Page 32 of The Heir
“You’re too hard on yourself. Freya and you have different skillsets. You’re tough, Thor. You’ll lead with a fair but firm hand. She’ll raise taxes and increase social security until there are no homeless people in our country. Women are too soft, and everyone knows welfare makes for lazy people.”
I took a sip and felt the alcohol burn in my throat on its way down. “How is it that you can admire Freya so much and yet not trust her?”
“Oh, I trust her fine. I just don’t agree with her view on social issues. I blame your mom for influencing Freya with her ambition to have no destitute people in the Northlands by 2470. Don’t get me wrong. I love your mom more than anything, but she doesn’t understand that seeing poor people begging in the streets can entice everyone else to work harder.”
“Of course it does.”
“Right.” My dad held out his glass. “You follow my logic, but your mother and sister think that I’m heartless. They would have the homeless move in here before letting them stay on the streets in the winter.”
I rested my elbows on the armrest and thought back to my time as a drifter on the beach. The Motlanders had offered me a place to live and helped me with food. No questions were asked, and I’d never felt judged for having nothing.
“Have you ever met a homeless person, Dad?”
“Yes. I’ve been to openings of some of the homeless shelters. It’s not that I mind helping them, but I want people to make an effort themselves.”
“Sounds familiar. What you don’t get is that for some people staying alive takes a massive effort.”
“Oh, spare me. I might be hard on you, but that’s because you’ve been given great privilege and it pains me to see you throwing it away. The good thing is that now that you’re back, you can resume your duties and go to the yearly summit as always.”
“About that.” Tapping my fingers on the armrest of the chair, I thought about a way to tell him. “I’ll go to the summit, but I have a condition.”
“What’s that?”
“I want Linea to come with us.”
My dad frowned. “Linea MacCumhail? Why? She’s a Motlander.”
“She’s Finn’s daughter so technically she’s half Northlander.”
“Still, what does she have to do with the summit?”
“I want to make use of her powers. I don’t understand energy work, but she did find Sparrow and me. I’ve seen her read people’s minds and I want her to help me get the most out of our negotiations with the other countries.”
My dad tapped his lips. “Did you say that she can read minds?”
I nodded.
“Hmm, I remember Freya saying that Linea helped vet the Explorers, and that she was a people person. Reading minds though, that’s a whole other level. I would have to see it to believe it.”
“I saw it. Either she made some extremely lucky guesses, or she read my thoughts several times. It’s eerie as fuck, but if we can use it to our advantage, why not?”
My dad stood up and walked to the bay window in his office. “It defies common sense but over the years, her mother has shown unexplainable abilities as well. Christina still swears that Athena’s gift of healing is real. She even claims that it helped make Jones’ eyesight better.”
I was pleased that we were talking about something else than me and turned in my chair to make eye contact with him as he pondered out loud:
“It would certainly be a useful ability to have someone on your team that can read minds, but how would you explain that she’s there?”
With a humorless chuckle, I joked, “I’ll just tell the French that I brought Linea to read their minds. They would think I’m crazy and move on to other questions fast.”
“Maybe, but the Motlanders wouldn’t disregard your words in the same way as the French. Your mother told me that Linea and Athena are celebrated in the Motherlands. Apparently, they have quite the following. The Motlanders wouldn’t understand why Linea is part of the Northlander delegation, unless…” My dad had his thinking face on when he walked back to his chair. “I might have the perfect alibi to bring Linea along.”
“I’m listening.”
“Aubri is pregnant and she’s been getting on my nerves.”
“Aubri ispregnant?” I felt like someone had punched me in my stomach.
“Don’t look so shocked. Did you think people’s lives would stop moving forward because you weren’t here to be part of it? Her due date is September and she’s having twins.”
