Chapter 13 #2
“If anyone has been the pet here, it would be you. Shackled forever, while I am the one free. I work for who I want. Can you say the same?” Tad snapped at all of them. “Your father is the one who locked the chain around your neck by turning against everything we stand for.”
“Because he didn’t want to be a servant to the fae.” Morgan’s shoulders drew up. “If black magic is what it took to free us—”
“But you are not free, are you?” He cut her off, stepping forward.
“And to use black magic on a fellow Druid . . .” Tad was always so serene and calm, but now fire raged behind his eyes, making them glow.
“On me . . .” He twisted to my mother. “Your spell is broken now, Eabha. I know what you did.” He motioned to his bent spine. “This is from you. Your black magic.”
My eyes darted back between them, trepidation fizzing in my belly.
No emotion flickered on her face, but I saw her rib cage move faster under her cloak.
“I held you as children. Taught you both your first spell.” Tad’s sentiment dripped with sorrow. “Your father’s best friend.”
What? How did I not know that?
“And you turned your back on him. On us!” Eabha took a step forward, her lids lowering.
“No. Your father turned his back on our ways. He betrayed everyone.” Tad stamped his staff into the ground.
“You blind, arrogant fool.” Morgan moved up with her sister, tension rising quickly.
“Watch yourself, Morgan,” Tad responded as if she were still a child he needed to scold, but his eyes were still on my mom. I couldn’t fight the feeling there was a slight fear in his eyes.
“Do you even know what really happened?” Mother stabbed the handle of her war scythe into the stone ground, stepping closer to Tad. “What happened to this clan under Aneira’s rule? What she did to Father?”
Tad tried to straighten his twisted spine, and his shoulders went up as if trying to guard himself, not against her magic, but her words.
“You’ve heard the rumors about her. Her sick, perverted ways of punishing. Of controlling.”
Tad’s head shook. “You have it all wrong.”
“No, you do. You have no idea what he went through before he died.” Eabha took another step forward. “You are nothing but a coward, Tadhgan. A back-stabbing traitor.”
Tad’s eyes flashed, and he lumbered over until they were only a few feet apart.
“I have done a lot of things in my life I am not proud of, and I regret the situation with your father the most. If I could go back, I would. But he made his choice, and no matter what I said, he was willing to risk his family for the cause. For her!”
“Because he wanted us to have freedom.” Morgan joined them.
“No!” Tad barked. “Your father killed that fae king and his entire family for Aneira.”
The entire group sucked in violently, as if we all had been hit with force.
“You lying, disgusting troll!” Liam bolted forward.
In a blink, barely moving his lips, light funneled from Tad, flicking Liam back through the air, his body landing on the hard stone like he was a doll.
“Do not challenge me, boy,” Tad grunted.
“I might look old and decrepit, but I am far more powerful than all of you put together,” he snapped.
“And I am the only one who knows what actually happened. Your father’s—Balfour’s—cause did start out with good intentions, but as it grew, so did his influence, ego, and greed. ”
“Greed?” Morgan puffed up.
“Not for money, but for more power. For more results. He slipped more and more away from the original motive, dipping into black magic and violence. And then she came along, a very young, beautiful princess, and told him all the things he wanted to hear. How things would change when she became queen. It wasn’t long before they became lovers. ”
“He would never do that. Our mother was the love of his life,” Morgan hissed.
“She was. But your mother was four months in the grave. He had two young girls to raise and was lonely and heartbroken. She worked it to her advantage.”
“No. No, I don’t believe it.” Rory shook her head. “Balfour would never fall for her; he’d see she was evil.”
“We did not know her as such then. She was a stunning, young princess, our future queen speaking of changes and hope, of modernizing the ways of old. He did not see how manipulative and cunning Aneira already was. How she wrapped him around her finger, got into his head. Sex is a powerful coercion tool, and from what I’ve heard, even young, Aneira was a master.
“I warned him. Told him to not do it, but Aneira had gotten in too deep. They planned for Balfour to kill his master and the entire family, including the staff. I feel it was always Aneira who pushed that. Then he would have his freedom, and when Aneira became queen, which was sooner than we all thought, they could openly be lovers. It was a trap. And when your father was caught, along with everyone involved, including his kin, Aneira stood by her father, declaring Balfour’s druid powers had forced her against her will into bed, and his entire clan should be punished. For eternity.”
Tad touched his forehead, his lids squeezing shut for a moment.
“I can’t imagine the betrayal your father felt in that moment.
But instead of hating her, he still did her bidding.
I’ve heard of Aneira’s perverted control methods, but your father was not an unwilling player.
Balfour was one she had hunting us down during the Druid Genocide. ”
I had read of this briefly in my books. Druids had created the four treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann, the old name for the Otherworld, and hid them away from the fae because of their power.
Not even Aneira could break the spell, veiling their whereabouts.
Only a druid could, so she set on a rampage of death and torture until one would break the spell for her.
She spread the propaganda of their evilness, making it okay to kill them freely.
Not one Druid gave in.
Thousands and thousands were slaughtered in the process. She was the reason there was still a stigma surrounding Druids. Why there were so few and why they still chose to live quiet lives away from the public.
“No.” Eabha’s chest heaved. “No. He would never! My father was not a traitor!”
“He was, Eabha. You can call me one if you like, and there are things I’ve done which warrant that.” Tad raised his head. “But your father slaughtered his own. And when he found our hideout . . .” Tad paused, lifting his head.
“I was the one who killed him,” Tad stated. “But it was your father who placed that curse on you. Not Aneira.”