Chapter 53

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Ryker

After leaving Ellery in the woods, I returned to my father's castle. It was where I least wanted to be, but it would only infuriate him if I went completely rogue, and he might take that out on Ellery.

Ever since she'd ended things with me, I rarely came back to this place, and even with her back in my life, no matter how distant we were, I didn't plan on changing my ways. I despised my father and loathed the castle he'd built while others suffered during the Ghoul War and its aftermath.

I also couldn't change anything about the routine he'd come to expect after Ellery left me. The man who had donated his seed to my existence couldn't suspect something had changed between us.

Instead of coming through the main entrance, I could open a portal into my apartment above, but I didn't bother. This was my weekly drop-in to appease my father; if he didn't see me, he might send some of his soldiers to look for me.

While I didn't think they'd discover me in the Revenant Woods, it wasn't a chance I was willing to take, even before I started training with Ellery. The less my father knew about my life, the better.

I didn't make it halfway down the main hall before a servant emerged from my father's private solar. "Milord, your father wishes to speak with you."

The man couldn't keep the slight tremor from his voice. We both knew what would happen if I refused him.

If my father had come out to state this, I would have told him to fuck off, and he knew it. I couldn't tell the servant this; he would only experience my father's wrath if I did.

And I knew better than anyone how vicious that wrath could be. My father saw this empathy for others as a weakness he'd tried to carve out of me with his whip, but all he'd succeeded in doing was solidifying my hatred for him.

I detoured into my father's solar, and the servant closed the door behind me. It was nearly midnight, but my father sat in his plush chair with a glass of cartha on the table beside him.

Cartha came from the mountainous village of Carthaway. The delicious red liquid was a delicacy much sought after by the aristocrats but sometimes made its way into the lower levels of society.

My father's gaze raked over my rumpled clothes, dirty boots, unshaven face, and disordered hair. The magical fire in the massive, gray stone fireplace ten feet to his left played across his features and created a swirl of color in his hair.

His lips curled in disdain. "Are you fighting another war?"

I didn't bother to respond as I removed a glass from the rack hanging over the wall-length bar in the corner. I walked over to his decanter and poured some cartha into my glass.

My father scowled at me before suppressing it. I smiled as I lifted the drink to him before settling into the armchair across from him.

I leaned back into the plush cushions while sipping my drink. With the crackling fire that gave off no warmth, the sweet taste of cartha on my tongue, and the comfy chair, this could almost be a pleasant experience. It wasn't.

I'd abhorred this man my whole life, and nothing would change that, but it wasn't like he wanted it to be any different. I didn't speak as we stared at each other. He was the one who demanded this meeting; he would be the first to talk.

"Where have you been?" he inquired.

"Hunting the man who robbed me."

"And you still haven't found him?"

"Not if I'm still hunting him."

"I thought you were the Scourge of the Ghouls, yet this simple man evades you."

I shrugged while smiling. "Some amsirah are luckier than others. But he knows I'm after him; that's why the robberies have stopped and he's gone into hiding."

"Then perhaps it's time to give up your quest."

"And do what? Lie around this castle and do nothing all day? I don't want your life, Father."

This time, he couldn't keep his ire subdued as he glowered at me. "I'm an integral part of keeping this realm running."

I set my drink on the dark wood table beside my chair. Everything in this room was brown or red. It created a somber yet somehow comfortable air meant to make others relax and stay a while. I could never relax around this man.

"Running this realm isn't difficult now that you've helped shut Tempest off from all the others," I replied.

"Someone must keep Ivan in check."