Chapter 22
Timothy
Bunny began barking a heartbeat after Farrow left my room.
I didn’t need to see him to feel that he was gone.
I flung open the bathroom door, ripped off the stupid slutty top, and pulled on pajama pants and a T-shirt, because if I didn’t shut her up, I’d be in trouble.
Upstairs, a door banged as if the house was caught in its own storm.
I opened my bedroom door and stuck my head out. “Bunny, what are you barking at?”
I played the part of a confused and sleepy person in case my father appeared at the top of the stairs.
Bunny ran toward me, claws skittering over the tiles, before turning and running away.
I followed her into the living room. This time, there were no ripped-open cushions, but everything had been swept off the coffee table.
Fuck Farrow. I knew what he was doing. He wanted to make money off me, and now that I wasn’t playing, he was having a tantrum.
Or at least that’s what I wanted to believe, as it was easier to swallow than the truth. The truth that he was doing his job, scaring the kid to stop her—and me—from accessing magic.
And it was working.
Even though it was only Farrow sweeping through and rattling the house, fear quickened my heartbeat and lifted the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck.
Bunny jumped on the sofa and bounced off, running into the kitchen where she or Farrow knocked over what sounded like a chair. Something shattered on the tiles.
I swore and left the mess in the living room, running into the kitchen to catch Bunny before she destroyed something else.
“What is going on?” My father grumbled as he stomped down the stairs.
I cursed again. Why couldn’t he have stayed in bed? “Bunny is being an idiot and tearing around the house.”
I’d done my best to avoid him since learning my mother was murdered—getting stabbed eleven times wasn’t an accident. How did I ask him what had happened and why he’d kept it from me without him demanding how I’d found out?
I grabbed Bunny’s collar as she tried to run past me. She yanked my arm, but I kept hold as I surveyed the damage done in the kitchen. A barstool was on its side, and the vase of flowers had been knocked over, sending glass and water and flowers everywhere.
My father flicked on the light. “Why didn’t you stop her sooner?”
I blinked and squinted as I turned to him, holding a struggling Bunny. “Because I was asleep.”
Lies. I’d much rather be doing whatever Farrow told me. I almost wished he hadn’t told me about the money, or my unexpected monster porn stardom. It had been simple before. Or at least I’d thought it was simple. Lust, voyeurism, a little kinky…
Somehow, I’d started to like him. How the fuck was I so gullible, so dumb, to start catching feels for a monster whose job it was to scare kids and stop sorcerers?
Right now I was both, and I didn’t want to be either.
My father narrowed his eyes as if he was aware of the pale blue jock beneath my pajama pants. “Look at the mess she’s made.”
“I can see it. What do you want me to do? Let her go or clean up?”
“Don’t be smart.”
Something banged upstairs, and Taya screamed. My father glanced up.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Farrow. I get it, you’re pissed, but now I was going to get my ass chewed out for no good reason.
“It has been quiet for a month, and now all of a sudden this.” My father turned his suspicious glare to me. “What have you been doing?”
Slutting for a monster. “Nothing.”
“Stop bloody lying. You’re too much like your mother. Acting innocent while always scheming.”
“Am I going to end up stabbed, too?” The words tumbled off my tongue before I could stop them. Bunny whimpered. “It’s alright, girl.”
My stepmother comforted Taya, and the house went quiet. Too quiet, like the eye of a storm. Only this time, my father was the storm.
My pulse slowed and became heavy. I knew what was coming. Tonight was a night for bitter truths and opening old wounds. My mother had a name for those times, but I didn’t remember it, only that they were important and it was best to do a thorough job to allow the healing to begin.
My father stepped back and scowled. “Where did you hear that?”
He thought I’d been talking to someone. My mother’s dangerous friends, no doubt. “I read it. At first, the cops thought she’d run off to be with a boyfriend, but she never touched her bank account, so a year later, they got suspicious. They thought you’d killed her. I remember talking to the cops.”
His nostrils flared as he took another step back. “You don’t know anything. You were a child, and I was trying to protect you.”
The silence swelled, and my father wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“What did you do to protect me?” Bunny sat at my feet, done with chasing monsters and destroying the house.
“She was…” He shook his head. “It’s the same as now, all the noises and banging like something was creeping around.”
“That was happening before I moved back home.” It had to have been because Taya was already living there.
“All houses make noise, but they don’t suddenly go quiet. This doesn’t happen.” He pointed at the mess on the floor.
“Dogs do dumb shit.”
“Perhaps, but so do teenage boys. You’ve been speaking to your mother’s friends.”
I laughed. “I don’t know any of her friends.
” Not even Farrow had met her. “And I don’t know what she was mixed up in, but I do know she was murdered.
” And now I was sure he’d done it to protect me.
“Her friends didn’t kill her. You did.” My words hung in the air between us.
I wanted him to deny it and claim that I was delusional, anything but silently stare at me. “Dad?”
It was a few more seconds before he spoke. “You need to leave.”
“What?” I must have misheard.
“Leave. I will not have another sorcerer living beneath my roof, extracting magic from children.”
“I’m not—”
“Leave, or I will have to notify my people, and I do not want to kill my son.”
My eyebrows lifted. What the fuck was he talking about? “Your people?”
“Do you think we allow sorcerers to manipulate children and the world so they can have whatever they want? They have the power to control the government. The stock market and everything else.”
“You let her build your wealth. You used her.”
His lips twisted, and he lifted his chin, righteousness burning in his eyes. “I didn’t realize what she was when we married. When I was informed, I acted accordingly for the greater good.”
“Liar.” It wasn’t that I was pro-sorcerer, and I wasn’t sure that I was one, but killing people was wrong, no matter who they were, just because someone else claimed they were bad.
What if Mom and her dragon friends were doing something good with magic, like fixing pollution or encouraging the government to help the poor?
Perhaps they created money to donate to charity, or to pay for therapy for all the children tormented by monsters?
“You are the one with dangerous friends. Friends who tell you to kill.”
“We’re protecting the children.” He slapped his chest. “I protected you, and I’m doing the same now. Stay away from Taya and stop using whatever magic you’re playing with because there are people who will find you and kill you. And get rid of that bloody tattoo.”
That was his real fear behind the ink—one of his friends might kill me. “Fine. It was never about me failing a class, was it? It was about making sure her friends, and yours, hadn’t found me.”
“Everything I’ve done has been to protect you.”
“No.” I drag Bunny with me because I don’t want her cutting her feet open on the glass. I never wanted to move back home, but I had nowhere else to go. I almost wished my mother’s friends would show up.
Now I had to worry about sorcerers and sorcerer-hunters.
And monsters.
I slam my bedroom door and flop face down on my bed. Bunny jumps up next to me and licks my arm. None of this is her fault; she made the mess trying to catch Farrow.
No, all of this is his fault.
And mine.
If I’d done what he asked, none of tonight’s mess would’ve happened, and I’d still have a place to stay, and I wouldn’t have learned that my father killed my mother because he is anti-sorcerer.
Protect me?
It was never about me. It was hatred wrapped in lies to make it taste better.
I turned my head and stared into Bunny’s dark eyes. “What am I going to do?”
She licked my face, which wasn’t helpful. Could I slide through the golden glow to Farrow’s world? The world where my mother died. Once there, would they let me live, or kill me?
That would mess up Farrow’s human porn plans.
I sighed. No, I’d lie there and wish for some options. In the morning, I’d pack my car and leave.