
Professor Thorne steps into the clearing behind us. "Alaric, put the case down."
My father's eyes move to him. "You have no authority over Starling family property."
Valerius's voice turns lethal. "If that property is part of her body, I dare you to say that again to Thorne."
My father pales. I keep my eyes on the silver case.
"What is that?" His grip tightens around it. My stomach drops. Not because he doesn't know because he does. "What is it?" I ask again.
My father looks at my mother's absence behind me, as if expecting her to appear and explain him out of this but she isn't here. No one saves him from answering. "It is an anchor," he says. My breath catches. The seal key. His voice is strained. "Your mother entrusted it to me."
"Entrusted?" I repeat. Pain twists through my chest. "You mean she gave you the thing keeping my magic sealed."
His jaw tightens. "She gave me the thing keeping you alive."
Valerius moves half a step. I lift a hand without looking. He stops. My father sees it. Something flickers across his face.
"He listens to you," he says.
I look at him then. "You never did."
The words land. His mouth parts slightly. Then closes. For one moment, I think he might apologize. Instead, his face hardens. "You do not understand what you are."
The old wound opens so easily I almost laugh. "No," I say. "But I understand that everyone else has used that as an excuse to decide for me."
My father's eyes sharpen. "You think this is about freedom? Choice? That boy?"
His gaze cuts to Valerius. "You think because he holds your hand and burns things for you, that makes him safe?"
Valerius smiles faintly. It's not pleasant.
My father ignores him and looks back at me.
"Your magic killed people before you were even able to speak."
The archive goes silent. My blood turns cold. Valerius steps close instantly, shoulder brushing mine.
Professor Thorne's face hardens. "Alaric."
"No," my father snaps. "She wants truth. Let her have it." My heart pounds. "What are you talking about?"
His eyes are bright now. "When you were born, the estate wards collapsed. Everyone knows that part now, I assume."
He looks at Thorne with bitterness. "But what your mother likely softened is what happened after."
My throat closes. Valerius's hand finds mine.
My father looks at our joined fingers and his mouth twists.
"The first healer who touched you lost all magic in her hands for three months. The second fainted and woke speaking a dead language. The third bled from his eyes."
My father's voice shakes. "And your nurse—" He stops, then continues, "Your nurse died."
The archive tilts. "She was holding you when the windows shattered again. White fire covered the room. It did not burn furniture. Did not scorch walls."
His voice breaks for the first time I have ever heard. "But it stopped her heart."
I can't breathe. The Starfire beneath my skin recoils so violently I gasp. Valerius turns toward me. "Valentina." I killed someone. My hand slips from his. He catches it before I can pull away. "No," he says. His voice isn't loud, but it cuts through everything.
My eyes burn. "I killed her."
"You were an infant." He says.
"She died holding me." My hands shake.
"You were an infant." He repeats.
My father whispers, "That is what I told myself."
Valerius's head snaps toward him. "Do not make your guilt hers."
My father's face twists. "You think you know guilt, Draven?"
Valerius's Shadowflame stirs. "Yes." The word is so quiet the archive seems to lean toward it.
I look at him. He doesn't look away from my father.
His face is cold, but the bond opens just enough for me to feel the truth beneath that single word.
Yes, Valerius knows guilt. He knows it deeply. Violently. Personally.
My father looks shaken despite himself. Professor Thorne steps forward. "Alaric, the key."
My father's grip tightens on the silver case. "No." The word hits the archive like a lock turning. Valerius goes still.
Professor Thorne's eyes narrow. "You do not understand what is happening."
"I understand that my daughter is standing beside a Draven with her seal breaking and the council tearing the academy apart to find her."
"And your solution is what?" I ask, voice shaking. "Keep me sealed forever?"
His eyes meet mine. For the first time, I see the answer before he gives it. "Yes."
Pain slices through me. Even after everything, even after Starfire, even after the Remnant, even after the council tried to use separation to break me.
His answer is yes. He would choose the seal.
He would choose powerless. He would choose the girl he could barely love because at least that girl didn't frighten him.
My whole life I thought he hated me because I was not his but the truth is he didn't hate me, he knew I was his.
He just couldn't stand what I was and was ashamed of me and afraid of me.
I step back. Valerius's arm comes around me. My father's face tightens. "I watched what that magic did."
