Page 102 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“I see,” I respond. “Send him up. You should get dressed, my ember. We have a visitor.”

“Who?” she asks.

I keep my eyes on Jasper. “The elder Adder, Jasper’s father.”

41

JASPER

“What?”I hear my own question, but shock blares in my mind.

Emilia’s eyes go wide, and she dashes up the stairs. I haven’t spoken to her about my father, but I suppose she’d rather not greet him naked.

“He’s on his way up in the elevator.” Ari shrugs, but he watches me closely. At one time he’d asked why I didn’t talk about my father much. As if he were digging to see if there were any issues I had buried about the man.

There aren’t… and there are. It’s hard to have issues about a man who you’ve hardly seen in years, but at the same time, how could I not have issues that my father left me? We buried my mother, and he was gone in the next breath.

At one time we might have been close. I may have even looked up to him, but that time is gone. There have been a few calls over the years to mark occasions: a holiday, milestones in my life that he’d congratulate me for… all unbearably awkward.

I don’t think of him at all. For him to come into my life unannounced now, with Emilia here, can’t be good.

“I don’t know why he’s here,” I say as if Ari asked.

Ari shrugs. “It could be for any reason really. Are you okay that he’s here? Do you want me to refuse to receive him?”

“No.” My emotions are a clamor of confusion and curiosity, but mostly curiosity. “There’s no reason that I can think of that he’s a threat, and you could overpower him easily in that case.”

Ari’s mouth twitches. “Do you want me to find a reason to overpower him? Maybe leave some bruises for his past mistakes.”

Past mistakes.When I’d described our relationship to Ari, that was how he described it. That my father is making a mistake being absent from my life. But Ari was incredibly close with his family before losing them so his perspective on the matter is skewed. Then again… Emilia is close with her mother no matter that they’d grieved losing her father… so maybe it’s my perspective that’s skewed.

“No. He’s never done anything to me, Ari.”

Ari only nods. The elevator dings and he’s in motion down the hall. I trail after him, a little dazed, when I see the man step out of the elevator and glance around Ari’s place.

My father doesn’t look much different than the last time I’d seen him. It’s been what? Almost twenty years? He hasn’t aged much, thanks to his basilisk blood. With the distance of years, seeing him now is alarming. I’d gotten much more from him than his basilisk blood. His proud posture and stern features are the same as I see every day in the mirror.

He greets Ari first, as is the custom.

“Zeyad,” he says, dipping his chin but not voicing any honorifics. The gesture is one that could be taken as an insult or an action of familiarity.

“William Adder,” Ari says back, his lips curling in a smile. I don’t know what he’s thinking. “Your presence surprises me.”

My father meets my gaze and the steady emotion there does nothing to settle the weird combination of nerves and confusion in my stomach. He brings his gaze back to Ari.

“When I hear that my son has been seen around with an unbonded Chosen, I show up. Unless I’m unwelcome in a Zeyad’s home…” he trails off.

“You are welcome if your son is amenable to your presence,” Ari responds. It shouldn’t surprise me that he’s deferring to me in front of another serpent kin, but it does. It’s a gesture of respect and one that would be done for a mate, though we haven’t made anything official.

I fight to keep from blushing as that thought reminds me of how I’d called Emilia and Ari my mates after Emilia’s venom and power influenced me.

“Why are you here?” I ask my father instead of allowing myself to think of how validating it had been to call them mates, how perfect.

“I’ve heard that you’re to present a Chosen to the Circle.” My father’s face is an emotionless mask, but there are strums of something in his voice. “I’m here to assist in whatever you need.”

He looks to Ari and grits his teeth at having an audience before the tell falls away and I’m the subject of his attention again. “I have never been there when you’ve needed me, but I want to offer you whatever support I can. You’ve done things out of order, but traditionally, when presenting a candidate to become Chosen, you’re backed by your family. I may have failed in being a father to you, but we are family. I did not want you to have to do this alone.”

“He won’t be alone,” Ari says, an edge to his tone like he’s been offended, but he softens his stance just as quickly. “It’s Jasper’s decision though.”

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