by LJ Rivers
Purpose, I thought. My second wish was, if not fulfilled, then certainly on its way.
“So, spill. Your turn,” Mum said. “It’s time for you to talk. You only told me what I had to know on the phone. Now, I want you to tell me everything.”
I took a deep breath and told Mum almost everything. I told her about the almost kidnapping back in September, about the Harvester following me. I told her about the Sentries of Camelot, about the visions I had been having, and about how Nick and I were captured.
“And how exactly did you manage to escape?” Mum gave me a stern look, as if she knew I was holding back.
I was on a roll, so I might as well get more than my feet wet.
“Fire,” I said, biting my lip. “It’s not just the visions. Lately, I’ve been able to summon fire.”
Mum gave an audible gasp, and her cup dropped to the ground, the rest of her tea flowing over the edge of the patio and onto the grass.
I twirled my ring around my finger and closed my eyes for a moment. “I never had it before, then one day it was there. But it can’t just appear like that, can it?”
Mum shook her head but made no further comment, so I continued the recount of my escape from the farm, omitting the gory details. She didn’t need to know about my sudden desire to kill the men who had caged me.
“I should have never allowed you to leave,” Mum said. “It was foolish of me, but you should have told me sooner, Ruby. I wish you’d been honest with me.”
“You mean like you’ve been honest with me?” My tone was clipped, and the burst of anger that had started to become so familiar flared back to life.
“Ruby Guinevere Morgan. That is no way to talk to your mum!”
“You’ve been lying to me all my life. How should I respond?”
A small flame erupted from my palm, lighting the cup on fire. I dropped it, and it rolled to support itself against Mum’s cup as the flames died down.
“I don’t—” She averted her face, her lips quivering. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I’m talking about Dad. How you never told me the truth about who he was.”
She stared at me then, her eyes wide, and something else. She looked terrified. She opened and shut her mouth, but no words came out, so I took that as my cue to keep talking.
“Why did you never tell me Dad was a Harvester?”
“A Harvester? Lady Lake, who told you that?”
“One of the men at the farm, Mordred. Said he went by Five, and that he knew Dad as Seven.”
Mum took my hands, and I flinched at her touch. She withdrew, twining her fingers in her lap instead. “Yes, Ruby. Dad was Seven—for a while. Until he wasn’t.”
I had known it was true, somewhere inside I had known. To hear it from Mum’s lips, however, was an entirely different experience. She had just confirmed Mordred’s words.
“You have to understand, it was different then. Your dad was so young, and much like you, he lost his own father at the hands of the MagX industry. He blamed Mags for his father’s death, which is why he went out of his way to join the Academy.”
“The Academy?”
“The Harvester Academy. The MagX industry is a massive operation, love. But your dad, he didn’t have all the facts, and he was nothing like the men who kidnapped you. Dennis never knew about the farms before he learned about them at the Academy. He was a good man, and he loved you, with or without your gifts.”
“I can’t believe it,” I cried. “Dad was ... and you didn’t tell me. You say Dad never had the facts, but you have always warned me about Harvesters, and yet you never told me the entire truth either.”
Her gaze fell. “There is, there’s much for us to talk about. I guess I didn’t want you to think ill of him. He was the dad you remember, darling, even if—” She shook her head and shut her eyes hard, a stream of tears trapped between her eyelids.
“Even if what?” I pressed.
“Nothing, I—it’s not important. We have both had our fair share of revelations.” She opened her eyes again and stared at me with warm, tired eyes. “I’m sorry you feel deceived, and I understand that you are an adult now and that you don’t have to tell me everything. But, honey, when it comes to your powers, and dangerous situations like those you’ve found yourself in lately, I hope you can find it in you to trust me with it.”
Mum stood. She patted my knee and walked into the house, leaving me alone on the swing again.
I stared defiantly at the tree line when a movement caught my eye. A dark mist rose between the trunks and slivers of inky shades drifted out from within. An ominous shape of a man appeared like a mirage of smoke and shadows from the mist. It was my old shadowy friend. Mum had said she would tell me what she knew about it, though with everything that had happened, it didn’t seem like the right time to press her for answers. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen him for a while. And now, there he was, as if he was checking up on me. I waved at the shadowy form and wrapped the blanket tight around me. I had changed. I could feel it lurking inside like the shadow staring at me from the darkness.
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Book Three
Virtues of Purity
The Ruby Morgan Universe
Main Series:
Essence of Magic
Sentries of Camelot
Virtues of Purity
Tears of Pestilence
Knights of Avalon
Other works in the Ruby Morgan-verse
Harvester Academy – A Ruby Morgan Prequel
Scream of Death – A Ruby Morgan Novelette
