67. Elhyor
67
Elhyor
I can see it right away when Angélique registers that her father is coming our way.
It’s in the way her shoulders tense and her lips thins as if she’s trying to refrain herself from swearing.
If I wasn’t fuming myself, I’d find it cute.
As it is, I’m berating myself for not doing more to prevent the situation we’re in from happening.
Of course, I knew there was a high chance this was all a plot to get me here, even if Micha?l still has no idea how to kill me, but me and Brice discussed that possibility and still, we decided to come.
Even if it wasn’t to save Léandre, we wouldn’t have passed this opportunity.
The maps and information Angélique brought us is a gold mine on its own, and we would have attacked those servers very soon, knowing the kind of damage it could deal to the archangels by doing so.
I might not ally myself to Libération, but I’m no idiot either. I can see the way the archangels treat humans and what they deem lesser shifters—basically, any shifter that can’t fly.
Yes, we would have tried to destroy those servers, anyway. Léandre’s condition just made today the only day to do it.
“It is a sad day today,” Micha?l says as he walks up to us. “This is a sad day because on this fateful day, I discover that my own daughter is a traitor.”
He looks her up and down with a sneer and then stops about three meters from us. Her disguise didn’t fool him, but I already knew it wouldn’t work on him; it was only ever for the guards.
“I already knew that you were beneath me, beneath us, but I never thought you lacked courage,” he spits the words at her.
Angélique’s back is ramrod straight, but nothing can be seen on her face.
He could have told her that the sky was pink and I’m not even sure it would have registered differently on her face.
Sure, her shoulders are still tense and her lips stretch in a line that’s so flat that I’m wondering if she’s trying to eat her own lips, but it was already the case before Micha?l even opened his mouth.
It’s fascinating to see how she seems to be impervious to his words.
If I didn’t know how fast she can react when I’m the one trying to get a rise out of her, I would truly believe that she can’t feel anything. But no, it’s just with the man in front of us.
It’s like she is Micha?l-proof.
“I did force your hand with the useless, over-sensitive mongrel though,” he adds with his index and thumb holding his chin as if he was trying to make himself look pensive.
“He’s worth ten men like you,” Angélique spits back, and I realize that she’s far from being impervious to the venom her father keeps throwing her way. She’s just used to him insulting her. She can stomach anything when it’s about herself, but she can’t do it when it’s about the people she cares about.
“But your power hungry ass would never know since the only thing that matters to you is domination,” she continues. “Do they know how you speak of them when they’re not defending you?” She asks as she opens her arms and points at the men surrounding us. “Do they know that you only think of them as mindless cannon fodder? Or that you would gladly walk on any of them if it permitted you to stay in power for just one more day? One more minute?”
Some of the guards around us start looking at the people next to them with questions in their eyes, but no one moves.
It’s obvious that Micha?l told them in advance that his daughter was a traitor, but it doesn’t change the fact that some of the guards are unsure what to do.
“Aren’t those big words in your mouth, daughter of mine?” Micha?l finally asks when Angélique finishes talking. “You’re here with people I don’t think were our enemy after all. Trying to attack your own home, your own father… after I raised you, fed you, took care of you…” he lets his voice trail to underline what he is saying.
That’s when I realize one thing: Micha?l has kept secret the fact that he was marrying Angélique off to me and he’s making it look like she purposefully left Versailles and turned her back on her own family.
I grab Angélique’s hand to stop her from talking some more, but all she does is look at our linked hands, and then at me and I only see understanding in her eyes.
She knows it’s useless to reason with her father, or his guards. They’re mostly brainwashed and nothing short of showing them we’re right will make them change their mind.
“What? nothing to add?” Micha?l taunts us. “That’s what I thought. Take hold of them. Kill anyone who resists,” he adds before turning his back to us and walking to the side where, I can see now, there is a door to another room.
The coward isn’t even going to fight us.
There is a second of silence before a dagger flies and hits the door Micha?l was trying to reach, the strength of the hit closing the door in the process.
“You’ve grown complacent in your training,” Micha?l says without turning as he grabs the handle of the door.
“I did not,” Angélique answers as her father tries to open the door without avail.
Without giving him time to react, she runs in his direction and pandemonium starts in the room.