Page 143 of A Vow of Shadow and Blood

“So, I’m not allowed to call you by the name I chose for you now?”

I almost choke on the last bit of water in my mouth.

“Wait, this is your dad?” I ask.

Finn casts his eyes down. I look back up and almost curse myself for not seeing the resemblance. The brown hair, the hazel eyes, but where Finn’s skin is a light brown, his father’s is pale white, yet their faces are almost an exact mirror now that I’m studying them.

“Yes, I’m his father, though he rarely acknowledges the fact. My son here only ever visits when he wants something.”

“That’s not true,” Finn snaps, and his father simply laughs.

“Then what are you here for today? Why have you brought yourfriends?”

Finn’s face twists with an emotion I have never seen before.Guilt.Unlike purebloods, those without magic running through their blood are born of their parents, raised, and get to know them. Yet Finn has never spoken of his, and I simply assumed they were dead.

Finn leans forward, looking at his father intensely.

“You found a way to siphon the magic from our blood and trap it. I need to know how you did it?”

His father watches him intensely, and it’s as if nobody in the room makes a sound.

“Why would you need to know such information?”

“You always said that you wanted me to do something to make you proud. Well, I’m trying to do that now, and to do it, I need to replicate what you did.”

Something softens in his father’s eyes, but it is gone before I can truly analyze it.

“I’ve already made it so that you will receive such information in the event of my death.”

Finn blows out a frustrated breath. “I need the information now, not when you’re dead.”

“Do you remember what happened the last time you were here?” His father tilts his head. “You double-crossed me. Your own father.Stolefrom me.”

Of course, he did.

“That’s not what happened.”

“No? Then all the venom I collected just vanished into thin air? Don’t lie to me.”

Finn dips his head in shame, and I close my eyes for a moment.

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice!”

His father’s sharp tone causes me to flinch.

“The people who sent me didn’t give me a choice. It was your life or that venom, so I took it. I’m not proud of what I did, but I would do it again if it meant keeping you safe.”

Sadness crosses his father’s face as he looks at him. He rises from his seat, crossing the room to stand by where the fire is still crackling. He folds his arms across his chest as his eyes scan over each of us. He seems to blur in and out of focus now that he is closer to the fire, and I blink my eyes to try to clear the blur, but it does little to help. I shake my head, trying to clear the odd fog, and wonder if the long journey here has finally started to take its toll on me.

“I raised you to look out for yourself and take whatever you need from this world in order to survive, but I’m your weakness, and for me, you do foolish things. That is why I must protect you.”

“I do not need protecting.”

“If that were true, you would not have needed to steal from me the last time you were here. And you certainly wouldn’t have needed to hide the fact that you brought a bunch of bloodsuckers into my house using a glamor I taught you to make.”

I whip my head up in surprise, but the room starts spinning uncontrollably, and a pounding sounds inside the walls of my mind.