Page 108 of A Monarch's Fall

“I will always be responsible for you,” he stated. “I can’t force you. I know you enough that I could drag you onto the trawler tomorrow morning, throw you onto the shores of Fenryd, and you’d just end up back on these shores eventually. But I am asking you, Percy, as your father, as someone who loves you, to leave. I can take you across the sea to safety. Don’t make me bury you,” he pleaded.

I took my hand from his and stood.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. I can’t leave when war is about to break out. I can’t leave my friends, my family, I can’t leave her behind in the chaos that all leads back to me in some way. I didn’t start or knowingly contribute to any of the unrest affecting this land, but the tide is going to break soon, and I won’t jump ship to save myself and watch everyone else drown,” I told him.

He stood too, towering over me, and wrapped me in his arms.

“We could all go,” he said softly. “Everyone, Rosemary, Galan, your friend, even that soul match of yours, the whole village can come if they want,” he offered.

“If you want to leave with Rosemary and Galan, and anyone else who wants to go with you, I think you should. Galan is a newborn; he should be somewhere safe, and I don’t know how safe you will all be here. The New Foundation isn’t just agroup of witches anymore; they’re a whole army, and war and everything that comes with it seems inevitable. But Selene would never abandon the land or people. Not like that, while she still had the ability to change things, and neither will I. If you go, I’ll come find you someday when this is all over. But I can’t leave,” I said.

He squeezed me, painfully tight, before he let me go.

“You should head down to the bonfire and enjoy the night. I suspect you’ll be leaving for Borealis in the morning. This might be the first and only night that all my children sleep under the same roof. I want to celebrate it,” he told me, thankfully stopping his pleading for me to run away across the sea.

“It won’t be the last time,” I promised.

“Go,” he instructed sadly, and I knew our talk was over.

I left my old garden, back through the house where I once wasn’t a guest and out to find Ana and introduce her to everyone that would be gathering at the bonfire.

We shared my old bed that night. There was barely enough room for us both, but I don’t think either of us cared. It was so much better than the forest floor or a mouse-infested barn.

“You could stay here,” I said when we had settled.

“As in join the village?” she asked.

“Yeah, everyone likes you. If you wanted to stay, someone would make space for you, and eventually the village would help build your own home,”

“I need to go home to warn everyone of what’s coming,” Ana said.

“I understand. My father wanted to send me across the sea to Fenryd,” I told her.

Ana rolled over to look at me.

“You should go,” she said.

“I have to get back to Selene,” I said.

Surprisingly, Ana didn’t argue; she simply nodded in understanding.

The next morning, we were surprised when we were offered a ride to Maria town and the main train station. Father had arranged to take that morning’s catch to market. We sat in the village van, surrounded by the smell of the sea from the fresh fish.

“If you ever want to come back home, Percy, and if you ever want to make a home, Ana, I hope you know that you are always welcome,” he said as we neared the town.

“Thanks,” Ana said.

He smiled and then took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at me.

“What I said yesterday wasn’t about not wanting you around. It was about wanting to protect you,” he told me.

“I know,” I said.

“Rosemary thought from how I said it when we were speaking that you might have been confused. She instructed me to make sure you knew what I really meant,” he explained.

“I know. I love you too,” I told him.

Chapter twenty-six