Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

W hen I can stand again and the ringing in my ears dies, I look at the janitor. He’s still standing, still staring at me. He hadn’t made a single move to help me and I would like an explanation but first… “Who are you?”

As I stare, it appears as if a blanket slides off him and the face he’s wearing melts away as though it’s made of wax, but it’s a glamour. I’ve seen one before and I’ve seen it melt away.

I’ve seen his face before. All my life it’s hung in a portrait with my mother over the television. “Dad?”

He stares at me, unblinking. “Yes.” He takes me by the arm and I’m too dumbfounded to resist, although I would damned sure like an explanation. “We have to get out of here.”

I think of Zane in the Jeep in need of my mother’s help. That’s the only reason I’m letting him pull me toward the exit. “I have to get home to Mom. Zane needs her help.” I don’t know if he’s the one who’s been at school all these years or if he just assumed the face of the actual janitor, but I’m not about to stand around and explain anything to him. He’s the one who should be explaining things to me.

Because Zane is slumped in the front seat where I left him before I went inside the Institute, my dad—who I still can’t believe I’m seeing—sits in the back. He doesn’t try to talk to me, which wouldn’t do him any good anyway because I’m focused on the road and getting home as quickly as I can.

I don’t want to think about anything other than getting Zane to my mother and getting him healed, but my dad—a man I haven’t seen in years and could barely remember—is sitting behind me.

“Zane’s going to be fine, sweetheart.” It surprises me for a second that he uses Zane’s name, but if he’s been around the school, Zane’s is a name he would know.

I whip the car onto the road that leads to my house and then glance at my father in the mirror. “Don’t call me that.”

He left us. Good reason or not, I’m not a child. I don’t need his consolation now. The time for that, along with the truth, was years ago. So I don’t talk to him now, just pull up in front of my house.

I jump out of the Jeep and run around to the passenger side. Dad has already climbed out and is helping Zane stand, although he’s mostly limp, and I shove my shoulder under his arm and lift him to match what Dad’s doing on the other side.

When we get him inside, Mom motions me toward the sofa and I ease Zane down as gently as I can, but he’s no lightweight. I finally have proof that muscle weighs more than fat. There isn’t an ounce of fat on this guy, but he weighs a lot.

Mom repeats the same process with Zane that she used on Aimee and I watch her as closely while Aimee stands beside me, her arm a comfort at my waist.

To her credit, Aimee doesn’t stare too hard at Dad. Doesn’t even give him much more than a glance. And I wonder for a second if she knew about him, but she didn’t. No way could she keep a secret like that from me. From anyone. She’s shit at secrets and the bigger they are, the harder it is for her. This one is the Mount Everest of its kind.

Mom steps back from Zane and we wait for him to open his eyes. Mom glances at me. I don’t know if she can tell he’s important to me or not, but she seems to be respecting it because she looks at me, not Aimee. “He’s resting, RJ. He’s fine. Do we need to call his parents?”

I don’t know the answer. “Maybe in a little while.”

We leave him on the sofa and move into the dining room and sit at the table. Aimee and I are on one side, a team, and Mom and our dad are on the other.

“Are you all right?” Mom asks and reaches across the table for my hand. I nod and lay my palm across hers and she curls her fingers and gives me a squeeze.

“I guess you have questions.” Dad looks at me first, then Aimee. I want to be mad, to not ask him anything out of pure spite because there had to be a better way to protect us than by abandoning us.

Aimee speaks up first anyway. “Why are you here?” She is looking at him, and even for me, it’s hard to tell if she’s pissed off. Her voice is soft, but her hands are clenched into fists in her lap.

“I’ve always been here.” I want to call bullshit or at least point out that our ideas of here are very different. But I’m still silent. “Being in the house with you all was too dangerous. But I couldn’t leave you. I’ve watched you grow, turn into beautiful young women, then beautiful adult women. ”

I don’t need my ass kissed. “That isn’t the same as being here, helping with homework, mowing the lawn and being friends with our friends’ dads.” These were things normal families did. And we’d missed out while they lied to us, over and over and over again.

He nods. “Don’t you think I wanted to be here for all of that?”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t.” The anger is real, makes me more honest than I probably would be if I hadn’t spent my entire lifetime being lied to.

“Well, you’re wrong, RJ.” He shakes his head and looks at Mom for a second before he turns back to me. “I would’ve loved to be here with you, to be able to teach you how to throw a spell and tap into powers you might not recognize from the jump. But I did what your mother and I thought was best.”

I don’t bother to hide my eyeroll. “Does it seem now like it’s the best ?” I’m sarcastic because they made decisions that affected all of us. Not just our family, but the entire town now. There are four people who’ve lost their magic. There’s a fucking syphoner on the loose and I’m the only one I know of except for him who might be able to put the syphoner out of business. Time to train for such an endeavor, since they have always known it could happen, would’ve been nice.

