Page 35 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

Grinning sheepishly, I realize that I’ve missed some of the conversation because I was too busy thinking about cute abominations.

“Sorry, I was thinking about Dimples,” I reply, which of course is a really vague thing to say.

“Why?” River asks, pulling an absolutely adorable, confused face.

“Erm, it would be a really long and confusing explanation because my brain sort of went on a random tangent without my permission,” I reply.

Everyone looks confused at my reply, apart from River, who just nods with understanding.

“Ah, I get that,” he replies.

“You do?” Reed asks incredulously.

River raises one eyebrow and smirks, while asking equally incredulously, “You don’t?”

Reed chuckles, “Touché, dude.”

“Would you like to know more about your dad?” Eamon asks me. “You said that you knew that your father came across with you from Trieneliea.”

I shift nervously in my seat.

I want to know about him. I want to know anything that they can tell me to be honest, but I’m worried about what they’re going to say.

“He kept in contact,” Calia says gently as if she can sense my worry, and my eyes dart up to hers.

She continues, “He wasn’t supposed to, but he has always been damn good at finding loopholes where most people couldn’t.

The Gods told him that he couldn’t stay in contact with you, but they said nothing about staying in contact with us, even though we all knew that it wasn’t technically safe. ”

“He asked about you monthly, which was still far too often for us to be in contact, but try telling your dad that. He didn’t care that it put him at risk. He knew about all of your big milestones and is so fucking proud of you,” Eamon continues.

I swallow down a knot of emotion.

“He about lost his damn mind when you ran off, and he couldn’t fucking find you.

He looked and carried on looking. I don’t know exactly what happened, but eventually he stopped getting in contact.

We have no idea where he is or if he’s still alive.

We haven’t seen or heard from him since about a year after you had gone,” Calia continues to explain.

“He’s alive,” I tell them. Their expressions fill with such relief that it’s obvious that they genuinely care about him as a friend. So, I go on to explain about Pete and the subtle ways that he’s been looking out for me since I arrived in the town.

I’m now coming to realize that he found me, and he kept me safe in so many little ways that I really fucking appreciate. The more I look back, the more I see, and he did the best that he could, probably even more than he was supposed to, considering the order from the Gods.

I’m suddenly not so scared to go and find him. I’m actually looking forward to it.

When I’m done filling them in, they’re both smiling widely.

Eamon chuckles, “That sounds just like your dad to make sure he had whatever relationship that he could with you. It must have killed him that you didn’t recognize him, and that he couldn’t tell you who he was.”

I frown, so much has happened that I missed the obvious.

“He doesn’t have wrinkles, does he?” I ask, seemingly randomly, but there is a reason for my out-of-the-blue question.

“No,” Calia replies. “Why do you ask?”

“Because Pete, from Bobby’s, does. I have absolutely no doubt that it’s my father. I just assumed that he was obviously older now, and that’s why he has wrinkles. It didn’t occur to me that obviously he’s a supernatural, so he wouldn’t age like humans do,” I explain.

“He must have put a glamour on to make himself look older,” Eamon replies.

“I know you said that you lived in a human town, but if supes who had seen the pictures, or even recognized him from Trieneliea had seen him, they would have just assumed that it was an uncanny resemblance, because supernaturals don’t age that quickly.

He most likely managed to suppress his magic so that he had absolutely no power signature. ”

I nod, “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually.”

“As soon as your magic develops, then you might be able to sense when a person has a glamor on. Your mother used to be able to do that,” Calia smiles.

Navy.

My mind instantly pings with the memory of being able to see Navy when not even the guys were able to. I shouldn’t have been able to see her, especially not as I was almost entirely human at that point. My magic hadn't come out much at all.

It makes sense that I would be able to do that because of my magic from my mother, and it’s clear that my magic has been gradually growing for a long time, and I just had absolutely no idea that was what was happening.

“Wait, I don’t think that would apply to Pete, he was just human to me, completely human, and I was able to detect power signatures at that point.

I know that there are ways to mask them, but usually I can still tell how strong a supernatural is.

With Pete, I would have bet my life that he was human,” I question.

“You can detect power signatures?” Eamon asks, sounding impressed.

“She’s always been able to, apparently,” Evander adds helpfully.

Calia and Eamon’s eyebrows rise in unison, and I try not to smirk so that I don’t end up getting in more trouble.

I feel like a teenager again.

“You’re an adult now, but that was probably something that you should have told us,” Calia says, something more in her eyes that makes me fidget.

I nod, “Yes, I know. But I didn’t want to get Van’s hopes up. All of the tests came back as me being human, so the fact that I could sense power signatures made absolutely no difference. I still registered as human on everything. It wouldn’t have made a difference to anything.”

“Oh, Neith,” Eamon says, sounding slightly exasperated, and sad as well, which is confusing.

“What?” I ask with a frown.

“If you had told us, we could have helped you to refine it, and you would have been able to attend the Magical Academy, regardless of what your test said. It’s happened before,” Calia explains to me gently.

The floor falls from underneath me as I just stare at them both. I could have gone to the academy if I had just spoken to them about it?

Are you fucking kidding me?