Copper Veins(70)

“Otherworldly birth control?” Sadie asked with a raised brow.

“Umm, yeah.” I’d never claimed to be the smart one. Max and Sadie began poking holes in my lame argument, and I couldn’t tell if they were trying to prove my stupidity or catch me in a lie. I don’t think I’d ever felt so betrayed in my life.

“You see, Sara,” Dad said, leaning forward, “that’s why we would like to talk to you. Alone would be preferable,” he added with a pointed look toward Micah.

“I stand beside my wife,” Micah said, his arm circling my shoulders.

“She was my daughter first,” Dad challenged, but I’d had enough.

“Okay. I did a dumb thing. I get it. I’m sorry.” I waited a moment, then I fixed Dad in the same cold gaze he’d used on Micah. “And Dad, don’t try to turn this around. We’re here because you brought Juliana—a Peacekeeper—here.”

Just like that, the heat was off me.

“She’s here?” Max asked, blinking as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d heard. “Juliana Armstrong is here, in the manor?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Saw her with my own eyes.”

“Where is she?” Max demanded, leaping to his feet.

“Where she can’t cause any trouble.” I turned to Dad. “Care to explain yourself?”

“I brought her here because she is your friend,” Dad replied. “Sara, you’re forgetting who you are. You’ve been here in the Otherworld and away from others like you for so long that you’re having a hard time seeing things as they truly are.”

“Others like me?” I yelled, my voice rising a few octaves. “I’m a metal Elemental! So is Micah! And I’m surrounded by my family! Everyone here is like me!” Micah murmured for me to relax—he slipped his hand underneath my tank top and rubbed my mark. Calmness cascaded over me in waves, and I leaned bacl against him.

“You see!” Dad yelled, jumping to his feet. “He controls you!”

“No, Dad, he loves me.” Mom looked away when I said that—I remembered her saying how Dad wouldn’t touch her.

“How did you even know about Juliana?” Sadie asked. “We didn’t even meet her until long after you were gone. I think it was a year after Max was arrested.”

“I told you, darling, I had my people watching the Raven Compound,” Dad replied. “They reported on everyone who visited the house.”

“But how did you know where to find her?” Sadie pressed. “The last time we saw her—”

“She was in the Mundane realm, at the apartment she shared with Sara,” Micah said over her.

“Of course I knew your address, Sara,” Dad explained. “My people are watching the building to this day.”

“Are they?” I said as I stared at him, at the pieces falling into place. I couldn’t believe we’d fallen for it. “You know, of course, that Jerome Polonsky isn’t really Avatar’s son.”

“Is that what Micah told you?” Dad asked, his condescending tone raising my hackles. “Sara, I was there. I know the truth of the matter.”

“The truth of the matter is that Avatar lost his balls when he was twelve and never fathered anyone,” Mom said. “Everyone knows that.” Dad frowned—he hadn’t expected such an ironclad rebuttal. Mom gave her husband a good long look, and asked, “Why did you ask me about the Raven?”

At that, Max and Sadie went still. “What did he want to know?” Sadie asked.

“He asked me who and where he was,” Mom replied. “So, I brought him right to the bird. Beau just stood there, staring at him as if he’d never seen him before.”

“Wait,” Max said. “He asked who the Raven was?”

“He asked me who the Raven was, too,” Sadie said. “At first, I thought he was just testing me. But he kept asking me where he was, and if I could get a message to him.”

As we let that revelation sink in, Dad started spluttering. “You know that my memories aren’t what they once were,” he began, but Max—Max, of all people—shook his head.

“Not gonna fly,” Max said. “The only way a Corbeau could forget about the Raven is a brain transplant.”

As Dad went on, explaining the horrible sacrifices he had had to make after the wars while hiding from roving bands of Peacekeepers, I wondered how they—whoever they were—had managed such a detailed facsimile. He’d even had the right pattern of freckles.

Wait. There was no way Peacekeepers had managed this on their own.