“We didn’t know all the ways that the future would play out.” Mom’s voice is soft and she tries to hold my gaze, but I’m not in the mood to be placated. My sister, the boy I like, and two innocent girls have been stripped of their magic and if we can’t get it back for them, I don’t know what that will do to them.

I turn to our father. “Why did you protect the syphoner? ”

He looks at my mother and they lock gazes. “I protected you, RJ. You couldn’t kill her without the scepter and we didn’t have it.”

I nod. “The stone was already dug up and opened before I got there. The syphoner must have it.” Which means not only can I not kill the syphoner, but now she has the power to kill me.

Dad smiles at me and reaches to pat my hand. I pull away before he makes contact and he ends up patting Mom’s palm. I’m not intentionally rude, but I’m hurt and it’s not going to go away just because he let his glamour slide.

“The scepter has never been at the school.” He smiles like he’s made some great statement about hiding a magical staff that may or may not be part of some old legend. I’ve decided that I’m not going to believe in anything until I see it. This is what they’ve done to me. And I’m angry—fists balled, eyes narrowed, blood burning—about it.

Aimee nudges me with her knee under the table. I look at her and she smiles softly, like she’s trying to calm me. “Tell me what happened.”

“Zane and I went to the club where the syphoner has been before.”

“Club Mera.” She fills in a blank for our mother, who’s taking mental notes. Her idea of me and Aimee staying safe is not hunting down a syphoner on the syphoner’s hunting grounds, but for now, she won’t ground me. I’m sure of that much.

I nod at Aimee. “I used magic to find your magic, so I could link myself to it.” I didn’t want to explain too much. “And the spell led me to her, the syphoner. She was at Club Mera. She was going to take my magic”—but of course I have none—“and Zane pushed me out of the way. She took his.” I nod to the sofa. “And then she got away. I followed her to the Institute and we fought, but I didn’t have the scepter and he stopped me from throwing the spell and holding her in it until I could find the scepter.”

We both look at Dad. “Who is the syphoner and why did you protect her?” Aimee asks him.

He sighs and looks at Mom, who nods. “Her name is Elizabeth, and she’s my sister.”

His sister? That’s the reason he let her go.

“Lizzie was taken away when she was young and put into a sanatorium when she started syphoning from other spellcasters.” He shakes his head. “As soon as I found out she’d been released, I came back to the school and started watching out for you. Protected you.”

He says it as if we should be grateful; he acted like a parent and protected his kids. “Well, she got Aimee’s power, and Zane’s, and two other girls’.” I cock my head. “You’re not really doing so well.”

It’s been said that I am the daughter who tests my mother’s patience. Dad’s feeling the test of his patience right now.

He shakes his head and sighs. “She’s always been angry that even though she was as powerful as any witch at the Institute when she used the magic of others, that she didn’t have a place inside the Hall of Greats.”

“The power isn’t hers.”

“That wasn’t her fault. But when they denied her, she let the darkness and greed taint her heart. Syphoners crave power and if they aren’t taught to control the cravings, it overcomes them.” He says it as if syphoning another witch’s magic isn’t a conscious choice she’s making. As if she’s not responsible for what she did to Aimee and Zane and Ariya and Rowen. “But now, she wants to destroy everyone who denied her.”

I know I’m right before I ever speak the words. “The nine families.” It doesn’t take a genius.

He nods. “She’s trying to end their magical lines.”

“And what’s stopping her?” I shake my head. How did anyone ever let her get this out of control? “You certainly aren’t going to.” He made me let her go at the Institute. It’s his fault she’s still out there. I could’ve held in the spell. And because he won’t finish her, it means I have to do it. The weight of that responsibility is heavy on my shoulders, but for Aimee, I’ll do whatever it takes to get her magic back.

“I’m here to stop her.” There’s no strength in his statement. That’s his sister. And if he’s anywhere near as close to his as I am to mine, I can’t say that I blame him. Not for not wanting to hurt her, anyway.

“The way you did at the Institute?” He’d let her go. Made me let her go.

“I lost everything once protecting her.” He shoots my mom one of those pleading puppy dog looks, and I hope she isn’t falling for it. “I won’t give you all up a second time.”

I scoff and Mom glances at me. “RJ.” She’s about three seconds away from calling me by my full name.

I don’t care.

“You cannot be falling for this.” Clearly, Mom is. But I look at Aimee. She can’t meet my gaze. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You too?” I throw my hands up and shake my head. “Dads don’t leave. Period.” I stand, calmly push my chair in, and walk up the stairs to my room. They can fall for his shit if they want to. I’m out of here.