Page 32 of Blood Skye (Skye Druids #6)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Carlyle slowly turned to face the open door. The voices were clearer now. Or maybe his hearing was sharper since he was alone.

His life had been forever altered the day Mabel was killed. Only he hadn’t realized just how deeply his world had fractured. Not really. Not until that moment. His past and present were about to collide. He’d always known it would happen. Only he’d been so confident that he’d be able to dictate when and where.

He walked forward toward the room. Toward Song . Time hadn’t taught him as much as he had assumed since he still made irresponsible decisions. No one willingly faced the elders alone. Yet that was exactly his plan. Fate was no doubt laughing at him. It was a lesson he hadn’t learned before. Maybe it would sink in now.

How often had Finn told him he needed to heal from Mabel’s death? Each time, Carlyle had assured his friend that he had. Finn had known his words were lies. It was the reason Finn had urged him to make peace with the past so often. Carlyle had put a medical plaster over the wound, then covered it with so much other stuff that it would never hurt him again.

What a fool he’d been. He’d merely postponed the day when he had to look the past in the eye and see it for what it was.

Foul . Menacing . Repulsive .

He might have figured it out if he hadn’t been stuck blaming himself. But he hadn’t wanted to. He had carried the guilt, hid behind it. But the injury had festered. He was part of a disease spreading like a virus throughout the organization. Instead of fighting it, he’d gone off with the Knights and brought the battles elsewhere.

Until today.

The past awaited. With all its broken promises, propaganda, and malevolence. There would be no more delays, no hiding. No more suppressing.

Today , it was going to end.

One way or another.

Carlyle reached the door. He paused and choked on a knot of emotions. His heart bumped uncomfortably against his ribs. He dropped his chin to his chest for a moment. When he lifted his head, not an ounce of emotion showed. He stepped into the room.

Surprise ripped Song’s voice away as she stared at Carlyle . She was livid that he’d come. And pleased beyond reason. She spotted the makeshift torniquet around his lower torso. His tie was nowhere to be found, his shirt was torn and stained with blood, and his wig and prosthetic nose were gone.

Yet it was his carefully controlled visage that brought her up short. It wasn’t the shuttered look he used when facing off against an enemy. This was something much more.

“ Hello , son.”

Song’s head whipped toward the older man. Blood rushed in her ears as his words echoed in her mind. Son …

Time slowed to a crawl as she slid her gaze to Carlyle . Now , she understood the look he wore. It was a shield against his father. Thomas had never been missing. He’d instigated everything. Including setting up Carlyle to be used against his friends.

But who was Thomas ? Obviously , he wasn’t the man Carlyle believed him to be. It took power and influence for someone to pull off such a feat. Did that mean the elders had helped? The one thing she knew was that it had something to do with Skye . She wanted Carlyle to look at her. He hid his pain, but it was there. Controlled .

“ I’m sure you have questions,” Thomas said.

With his words, time moved normally again. Nausea roiled in Song’s stomach at how his eyes filled with anticipation as he watched Carlyle . Thomas was excited by the prospect of bringing his son into the fold. She thought back to the way Carlyle had spoken about his father. He’d idolized him. They had been close. Or so Carlyle had thought. But Thomas’s actions proved he knew nothing of his son.

Carlyle said one word. “ No .”

“ Oh , come now,” Thomas chided. “ Look what you’ve accomplished. You not only caught Devon , but you escaped the team we sent after her. And you found your way to me. I couldn’t be prouder, son.”

“ Don’t ever call me that again. You aren’t my father. I don’t have one.”

Thomas drew in a slow, deep breath. “ This can go easy, or it can go hard. The choice is yours. Either way, you belong to us now, Carlyle . None of your friends will be able to save you.” Thomas waved his hand in the air and bestowed a benevolent smile once more. “ Come take your place beside me.”

Song looked between father and son. She knew the depths of Carlyle’s love for his sire. A love like that couldn’t be disregarded easily.

Seconds ticked by as the two stared wordlessly at each other. Right before her eyes, Song watched the kindly father persona, the one Thomas had used the night he’d found her, fall away. The man’s lips curled into a sneer, and animosity filled his eyes.

“ I gave you the kind of father you required. Spending time together, coddling you. And now you want to throw that away? How dare you?” Thomas spat.

Carlyle kept his voice even as he said, “ What a great actor you are. You fooled everyone, didn’t you?”

“ The ones who needed it. You have no idea how good you had it. I could’ve been a tyrant like my father. Obviously , I should’ve been. You never would’ve dared to stand against me then. Your mother convinced me to take another route, especially with everyone seemingly in everyone else’s business. She thought someone might take offense if I left bruises on you. And she was correct. It was one of the few things that woman was right about.”

Song studied the room. It was two against one if Carlyle fought Thomas . But a surprise attack would give her the advantage. Then maybe Carlyle wouldn’t have to strike out at his father.

Thomas tilted his head to the side. “ Speaking of your mother, I lied about how she died.”

The only movement Carlyle made was a gradual curling of his fingers into a fist. Song wanted to wrap her arms around him and protect him, but Thomas’s jab had already landed. The wound had been laid bare.

“ What did you do to my mother?” Carlyle demanded.

“ I killed her.”

Three words, but they packed a punch even Song felt. And if they rocked her, she couldn’t imagine what impact they had on Carlyle . She would do anything to take the pain from him.

