Page 77 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

The Council never commented on any of it. Not until the whole sordid story of my life was out there for them dig into.

When the story was all out there, I let out a relieved breath and my shoulders slumped forward in relief. There was nothing left to hide from anyone and I felt like the world had been lifted off of my shoulders.

“That settles it,” Adrian said on a sigh. “We are without a doubt staying here until this has all been sorted out.”

I didn’t even have it in me to care that they were staying. At least they were an hour and half away from us. That counted.

“We shall find your father for you,” Daniel said in a soft voice.

“We don’t like not knowing things,” the one with the braid said. “If this horrible thing has been done to you, what’s to say there aren’t other poor little girls out there who have suffered a similar fate. Our girls just keep getting taken from us and it needs to be stopped. This cannot stand.”

Oh dear.

I wasn’t so sure about all that. I just wanted to find my father.

“We don’t need help in this,” Quinton said in a voice full of respect. “We can find him-”

“Yes, yes,” Adrian said as he waived his hand dismissively. “You’re an independent young man, you’ve always been one. You are capable of doing a great many things, of this you’ve proved to us many a time. However, this time, you’ll not be doing it on your own. Wewillbe staying, and wewillbe helping with this.”

“I think we’ve all had enough for the night,” the one with the braid said. “You can go now. We’ll look into things and get back to you. But, we won’t be going anywhere any time soon.”

I sighed. I was happy to be going but not entirely happy that they were staying.

There was nothing for it.

“It was lovely to meet you,” I said as I headed to the door without prompting.

Adrian laughed. “I look forward to seeing you again, my dear. Perhaps I will come and pay you a visit tomorrow and we can do lunch, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Did I mind?

Hell yes, I minded.

“Sure,” I said, lying through my teeth, “sounds good to me. See you then.”

I opened the door and walked out without so much as looking back.

The guys were right behind me.

The ride home was quiet, but not tense like it had been on the ride over.

For once, Quinton dropped me off without a word. I couldn’t tell if he was pissed about how everything went down or happy about it. I didn’t think I cared, I was simply happy to have it over with.

Everyone went their separate ways, and no one stayed over.

I was thankful for it because I had something I needed to do myself.

Something important.

It wasn’t until the next day that I realized I had completely forgotten to ask about Chuck. When I did remember, I realized I didn’t care.

Chapter Twenty-Five

I met my wide green eyes in the mirror and ignored all else. My wrist stung as the blade bit into my skin and I winced. But my eyes never left the green staring back at me in the mirror.

Flames flickered all around me as the black candles I had lit to life before turning the lights out and facing myself in the mirror. My scar practically glowed in the dark against my pale skin.

The knife fell from my hand and landed atop the dresser with a clatter.

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