A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(51)

“No. She doesn’t pretend. She doesn’t really have it in her. And yes, they are friends. Have been for a long time.”

“I trusted her,” Layla shouted. “She knows how many people have lied to me my whole life. She knows that everyone I trust lies. They take that trust and twist it for their own purpose, and she’s done the exact same thing.”

“If you really think that, you’re wrong. She worked for me to help me keep you safe. To help me keep others safe from you. Because when you’re not sure if the person with no training and a psychotic father is a monster themselves, you tend to want to find out.”

Anger bubbled up inside of Layla and she wanted to lash out, to hit something. To hurt someone. “All these years, I’ve been terrified of hurting someone, of becoming my father, and you all knew that I might. And you didn’t tell me?”

“We had no idea, Layla. That’s why we had Chloe keep an eye on you. Your mother told us that you had some issues with your anger. That you were capable of hurting people. She was worried you’d inherited it from your father.”

The anger vanished, replaced with a feeling like she’d been punched in the gut. “My mom told you about those thoughts?”

Tommy nodded. “You beat a kid into semi-consciousness. You bet your mum told us. She said you were a good kid, but that your father had instilled some . . . lessons in you as a child. Fighting, weapon use, explosives. Quite the childhood. He turned a child into a weapon, and he did it without his wife having a say in the matter. He was a bad guy, your old man.”

“Chloe should have told me. She should have been honest with me. How can I trust her now?”

“You should trust her because it’s Chloe. No matter what she did or didn’t do, she’s still Chloe. She knows I’m telling you this, by the way. She’s not happy about it, but she knows. She wanted to be the one to tell you.”

“Anything else?” Layla’s voice was cold and hard. She wanted to talk to Chloe, to find out how her friend could lie to her face over and over again. They might have only been friends a few years, but Layla didn’t have many friends and anyone she let in, even slightly, was someone she believed was worthy of her trust. To discover that she was wrong hurt more than she’d imagined.

“Lots of things. We went back to the underground compound you were kept at, but if anyone had been there, they’re long gone now. We found a few bodies, though. We ID’d them as some of the people who worked at the depot. I’m sorry.”

Layla had hoped some of them would still be alive.

Tommy waited for a few seconds before continuing. “I want to keep you alive, Layla. I’m going to be as open as I can about everything, but you don’t have to like me. You just have to realize I’m not the bad guy.”

“I thought I did. I thought I trusted Chloe, but she betrayed me.”

“You have a black and white view of the world. She didn’t betray you. Yes, she lied, but she did it to protect you, she did it because it’s her job. And she’s exceptionally good at her job. But she’s not much of a liar when it comes to her feelings. She can’t hide those. She’s your friend because she wants to be. No one ordered it; no one said it would be a good idea if you became besties. She’s your friend because she cares about you deeply. If you can’t see that, then I’m sorry.”

Layla thought about Tommy’s words for several seconds. She would need to talk to Chloe. “So what happens now?”

“I can’t force you to come with me.”

“I think you probably could,” Layla argued.

Tommy stood and nodded. “Yes, I could. I could force you in a hundred different ways. But I won’t. I’m not that person. You want to know how to control the spirits in a place of safety? Come with me. You want to know how to control the anger inside you, so you don’t have those thoughts of hurting people? I can help with that too.”

“How?”

“I’m a werewolf, Layla. Deep inside my soul is a monster the likes of which makes your father look like Foghorn Leghorn. The beast that lives there wants out. Always. It wants to hurt and feed and kill. And it is a constant battle not to let it. I’m hundreds of years old, and it’s still hard work. My daughter Kase is your age, and she let it out once. Almost lost control and killed people. That voice you hear that tells you how much you like fighting, I have one like it, except mine tells me to bathe in the blood of everyone I know.

“We all have our monsters, Layla. But you’re not one. You’ve lived with that voice your whole life, probably think it’s part of your father’s gifts he passed on to you. It’s not. It’s just something you need to learn to ignore. You’re so terrified of becoming your father, you don’t realize you’re nothing like him.”

“Have you ever met my father?”

“No. I know people who have, though. I’ve read about his crimes; I’ve seen what he’s done. Trust me, you’re not your father.”

“I’m an umbra just like him.”

“You think that means you’re going to become him, that this was how he started?”

Tommy’s words were almost exactly what Layla had just thought, and for a moment she wondered if he could read minds too. She smiled, but only for a second.