Chapter 42 - Family Portrait
Kristyon
Everything around me turns black as if thick paint drips from the ceiling, coating everything and everyone in the room but Galen and July. Their silhouettes are neat and defined as my brother holds her against his chest, slowly walking away from me, Roden grinning behind Galen’s eyes.
“Good dog, stay, and she will see thousands more days, oblivious of who you were,” Roden speaks through my brother’s lips, ignoring July’s tears rolling down his hand. “But if you try anything stupid…” The same hand moves closer to her neck, the knife grazing the spot he’s already scratched.
He doesn’t avert his eyes from mine, and his smirk grows larger as if challenging me.
“Where are you taking her?” Tabitha’s voice reaches from behind me, hoarse and muffled, but I can’t find the courage to check on her and lose sight of July, even if only for a few seconds.
“Nowhere, my dear. I just need to see with Galen’s eyes where you rabbits are hiding so I can finally honour you with my true presence.
Besides, what I do with my daughter is none of your business, but I thought having her with me would make you think twice should you wish to try your luck.
I’ve let you believe you had a say in what’s inevitable for too long, but it is now time you learn your place. ”
“You’re a coward,” Merya comments hatefully. She’s gotten back on her feet but is still suffering from whatever Roden did to her; she clings to my arm unsteadily. “Why don’t you tell us where to find you, and we’ll come to you? One last battle on even ground.”
“Don’t tease him,” I whisper, keeping my eyes on July, her face emotionless if not for the quick shake of her head when Merya tries to push me out of the way and move towards Galen.
“Mummy?”
The frightened voice coming from the main door seems to surprise Roden. For a split second, Galen’s eyes shine brown and silver again, but the hope is gone after one blink.
Five short fingers with little orange painted nails curl around the door frame, followed by Sable’s sleepy face.
Merya’s fingers dig into my arm, and Tabitha hisses to my left while Galen spins around, never letting go of July, giving us a clear view of Sable’s terrified face.
“Mum? Why is the pretty lady bleeding?” she asks as tears fill her eyes.
“Sable…” Tabitha mumbles and shoves me away, dashing for her little girl, as if Roden is no longer in the room with us.
She kneels, beckoning Sable inside her protective motherly embrace. “It’s okay, little bird. We were just playing soldiers like you sometimes do with Mack.”
Sable nods but snuffles loudly, hiding her face, now streaked with fat tears, in the space between Tabs’ neck and shoulder.
Not far from me, Mack gasps. The unexpected event must have set Roden’s focus off balance and broken his hold on Jyn and Mack. But we all know him too well to let our guards down, including July, who remains still and quiet in his dangerous embrace.
Huffing like an increasingly irritated beast, he shuffles towards his left, pivoting enough to regain full control of the room.
“Where has that giant of a man gone? He didn’t strike me as the sharpest tool in the room, but I was at least expecting the same idiotic sense of loyalty you other sheep have towards the great Tabitha Lorne. Ah well,” Roden makes Galen shrug, “One less problem to think about.”
Tabitha turns cautiously, protecting Sable’s innocent eyes from Roden, even if he’s wearing Galen’s features.
Rage gleams on her face, but also a satisfied smile, which I understand when I look in the mirror above her head.
The spot by the backdoor where Jyn had frozen under Roden’s power is empty; Jyn? Gone.
“You’re letting your emotions have the best of you, daddy—” July starts before a sudden jerk of Galen’s arms knocks the air out of her lungs and makes my blood boil.
“Mummy, daddy…What a perfect family we would make if you’d only understand what a waste of time your dreams and hopes are.
But, no…you had to play the part of the misunderstood children…
” Roden sighs, lowering his gaze to Tabs and clicking his tongue in annoyance.
“And look what your choices brought you—friends with defective blood and a child who will soon blame you for her mediocre existence.”
His words would break everyone’s last string of patience. But Tabs is made of a substance stronger than steel because she’s a mother.
“Let him go,” she orders with a stern voice, even though I’m sure her whole essence is crumbling, her strength wavering when she raises her eyes to mine. “I’m sorry, but I cannot let him hurt Sable…”
My mouth goes dry when I read the lack of hope in Tabitha’s eyes. The choice that, like a claw, tightens around her heart and mind as she slowly gets back on her feet with Sable in her arms, caressing her head and dotting her cheek with quick, soothing kisses.
I follow her eyes when she eventually looks at July, mouthing a voiceless Sorry and stepping away from the kitchen door.
“Tabs, no! There is nothing - nobody - protecting her out there. This will only give him the opportunity and the time to land on Horigos in his own time and gather the entire continent against us,” Merya cries out, automatically searching for Mack.
Galen’s dark laugh, so alien and distant, makes me shiver.
“After everything you saw, you still think I need a continent to tear you down? My dear, dear, silly child. Come to find me later, and I’ll teach you a lesson about humility.
Here’s a little taste: We’ll all experience the unfairness of life at some point.
You’d better kick it in the teeth before it bites too deep. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
In the moment that follows, all I can think of is July. Her eyes, lost in mine, glinted with rage and disgust, but also something else. An increasing look of annoyance mixed with exasperation.
The plan she concocted while we were all too busy arguing with Roden becomes clear when it’s already too late for me to try and stop her.
“I think that’s a valid lesson, father.” She straightens her spine against Galen’s chest. “And the only one I would ever thank you for.”
With a single move, fluid and precise, she bends her knees, dropping like a dead weight, sliding off Galen’s cruel embrace and sinking her teeth into his bare forearm, ignoring the knife too close to her face.
I leap forward, but chaos explodes around me with a mixture of frenzied, overlapping voices that only stop when a firearm goes off.
Something hard hits the floor, followed by Mack’s muffled swearing as he drops next to me, on his belly and with his hands over his head. “Women are reckless! This is why I’ll always prefer an octopus over a girlfriend.”