5 - War Shivers in the Darkness… Waiting
“I wish I was a better father. I wish I was a better man. I wish I loved you the way that you deserve to be loved. I’ve been angry for years, Ari. And it wasn’t until I discovered the truth about you and Sala that I realized how angry I am at your mother.”
Dad, no.
Smoke rose all around him as he stared at her with anguished eyes.
The smell of burning flesh clogged her throat, hitting her gag reflex.
“I really do love you, kid. I guess I just never loved you enough.”
No! His face flickered beneath the flames but he didn’t cry out in pain. She did that for him.
He smiled a bittersweet smile even as the fire tore through him.
“I will never regret keeping you safe, even if I didn’t know that’s what I was doing.”
DAD, NO!
Her eyes slammed open and then immediately shut themselves again at the bright glare of light in her bedroom. Taking a deep breath, sensing the presence of Jinn in her room, Ari fought her way through the nightmare to reality. What was she doing in bed? What had happened?
She had been in Vickers’ Woods with her dad.
Where was her dad?
“Dad?” she pried her eyes open and felt her heart rate speed up at the sight of her uncle, The Red King, at the foot of her bed. He didn’t give her his usual laid-back smile. Instead he stared at her stonily in the relentless silence.
Finally Ari let go of the breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding and she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She was still in the clothes she’d been wearing when she’d chased her dad out to Vickers’ Woods but the sky was darkening outside so some hours had passed since then. “What’s going on?”
“Derek is dead.”
The words didn’t register at first. Ari blinked, her brain automatically trying to rearrange the sentence so it made sense. “What?” her lips felt numb all of sudden.
“Derek is dead. He was killed.”
Derek is dead.
Ari shook her head, fumbling to push herself off the bed. She stumbled to her feet and shoved strength into her legs. She charged past her uncle and out of her room, racing down the hallway to her dad’s bedroom. She pushed open the door and found it empty. That didn’t mean anything. He was probably downstairs. Shaking now, Ari spun around to leave only to find the entrance blocked by The Red King.
“He’s gone, Ari.”
“No.” She shook her head, anger making her eyes glitter with unshed tears. “You’re lying.”
Her uncle shook his head sadly. “The White King sent two Shaitans after you. One knocked you out in the woods and the other gave Derek a brain aneurism.”
It was blunt. Harsh. It didn’t make sense. Dad? The things he’d said. Blunt. Something had hit her. It hurt. She’d switched off. DAD! “I want to see him,” her voice shook. “I want to see him.”
“We put him back in his car. Someone will find him and the coroner will declare it natural causes. It’ll be easier that way.”
Natural causes?
Derek is dead.
The room spun and Ari fought to draw in oxygen. Everything. It had been for nothing. She hadn’t saved him. Who had she been kidding? Derek is dead.
“I really do love you, kid. I guess I just never loved you enough.”
“The White King?” she whispered hoarsely, hitting the floor with a painful thud when she miscalculated the space between her and the bed. She was vaguely aware of The Red King’s strong hands wrapping around her upper arms as he lifted her easily, like plucking a daisy from the grass. He sat her down on the bed and took two careful steps backwards. Ari found herself focusing on those very blue eyes of his. “The White King?” Her father had done this? Deliberately?