Amusement colored Thomas’s face. “ She was a fire walker. It’s why we married. I wanted children who could control fire, and she wanted money. We had an agreement. She would give me as many children as it took for one to have her ability, and she could live as lavishly as she wanted. It all went perfectly to plan. She got pregnant immediately but miscarried at four months. The second pregnancy came just as rapidly. She miscarried that one almost as soon as she conceived. I was about to think her defective when the third one took. You . But she changed with your birth. She suddenly wanted a say in how you were raised. The woman interfered when she shouldn’t have. She tried to run away with you when you were two. She actually thought she could get away from me. It was the last straw. She clung to you with her dying breath, but I made her live just long enough to see me take you.”

Hate . Loathing . Disgust .

None of those aptly described Carlyle’s feelings. There wasn’t a word in the English language that could fittingly define his new aversion for the man he had loved, the one he had been willing to sacrifice everything for. His father.

The monster he stared at now didn’t match the thousands of memories— good memories—he had.

And he feared it never would.

His da—no. He didn’t have a dad. Thomas had killed his mother. An illness hadn’t taken her.

“ You have to admit,” Thomas continued, “you thrived under my tutelage. Look at you now.” He motioned to Carlyle . “ You’ve made a name for yourself in the Druid community. You and the Knights are all over the message boards. As soon as word gets out that you’ve returned to the London Druids , our ranks will swell.”

Carlyle thought about calling for Melisse and ending things right now, but it wasn’t just about him. He hadn’t looked directly at Song because he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his feelings from showing if he did. He’d only gotten a glimpse of her when he first walked in, but the sight of her made his heart hurt, wanting to go to her.

He needed to be closer to Song before he called for Melisse . There wouldn’t be time to tell her to take Song and leave him behind. And he couldn’t leave. Not before he ended his father’s reign. Carlyle hadn’t figured out exactly where Thomas fit in the organization’s hierarchy, but it was clearly in a very powerful position. Especially since the elders were nowhere in sight.

The moment Thomas’s gaze shifted to Song , Carlyle spoke. “ You’re right. You had me fooled. You got everything you wanted. A child to raise as you wished without a wife sucking you dry monetarily or trying to tell you what to do. But whatever you had planned is over.”

“ Why ? Because you made friends on Skye ? That will only benefit London ,” Thomas answered with a sly smile.

Unease slithered through Carlyle . He wanted to know more, but he had to be careful. If he asked outright, Thomas might refuse to answer. “ What happened to banishment or death?”

Thomas’s lips twisted. “ As soon as the members learn I sent you to Skye as our spy, you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Parties will be thrown in your honor. Especially once the Skye Druids fall. I’m sure you’re about to refuse, so let me put this to you as clearly as I can, son. You have two choices. You can walk among us as your peers, or I can lock you away in a dark place where you will never see the light of day again and are forced to do my bidding whenever I command it.”

“ You’ll be forcing me to do your bidding whether I agree or not.”

“ I’m glad you can see the way of things,” Thomas replied with a smile.

“ You tried threats when I was young. They didn’t work then. They won’t work now.”

Thomas sighed irritably. “ You’ve too much of your mother in you.”

Carlyle loosened the hand that had been fisted and slowly slipped it into his pocket to retrieve the lighter. “ I heard you. Now , you get to listen to me. I’m going to walk out of here, and Devon is coming with me.”

Thomas raised a brow as he cut his gaze to Song . Then he threw back his head and laughed. “ I should’ve seen that coming. You always did have a need to ride to the rescue. I suppose this is a day of revelations for all of us. I have one for you, Devon .”

His father lifted an arm and curled his finger a couple of times to beckon someone to him. A woman walked into the room through a door Carlyle hadn’t noticed. She walked to Thomas , and the two put their arms around each other, both smiling. Carlyle braced himself for what he knew was coming.

“ Lauren ?” Song whispered, shock lacing her voice.

Carlyle wanted to launch himself at Thomas and beat him to a pulp. He wanted to rush to Song and put his arms around her. He wanted so many things in that moment that were out of his reach. Instead , he stood and evaluated his next actions.

Lauren turned her disinterested gaze on Song . “ Let me guess. This is where you tell me you’ve been sooo worried about me.”

Carlyle helplessly watched as Song struggled to accept what she was seeing.

“ I was upset when Thomas first took me away,” Lauren said. “ But I got to go off to school and make friends. If you had returned, I would’ve lost all that. So , I asked Thomas to keep you away,” she announced.

“ But …we’re family,” Song murmured.

Thomas laughed. “ Family ? You were ordered by your parents to watch Lauren , yet you willingly turned her over to me. That’s what you did to family .”

Song’s expression hardened, and her eyes narrowed. “ Where are my parents?”

The glee in Thomas’s eyes was all the warning he gave before saying, “ I had them. How do you think I found you? Your mother wouldn’t give up your location no matter how much I tortured her. Your father, however, capitulated within moments. Once I had you and Lauren , I killed him.”

“ And my mother?” Song asked.

Carlyle gritted his teeth at the sound of her shaky voice. Thomas was enjoying this little show. He had intentionally not mentioned what’d happened to Song’s mother. Carlyle gripped the lighter and withdrew his hand from his pocket.

“ Funny you should ask,” Lauren replied.

Another woman walked out of the door. This one was older, her black hair streaked with strands of gray. It hung in a single plait down the middle of her back.

“ Recognize Shi , your training instructor?” Thomas taunted Song . “ Didn’t know your mother was teaching you how to kill for us, did you?”

The last of Carlyle’s control snapped at the sound of Song’s indrawn breath.