A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(66)

“You said before that being an umbra child means nothing. I inherited nothing from my father’s power.”

“Doesn’t mean someone out there won’t try to find that out for themselves. Some people will think you’re lying, or we’re covering it up. Or they’ll want your power to help them do something crazy. I imagine if your father wasn’t on lockdown somewhere, more people would be trying to find out the truth about him too. His power is something many groups would like to get their hands on.”

“You told me my father could find anyone anywhere on earth. Do you want to use him to do that?”

“What makes you ask that?” Olivia asked.

“I just want to know. I don’t want to be here, helping you, and then when it’s over with Elias, you end up wanting me to do the same thing he did. You saved my life, so I owe you one, but I want to be upfront about everything.”

Tommy shook his head. “Look, I told you I’d be honest with you. Your father’s power could help us track people; it could help us find bad people.”

“That’s if he even decided to help. I told Elias the same thing. He might say no. He doesn’t really care about me. Only himself. Elias told me that it isn’t true. That my father loves me.”

Olivia removed a USB stick from her desk drawer and passed it over to Layla. “This contains transcripts from every conversation the LOA have had with your father. I contacted Tabitha and told her about you, and she made sure we had them. She told me to send you her love. She said you were a good kid.”

“I liked her,” Layla said, taking hold of the USB drive. It felt much heavier in her hand than it had any physical right to.

“You can use my laptop to read what’s on there. Your father is not a good man, but he really did think he was doing the right thing. Read what’s on there if you want to know what he really thinks of you. Or don’t. It’s your choice.”

“But if I can get him to help, he could save lives.”

“Yes,” Tommy said. “That’s the plan, anyway.”

Layla placed the drive in her pocket. “I can’t be distracted right now. There’s too much at stake. I’ll read it all later, but when this is over, and if I can convince him to help, I will.” She breathed out slowly, feeling as if she’d just made a monumental decision. “One condition: he can’t be allowed out of that jail. Not now, not ever.”

“Your father hunted down twenty-seven serial killers during his time,” Tommy said. “That’s twenty-seven that no one knew existed. Between them, they killed over seventy people in a decade. Your father stopped that, but there’s no way we’re going to allow him to continue killing people. He’s not going anywhere.”

“I’ve been thinking, did the demon . . . sorry, the drenik, tell him to do it? Did my father allow the drenik to control him?”

“Not according to what Tabitha transcribed,” Olivia said. “Your father did it because he says it needed doing. No other reason. Your father is . . .”

“My father is the Punisher,” Layla interrupted. “And however cool that character is in fiction, in real life it’s pretty damn horrific.”

“I was going to say that he’s without remorse for those he’s killed. He thinks of them as cockroaches beneath his feet. He says they deserved it, each and every one of them. I’m not sure if the drenik inside the scroll broke his mind or not, but ninety-nine percent of the time, he’s completely ordinary. Then you ask him about a set of crimes, or a killer, and something inside of him changes.”

A horrible thought dawned on Layla. “His power to track people, can he see the lives of the people he tracks?”

“To a limited degree. He can see the action that gave him the evidence. So if he finds a footprint at a murder, he can tell whom that footprint belongs to, but also see them commit the crime.”

“So my father could be watching my life. He only has to think my name and . . .”

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, and Layla instantly felt sick.

“Yes,” Olivia said eventually, her voice soft and understanding. “I’m sorry.”

Layla walked over to a window and pushed it open a few inches, feeling the powerful breeze this high above the ground.

“You okay?” Tommy asked.

Layla nodded. “That’s why Nergal wants him. He could use my father’s power to find people who agree with him, who would join him. He’s going to use my father to help him create an army, isn’t he?”

“We think that’s the plan, yes,” Olivia said. “Nergal has a large compound in America, and inside he forces humans to take the spirit scrolls so that he can see what powers they get. If they’re not useful to him, or they don’t deal well with the power given to them, they’re killed and the scroll is given to someone else. An endless cycle of pain and death. Nergal would like to find those umbras who already have powers, who already deal with their spirits and power on a daily basis. He wants people with exceptional abilities to join his cause.”

“And what cause is that?”

“He’s working with an organization that wants to bring down Avalon and place themselves as the rulers of all things.”

“But you implied that Avalon is partially corrupt.”