Imagining her father anything but surly and angry was almost impossible. “So you married him…”
Dianna shook her head, tucking her hair back behind her ears and gave her a sheepish smile. “Against both our families wishes in one impulsive, defiant trip to Vegas and a visit to a sketchy warlock—which is how two familiars are bound for eternity.”
“So Dad’s family didn’t want him to marry you either?”
Dianna’s eyes shadowed briefly. “Oh, no. Your grandfather didn’t think I was good enough for your father. He wanted him to marry up. His father was particularly vocal about how Gavin would never amount to anything with me as a wife. Your grandfather didn’t care how much I loved your father, or thought I loved him. He wanted someone with power and money to support his son—a son he’d clearly recognized as lazy and worthless long before I did. Which is the reason why I didn’t tell your grandfather who I really was either. I was fine with him thinking I was an average familiar.”
Martine frowned. She knew almost nothing about her father’s side of the family. To hear they thought her mother wasn’t good enough made her wonder if some of her father’s behavior stemmed from years of their criticism.
“And then you got pregnant with me.”
Her mother’s eyes warmed. “Yes, and when I found out I was pregnant, I almost told him who I was. But that was around the time I began to realize your father wasn’t meant to be a family man. He’d never have a steady income and we’d never be able to rely on him.”
“Yeah. That’s the father I remember,” she said, knowing it came off as bitter.
But that didn’t faze her mother. “When I found out the kind of man he was, the things he was doing behind my back, when I found out how he used his magic, all of the evil things he was willing to do in order to become more powerful, I swore I’d never let him find out about me, or use you and the magic you inherited from me. The day you were born, I cast a spell on you to keep whatever magic you had dormant, to weaken it into submission, but even that wasn’t enough to contain it, Martine. It slipped out every now and then no matter what I did to squash it. I didn’t practice magic around you for that very reason. I didn’t want you to learn. Any of it—ever.”
“But Dad knew. He told me the day I left I’d regret not practicing magic. He clearly knew I was capable.”
“He knew you were capable, of course. You were born to two familiars, honey. But there are all sorts of levels of abilities, if you will. Some familiars can practice forever and never do much more than making objects fly, and some, like me, can wreak havoc. I managed to convince him you didn’t inherit my abilities. I convinced him you were weak, but I knew someday you’d have the mark, just like I do, and then he’d find out.”
“The mark?”
Dianna slipped her shoe off, holding up her right foot and pointing to the bottom of her heel, where a deep-purple crescent moon was stamped on her skin. “This mark. The mark of my family—of your family. It’s a symbol of who we are, and the proof I needed to convince Escobar I am who I said I was. It’s also how I bargained with him for your life just before you found us.”
Her eyes went to her feet. She didn’t have a symbol of anything anywhere on her body. “But I don’t…”
“Not yet, you don’t. But you will when you’re allowed to practice.”
Nothing made sense in her world anymore. Everything was topsy-turvy, upside down. As more horror washed over her, she still had trouble wrapping her brain around one thing.
She brushed the hair from Dianna’s cheek, peering into her tortured eyes. “Okay, so why didn’t you just leave Dad? Why didn’t you go back to your family? If you’re so powerful, why did you stay with someone so horrible? Someone who was so cruel to you? A drunk!” she yelped, trying to contain her rage for so many lost years. For her lost childhood, for the years lost with her mother.
“First of all, in the world of a familiar, when you mate, you mate for life. It’s quite rare that a divorce is granted. But there was more. I’d made my bed, now I had to lie in it, and as far as I was concerned, I deserved as much for going against my parents’ wishes. But you didn’t deserve the life you were given, and I considered leaving every day. But…”
Martine held her breath, wrapping the sweater tighter around her. “But?”
“As I said, familiars don’t allow divorce, and there’s an old law—very old, mind you. One almost no one ever calls upon, but one I’m sure your father would have used and gotten away with…”