Page 56 of Beast of Blood and Roses
I sat up in bed, pushing the tangled covers aside. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows, and I was restless, agitated. I wanted answers, not more sleep. Beast stood hesitantly in the doorway as if he were afraid I’d start screaming at him to get out the moment he stepped inside.
“You know something, don’t you?” I was tired of everyone keeping secrets from me.
He took a deep breath, his massive frame filling the doorway as he seemed to consider his words carefully. “It’s not what I know that is the problem. It’s what I don’t know.”
Frustration built up in my chest like steam in a kettle. “What does that mean?”
“I had Marcel and Colette try to find out what happened to your mother because you were so heartbroken when you talked about her.”
“I told you she left when I was a baby.” The words cameautomatically, rehearsed from years of repetition. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him digging into my past, but the gentle way he was looking at me suggested he could hear the pain I’d learned to bury beneath those well-worn words.
Beast stepped closer. “The woman in your dream…does she feel like a woman who would abandon her child?”
I crossed my arms defensively over my chest, but I could feel the familiar ache starting to crack through my defenses. “But it was just a dream. Nothing more. My mother abandoned me.”
He stared at me with such intensity I felt like he could see straight through to my soul. I could tell he had more to say—much more—but after a long moment, he simply nodded, not arguing with me.
Anger and frustration whirled around me like a storm, making my hands shake and my chest burn. “Why would my father lie to me?”
“I don’t know.”
My gaze fell on The Witch’s Heart resting against his neck, the dual-colored stone catching the morning light. My pulse quickened as I remembered what had happened the last time I’d touched it, the way the power had washed over me like a tidal wave.
“Would that amulet show me the truth?”
He sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging as if what he knew was crushing him. “As I’ve told you before, it shows glimpses. Fragments that might not make sense until later. Are you sure you’re strong enough to see what it might reveal?”
I sat taller, steel entering my spine. “Yes.” I climbed out of bed, my bare feet feeling the cold floor. I still wore the wrinkled the T-shirt and pair of jeans from yesterday—they were dirty and rumpled, but I didn’t care.
I strode over to him with determined steps. I needed to find out the truth, no matter how much it might hurt. My dad was many things—a gambler, a drunk, a man who’d sold his own daughter—but I had to know the truth about my mother. What really happened to her? Did she really abandon me, or was there something more?
The man in my dream had looked at me with love, such tenderness. It couldn’t be real. Otherwise, my whole life had been a lie, and I’d grown up unloved and unwanted when I could have had a family who cherished me.
Beast carefully lifted the chain off his neck. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
He placed the warm amulet in my palm, the dual-colored amulet pulsing against my skin. The warmth spread up my arm, and I knew there was no going back now. Whatever truth The Witch’s Heart wanted to show me, I was about to see it.
“Show me my real father,” I commanded.
Once again, the air above the stone began to ripple and blur like a mirage. An image slowly formed, wavering but becoming clearer with each passing second.
The woman and man from my dream were locked in what looked like magical combat with my dad. Arcs of power flew between them like deadly fireworks, illuminating the room with flashes of brilliant light. The woman’s hands glowed with silver magic while the man wielded golden flames.
But what shocked me most was my dad—my dad was fighting back with dark, writhing shadows that seemed to devour the light around them. The darkness moved like living things, snaking around his arms and lashing out at his opponents with deadly precision.
Magic. My father had magic. Shock stole my breath,followed immediately by a torrent of questions. If he’d had powers, what had happened to them?
The amulet slipped from my suddenly tingling fingers, clattering to the floor as my reality fractured around me. “No,” I whispered. “No, that’s not possible.”
Beast caught the amulet before it could hit the ground, but I barely noticed. My hands were shaking, my breath coming in short, sharp gasps.
“This can’t be right.” The words tumbled out of me in a rush of denial and panic. “I’ve never seen my father use magic.”
“If his magic were bound, he wouldn’t be able to perform any spells,” Beast said softly.
My voice rose with each word, hysteria creeping in at the edges. “Who would have bound his powers?”
Beast gave me another sympathetic look. “I don’t know…yet.”