"You watched what fear did," Valerius says.
My father looks at him with hatred. "You know nothing about it."
"I know she spent years paying for a death she was never told about." My breath catches. Valerius's voice lowers. "I know you let her believe she was nothing because blaming her was easier than protecting her.." The words are brutal.
My father flinches as if struck. The archive trembles. Books rattle in their chains. My Starfire flickers under my skin, not out of rage this time. Pain. So much pain.
Seren moves closer. "Val..."
I shake my head. I can't look away from my father. "Did you hate me?" I ask.
The question comes from somewhere younger than I am. Small and broken. My father's face changes. He looks old and tired. "No," he says. My throat tightens. Then he says, "I was afraid of loving you."
My tears fall before I can stop them. "Why?"
"Because I did love you." His voice cracks.
"And every time I looked at you, I remembered holding your nurse's body while your mother screamed your name and fire crawled over the ceiling like stars. I remembered thinking no child should have that much power. No family should be asked to survive it."
He looks down at the case. "So I let the seal make you safe."
"No," I whisper. His eyes lift. "You let it make me alone."
His face breaks. Not enough to fix anything but enough to show he heard. The silver case trembles in his hand. For one impossible second, I think he will give it to me.
Then the archive doors boom. Not the stone passage behind us. The upper archive. Council magic. Professor Thorne turns sharply. "Voss." Valerius's arm tightens.
Seren whispers, "Of course. Of course she arrives now. Why would evil ever wait its turn?"
The freestanding vault door behind my father begins to glow. My father looks at it. Then at the case. Then at me. "I can still protect you."
My blood chills. "No."
He turns toward the vault door. Valerius moves. So do I. "Father!" The word stops him. He freezes with his hand inches from the lock. My voice breaks. "Please."
His shoulders shake once. Valerius is breathing hard beside me, held back by my hand gripping his sleeve. The archive booms again. Closer. Voss's voice carries faintly from above. "By authority of the Arcane Council, open the lower archive."
Time is collapsing around us. My father turns slowly. The silver case is still in his hand. My heart pounds. "Give it to me," I whisper.
He stares at me. "I can't."
"You can." I beg.
"If I do, the last layer weakens." He says in a whisper.
"It's already weakening." I tell him.
"If it breaks—"
I cutt him off. "Then it breaks with me awake."
His eyes fill with something. Fear. Grief. Maybe love, finally brave enough to have a shape. Valerius's thought brushes mine.
He will run.
The second my father's gaze flicks to the side passage, I know Valerius is right. He is going to take the key and run. Not to Voss, maybe. Not intentionally but away from me. Away from choice. Away from every truth he can't bear.
My body moves before I think. "Valerius," I whisper. He hears the plea before the plan and he moves.
Shadowflame snaps across the floor, not at my father, but around him, forming a dark ring that blocks every exit except the space between us.
My father stiffens. "You threaten me?"
Valerius's voice is deadly calm. "No. I'm standing still."
The echo of the council chamber sends a shiver through me. The archive door above cracks. Professor Thorne swears. "We are out of time."
My father looks from the Shadowflame to me. "You brought him here to force me."
"No." My voice shakes. "I brought him because I trust him to be by my side and make sure no one ever steal my life away from me again. I trust him with my life."
That lands. His eyes flick to Valerius. Then back to me. "I am your father."
"I needed you to be that before today." I shoot. His face goes pale. The silver case lowers an inch.
The archive door above explodes open. Cold council light floods the shelves. Magistra Voss enters with six silver-cloaked guards behind her. Her black stones glow at her chest. Her eyes fall immediately on the Shadowflame ring. Then the silver case. Then me.
"Well," she says softly. "How fortunate. Everyone important in one forbidden room."
Valerius steps in front of me. Professor Thorne moves to the side, blocking her view of the vault door. Seren raises green Veil magic around her hands.
Voss smiles. "Dean Starling is absent. How disappointing."
"She is occupied," Professor Thorne says.
"By hiding evidence?" She questions.
"By preventing your illegal search from damaging old wards." Thorne responds.
Her smile thins. "Council authority supersedes academy inconvenience." Her gaze shifts to my father. "Alaric. Give me the case."
The world stops. My father's face changes. My stomach drops. "You knew," I whisper.
He doesn't look at me. Voss extends one hand. "The key."