Chapter 29

29

R hi

“Your father, the Black Prince, wishes to see you.”

I’ve been expecting the summons all morning and now here it is. Finally, we are going to talk, just like he promised.

“Rhi,” Stone says, as I go to follow the young woman who has been sent to fetch me. “Be … be careful.”

“Of what?” I ask, frowning.

His eyes flick to the woman and he lowers his voice. “We don’t know these people and we don’t know if we can trust them.”

“He’s my dad,” I point out. What is Stone going to tell me? That these people are bad, full of dark magic just like me. I’m not sure I want to hear it.

He lowers his voice even further, resting his fingertips on my elbow, “The same dad your aunt hid you from.”

“I need to talk to him,” I say, attempting to push past him, Pip at my ankles. He’s right. But, in my heart, I’m hoping that my aunt was wrong. That it was all a giant misunderstanding.

Pip and I follow the young woman down the dark corridors, around corners and down steps.

“Jeez, this place is like a maze,” I say to the girl, hoping to strike up a conversation. I’ve barely spoken to anyone but the Black Prince since arriving here. “How do you not get lost?!”

The girl doesn’t respond, keeping her eyes fixed to the ground. There were students like this at the academy, so painfully shy they were unable to make eye contact. Sometimes they just needed a little encouragement to emerge from their shells, although most of the time they simply didn’t want to talk to an unregistered magical like me.

Pip begins to snort, scuttling around my feet in agitation and I reach down and pick him up. Then I try again with the girl. I’m curious about this place, about my father. I have a million trillion questions I want to ask her. “I’m Rhianna and this is Pip.” I lift Pip slightly. “Short for Pipsqueak.”

Her eyes slide from the floor to the pig and back again, but she says nothing.

“Do you work here?” I ask, which is probably a very stupid question but I don’t know what else to say.

Nothing again.

I sigh and finally we reach a grand door. That strange feeling of déjà vu, of recognition, rings through my body. My father’s room. I’m certain of it. The girl knocks lightly against the door and it slides back, the Black Prince standing in the doorway, dressed in another regal gown.

“Come in,” he says.

I enter a grand study, far bigger than the principal’s at Arrow Hart, and designed in dark metal colors, two large paintings of dragons flying through night skies hanging on the walls, and the windows blacked out and obscuring the view.

The Black Prince clicks his fingers and a fire roars into life in the center of the room, the flickering flames reflected on every gleaming surface, including the black pupils of his eyes. The door slides closed. I hug Pip tight to my chest.

There are so many questions I want to ask. So many things I want to understand. I swing my gaze around the room, grand and sophisticated beyond anything I’ve seen before.

The Black Prince points to a dark leather couch.

“Let us sit and talk. There is much for us to discuss. Much for us to learn about one another.”

I nod and, clutching Pip, come to sit beside him on the couch. Up close, I see just how handsome he is, just how disarming. I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised my mom fell for a man like him. It must be in the genes.

“Where to begin,” he says, smiling at me with affection. “I would like to know all about you, Rhianna.”

I shrug. “There isn’t a whole lot to tell.”

He chuckles. “I don’t think that is true. I rescued you from Christopher Kennedy who seemed to want to kill you. I’m sure there is a lot to tell.”

I chew on my cheek. This man may be my father but I hardly know him and, though I really hate to admit it, Stone is right. I don’t know if I can trust him. Do I tell him about the prophecy? I decide it’s best to keep that to myself for now. “He sees me as a threat.”

“Because of your five fated ones?”

“I think so, yes.”

He takes my hands in his. His are surprisingly cool despite the roaring fire .

“You are safe here. I will protect you.”

“Th-thank you,” I say, realizing in that moment what a relief it is to feel safe. “I have lots of questions for you too. Lots of things I don’t understand.”

“What did they tell you?”

I think. So many things. So many conflicting stories.

“My aunt said the authorities couldn’t be trusted,” I say at last.

“She was right.” His face darkens. “They killed your mother.”

“How do I know that wasn’t you?” I whisper.

“I adored her,” he says, shock adorning his features. “She was …” he squeezes my hands, “the love of my life. We were so happy together.”

“Then why did she run from you? Why did she hide me from you?”

Something flickers in his eyes and I sense his magic swell in the air. It’s dark like this room and I recognize it. My magic may be like my mom’s, but that other magic, the crimson magic that’s grown inside me, that is all his.

