Chapter 24
“DAD, I FOUND you,” I cried into his unmoving chest. I’d pushed his drink tray aside and shoved myself into his arms, squeezing so hard that his breathing grew labored, but he didn’t say a word.
I didn’t waste any more time.
“Dad. Dad. Dad. Harold. Harry. Dad. Harold.” I chanted his name over and over. Quantity seemed to be key here. “Snap out of it, Dad. You’ve got this, Dad. Come on, Dad.”
“Brynn?” His voice interrupted my chorus.
“Dad!” I cried, pulling back to check his eyes.
They were focusing slowly as he came out of the fog. “Is that Olive on the floor?” His forehead wrinkled, and he bent down to check on her.
I joined him, probably ruining my dress completely at this point, but I didn’t care.
Olive wasn’t responding, but we could carry her out of here together. “Grab her arms, and I’ll get her legs.”
But he didn’t listen. “What’re you doing, Brynn?”
I started to repeat myself slower, because his zombie mode clearly hadn’t worn off all the way yet. “Grab. Her. Arms. I’ll—”
“We can’t leave, Brynn. We’re under contract.”
My eyes flew to his.
Though this part of the tunnel wasn’t well lit, he seemed coherent. “You remember?” Then I shook myself. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll worry about that part later.”
“We can’t break a fae contract, Brynn. It’ll kill us. The pain will be worse than anything they could do to us here.”
Had Dad just said the word “fae”? And how did he know how the contracts worked?
“It’s too late for us, Brynn.” Dad’s face was haunted as he whispered, “You need to go home before they get you too.”
“No,” I snapped, pulling back from Olive to stare at him in horror. “I’m not leaving you. I could never.”
“You have to,” Dad argued. He managed to get Olive uncurled and pulled her to her feet.
I stood as they did, eyes darting between them. He held her in his arms, tears streaming down his face. “Go. Get out of this place, and never look back. I love you.”
It was those words that broke my last bit of optimism about getting through to him.
“I love you too, Dad.” He blurred in my vision.
I’d go get Soren. He’d know what to do, and he could use his stronger fae voice or magic or whatever it was to force Dad to listen.
We’d figure out the rest later. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?
Stay right here.” I backed away, scared to let him out of my sight for even a second.
But Soren and Rissa were in the pantry just around the corner. “Seriously. Don’t move. Promise me!”
I expected to hear him call after me, “I promise,” as I moved out of sight and ran.
But he didn’t.
I flung myself into the kitchen and yanked the pantry door open.
Soren leaned back before I ran into him yet again.
He and Rissa stood inside, right where I’d left them. Though Rissa just stared at me, Soren’s eyes widened at my disheveled appearance.
“You’ve got to come now!” I breathed like I’d run a marathon instead of ten steps. “You’ve got to make Dad come with us. He’ll listen to you!”
Soren took one look at my panicked face and followed.
We sprinted back into the tunnel where I’d left Dad and Olive.
I’d only been gone about twenty—maybe thirty—seconds total.
But they were gone.