Tide - By Daniela Sacerdoti Page 0,83
it vibrating under my skin every time she’s around. She’s very much like her grandmother, Morag – only Sarah is kind. I can see it in her eyes.
“I have it,” Winter admitted finally. “I just don’t want you to read it.”
Sarah frowned, but tried to remain calm. “It’s not up to you. It belongs to my grandmother. It’s mine. I have all the right to read it.”
“You have the right to read it, yes. It’s just that …”
Sarah scrutinized Winter’s face. “I can tell you this, Winter. I’m fed up with people hiding things from me because they want to protect me, OK? My parents did it, Sean did it, and look where it took me! Up until a few months ago I didn’t even know how to use my own powers, and it almost killed me. Enough secrets. I don’t need protecting. I want that letter, Winter. Now.”
“Sarah.”
“Have you destroyed it?” Sarah demanded, anger flashing in her eyes.
“I wanted to, but I knew it wasn’t my place to do that. I just couldn’t destroy that memory. It wasn’t up to me.”
“No, it’s not up to you.” A roar of thunder rattled through the skies. Winter could see Sarah’s lips moving, but the final part of her sentence was carried away by the noise. The waves were getting bigger, and a thin, jagged string of lightning cut through the sky in the west. The light turned suddenly livid, eerie.
As she looked into Sarah’s face, Winter saw her, Morag Midnight, playing in her features like blood memories do.
“Sarah,” she blurted out. “There’s more to your family than you imagine. The Midnights wanted me dead. And they nearly succeeded.”
“What? Why?” Sarah cried out, then her features rearranged themselves into suspicion. “I can only think of one reason they would want you dead. You are—” Instinctively she flexed her hands and her Midnight eyes began to shimmer.
For a second, Winter was afraid. “A demon? No. I told you the truth. I’m half human, half Elemental.”
“Then why—”
“Your grandmother didn’t really approve of mixing species, so to speak.” Winter shuddered, remembering the catalogue of ghastly words Morag had used for her mother – whore, among many others. And for her: half-breed, bastard child. Monster.
“I still don’t understand.” Sarah flung out her arms in frustration. “Explain, please!”
“Your family … they never cared much for Elementals. Mainly because they can’t be controlled easily. The Midnights could never control them, anyway. And they certainly didn’t approve of new breeds. That was considered totally unacceptable. Secret people marrying Lays was bad enough, but a human and an Elemental having a child with potentially unknown powers? Surely you were aware of this?”
“I told you, my parents hid things from me. I didn’t even know there were other Secret heirs in the world. I thought it was just us.”
Winter had to assume that James and Anne Midnight had their reasons for keeping their daughter in the dark as they’d done, but to leave Sarah ignorant was to leave her unarmed. “You see, Secret men can marry Lay women and the powers are passed on, but not the other way round. The children of Secret women and Lay men won’t inherit any Secret power, no Blackwater, in your case.”
Sarah shrugged. “My parents never told me. I suppose if they had, they would have had to explain that there were other Secret Families, and from there …”
“I think they would have had to tell you sooner or later, because I can’t imagine James letting you marry a Lay.”
“I can’t imagine my dad letting me marry anyone he didn’t choose for me,” said Sarah quietly, a chill running down her spine as she realized what that implied about her father.
“Yes, your father could be quite … controlling. He did, after all, try to kill me.”
Sarah stared at Winter. Winter read the horror in her eyes, and a sense of compassion invaded her. Sarah really didn’t know her father. At all.
“I don’t understand.” Sarah’s voice became small. “So they disapproved of what your mother did, and of you.” She gave a little laugh. “Fair enough, I suppose. As far as I know my grandmother disapproved of the whole world, really. But trying to kill you …”
“As I said, Sarah, you really don’t know much about them.”
“Then you need to tell me. I want to know.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Winter, taking Sarah’s hands in hers. “I wish I didn’t have to be the one. Listen. Whatever happens, I want you to remember one thing, Sarah. You’re not