“We argued – a stupid, stupid disagreement I have spent all this time regretting. When I realized my mistake, I went after her, tried to find her, hoped to beg her for forgiveness and mend the quarrel between us, plead for her to come back to me.” He dips his gaze. “But I was too late. He had already found her. Already killed her.”

“Who?” I say, my spine straightening. The chancellor said a dark magical had killed my mom.

His face doesn’t alter. “Your fated one’s father.”

“Christopher Kennedy?!”

“Yes.”

The room spins and my stomach plummets and yet, for some reason, I am not surprised.

Although, should I believe him?

“And yet now he’s your ally?” I say in disgust, snatching my hand from his.

“You are young and still have so much to learn.” He sighs. “Sometimes we must make alliances with our enemies for the greater good. I do not want war for my people.”

I rub at my forehead trying to make sense of this all.

“And if he asks you to hand me over, will you do it, for the good of your people, to prevent a new war?”

“No,” he says simply. “I will not.”

I’m not sure how the hell that makes me feel. A new war? Because of me?

We are both silent, Pip snuffling in my lap and the fire flicking in the grate.

“What was the argument about?” I ask. “Between you and my mom.”

“I forget.” He shakes his head, his gaze disappearing off into the distance as if he’s remembering it all. “Something small that seemed so very important at the time. A quarrel I wish with all my heart I could go back and undo. Both of us lost our tempers and said things we didn’t really mean.”

I think of all the times I’ve fought with Stone, with Tristan, with Azlan. Those rows had seemed so important in the moment, and then afterwards so small and trivial.

“Let us not dwell on the past,” he says next. “Let us think on the future.”

“I want to understand my past. To understand myself.”

“What is there to understand? You sense that greatness in your veins. We all do. You wish to grow it.”

I frown. “I don’t want–”

He leans forward, his face suddenly eager. “I’ve been waiting, Rhianna, ever since the moment your mother saw your future, waiting for you.”

That dark magic seems to sizzle in my blood, awakening with every word he says. Pip squeaks and butts his snout against my hand. I push him gently away. My aunt gave him to me as a way to leash my powers, to stop me from becoming whatever I was destined to be.

And I want to know what that is. I need to. Maybe my dad is the one to show me.

“What did she see?” I say my gaze sinking into his dark eyes.

“A girl with a power that would know no bounds. A girl who could not be stopped, who could not be contained. A girl who could both see the future and bend it to her will.” He peers deep into my eyes. “My daughter.”

My magic crackles, pushing against the constraints that hold it tight, straining to break through and rip everything apart.

“They told you all sorts of lies, Rhianna.” I can’t look away from him, his words igniting an anger inside me. “They told you those who lived in the West were evil. That they’d been beaten into submission. They told you the only thing keeping those evil forces from consuming your country was magicals – trained to protect their lands, sacrifices to the cause. And they told you I was dead.”

Yes, lies, lies, lies. So many lies.

“But why?” I cry out. “Why did they tell us all this?”

“Why else?” he says. “To control you.”

I frown. It can’t be that simple.

“Tell me, how do matters work in your great republic? Do the people live in peace and harmony? No one hungry? No one poor? No one sick? No one suffering? Each bearing equal burden and equal reward? ”

“No,” I say, the anger growing in my belly, hot and rampant. “It’s not like that at all.”

“No, of course not. The lies ensure the rich and powerful remain that way.”

I think of the chancellor, of Christopher Kennedy, of Tristan and Spencer, of Summer fucking Clutton-Brock. I think of my stupid room at the academy. I think of all the laughter and ridicule I endured just because I was poorer than them. I think of my life with my aunt, scraping to make ends meet.

The anger rages through my veins and I can’t control it. It’s hot and burning and if I don’t let it go, it’s going to burn me alive. In desperation, I fling it against the nearest wall, my magic exploding against one of the paintings. It bursts into flames, as if the dragon has come alive inside the picture, the fire curling across the canvas, and then the heavy picture crashes to the floor.

Pip whimpers, and buries his face in my lap.

The man seated next to me doesn’t bat a single eyelash though. He sits there watching the fire eat away at the painting.

“You see the injustice and you want to change it, don’t you?”

“I th-think,” I stutter. “I think that’s my destiny.” That is what the prophecy must mean. I am the one, along with my five mates, destined to change things.

My shoulders slump, the enormity of that realization too heavy to bear.

“Let me show you,” he says. “Let me show you how things can be.”