Magic Rises

he want a daughter like that? Don’t you think he would at least try to get to know you?”
    “You’re missing the point. I don’t want to know him. He killed my mother, Hugh. He robbed me of the one person every child counts on for unconditional love. Do you remember your mother?”
    “Yes,” Hugh said. “I was four when she died. Three years later Voron took me off the street.”
    “I don’t remember mine. Not a murmur, not a trace of a scent, no smudged image, nothing. Voron was my father and my mother. The Death’s Raven was an undisputed authority in my life. The only authority. You knew him. Think about what that really means.”
    “So it’s vengeance and a pity party at the same time,” Hugh said.
    “No. It’s not vengeance. It’s prevention. I want to kill Roland so there will never be another me.”
    “That would be a tragedy,” Hugh said.
    “That would be a blessing,” I said.
    “Let the shapeshifter sail off,” Hugh said. “Stay with me for a while. No strings attached. No obligations or expectations. See if I can change your mind.”
    “I thought we already covered that ground. It wouldn’t be a good idea.”
    “What’s holding you to him? The man does care about you in his own stunted way, but you will never fit in with them, Kate. Deep down you know this. They’ll always look on you as if you’re a dangerous freak. People fear what they can’t understand, but they can work with it. Animals can’t. They shun the strange or try to destroy it. You can bleed for them for a hundred years and you won’t change their minds. Make one small misstep and they will turn on you.”
    I turned and looked at the sea. Curran would fight to his last breath to protect me. If I asked Derek to walk into fire, he would do it. But then again there was Doolittle looking at me with horror in his eyes . . .
    “It’s slipping,” he said.
    I arched my eyebrow at him.
    “Your cloak,” he said. “Some of your power is showing. Just how much are you hiding?”
    “I guess you’ll never know,” I told him.
    Hugh rested his elbows on a table. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
    “If Roland doesn’t find me?”
    “Yes.”
    “In the Keep, doing what I’m doing now.”
    “How long will that last, Kate?”
    “Hopefully for a long, long time.”
    “You’re lying to yourself. Voron made us into serial killers. We can be okay without violence for a few weeks, but after a couple of months, the hand starts itching for the sword. You start looking for that rush. You get irritable, life turns stale, and then one day some fool crosses your path, attacks, and as you cut him down, you feel that short moment of struggle when he leverages his life against yours. If you’re lucky, he’s very good and the fight lasts a few seconds. But even if it doesn’t, that short moment of triumph is like getting an adrenaline shot. Suddenly color comes back into life, food tastes better, sleep is deeper, and sex is rapture.”
    I knew exactly what he was talking about. I lived it and I felt it.
    “You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I know I’m right. You and I are birds of a feather. We weren’t just born, we were forged, ground, and sharpened to be exactly what we are. You felt it when we sparred. I sure did. I don’t know what you’ve got going with the werelion, but whatever it is, it will go flat and soon. I bet you already see signs of it. Some part of him enjoyed Lorelei’s attention. It’s flattering. A young, attractive girl, hanging on your every word, putting out all the signs that she’s available to you alone. It makes you feel like you’ve still got it. He didn’t do anything, but as another man, I can tell you he thought about it. Sex is a funny thing: it’s always kind of the same, but you always want more of it and with different people.”
    I leaned on my hand and sighed. “Please continue, Doctor. Let me know when our time is up so I can write a check.”
    He chuckled. “The man is an egomaniac. You know this. He doesn’t fully understand what you are, and he doesn’t appreciate it. Give him a few years, and the next time a Lorelei swings into his orbit, he might bang her. He will tell himself it’s not a big thing. It wouldn’t mean anything. He won’t leave you for her. The next time will be easier. The next easier still. Before you know it, it will become a regular thing. Why the hell would you want to put up with that?”
    “Speaking from