Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One #2)(41)

He spoke frankly of the horrors and hardships, of the wonder and weight of feeling his power expand. And when he spoke of his brother, of trying to take Eric’s life, trying to take a life of his own family, she heard both the lingering grief and the cold determination.

“You had to choose.” As she spoke, Fallon leaned against him. “My mother, me, the others you protected.”

“Yes, I had to choose, and there was no question of what was right. But using the gift to cause harm is a hard choice, Fallon. Causing harm to family, to someone who shares your blood, harder still.”

She understood. Wanted to. Tried to. But …

“I’m here because you made that choice in the mountains, and again in New Hope. You died because your brother made his choice.”

“As a leader you’ll face hard choices.”

“Did you wish you didn’t have to be one?”

“All the time.” He turned his head, brushed his lips over her temple. “In the end, we are who we are.”

“You believe that?”

“I do, yeah.”

“Then you should stop feeling even a little bit guilty for trying to kill Eric. In the end, he was what he was.”

Max let out a half laugh. “You got me on that. You’re right.”

“Tell me more about New Hope. Mom’s told us a lot, and sometimes when we use the ham radio Dad got, we hear the reporter.”

“Arlys? Arlys Reid?”

“Yeah, she gives reports on Raiders and the Purity Warriors and rescues and things like that. And other stuff. She changes frequencies a lot, for safety. Dad said he could probably fix it so Mom could talk to her over the radio, but Mom wouldn’t.”

“She worries.”

“Yeah, that they’d figure out about the farm, or use her somehow to attack New Hope again. But I know she was really good friends with some of the people there.”

“We had good friends,” he agreed. “We traveled there with Poe and Kim and Eddie and Joe, from the mountains, and Flynn and his group from the little village below.”

“The boy with the wolf.” She glanced back, saw the white wolf in the shadows still.

“Lupa. And along the way, there were others.”

He painted a picture for her, more detailed than her mother had. And she began to see her mother, too, through his eyes. Young, brave, beautiful, learning to drive, nervous about becoming a mother, standing up to a bully at the town meeting.

She dozed off with her head on his shoulder, his voice in her head.

And his voice woke her.

“Fallon. Wake up, baby, it’s nearly dawn.”

“What? But … I fell asleep. I didn’t mean to.”

“You gave me the chance to hold my daughter while she slept. One more gift. Come on now. I’ll walk you back as far as I can.”

“I don’t want you to go.”

“You know, it’s true when people who love you say they’ll always be with you.”

“It’s not the same,” she told him as she dragged her feet.

“I know, but that doesn’t make it less true. What will you do today?”

“Feed the chickens, gather the eggs. Mallick usually milks the cow. After breakfast we have lessons in the workroom. Sometimes it’s boring, sometimes it’s not. We have to tend the greenhouse plants, too. And today he said I can start learning how to use a sword.”

“And you look forward to that.”

“I learn with a sword chosen for the girl I am. But on a night, like my birth, wild with storm, burned in lightning, on a night after I hold the Book of Spells, after I travel in the Well of Light, I take up the sword and shield of The One. Of the daughter of the Tuatha de Danann, the Warrior of Light. With these I challenge the dark and give no quarter. In these my power and my blood run in ice and flame.”

Her eyes that had gone dark and fierce blinked. And the child came back.

“You looked like your mother just then when a vision came on her.”

“I felt different. I felt strong.”

“You are strong.” He kissed her forehead. “I have to go.”

“Dad.” She threw her arms around him, held tight. “Will I ever see you again?”

“I know you will.” He kissed her again, drew her back. “We are who we are, Fallon. I see who you are, and I’m so proud. I love you,” he said, stepping back into the shadows as the first hint of the sun shimmered over the eastern hills.

“I love you, Dad.”

Furious, and more than a little frightened, Mallick stormed out of the cottage. The girl hadn’t slept in her bed, and was nowhere to be seen. When he found her, by the gods, she’d know the punishment for a night’s foolishness.

As he turned toward the stables intending to saddle his horse, he saw the white owl fly out of the woods. Then the girl walked out. And the wolf, the damnable wolf she’d surely spent the night tracking, stopped at the edge before slinking back and away.

The hand on the hilt of his sword, one belted on in haste, went lax with relief. And his temper rose in one hot flood.

“Are you mad or simply stupid? To wander off through the night, without leave. I was about to do a searching spell with hope I wouldn’t find your mangled body. There are predators, girl, on four legs and two, that would find you a tasty meal. You would climb out your window and wander alone through the night?”