Daddy Dearest

MADDIE

~Xander is a renowned academic and founder of Requiem City’s most elite higher education institution, Xander University.~

I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue at the old photo of my father on his Wikipedia page. He wore lab goggles, and his bright red hair poofed into an Afro.

I scrolled past the lengthy descriptions of his scholarly works and accomplishments, the “important events” that took place at Xander University, blah blah blah.

The information I needed wasn’t about Xander at all. It was about his wife.

Finally, I reached the “Personal Life” section. I scanned the paragraph until I saw it.

~Serena Bowman.~

Something seemed familiar about that name, but I couldn’t quite place it.

Had I heard it in one of my visions?

The article said that she had died during the birth of the couple’s second child, and that the child was lost as well.

~Fooled ya,~ I thought to myself.

My mother’s name didn’t have a click link, so I typed it into Google.

The search showed articles about a family named Bowman and an archery competition, but there was nothing with my mom’s name.

When I searched “images,” I saw photos of a chimp named Serena who was apparently quite famous.

I sighed.

The search was proving unfruitful.

~Had my mother lived her whole life under the radar?~

Something told me that that wasn’t true. I had a sneaking suspicion that Xander had erased everything about her.

~Maybe so I couldn’t find her…~

Unfortunately, I would have to go right to the source.

I went to XU’s webpage and found Xander’s email address on his teaching profile.

I typed out a quick message.

Xander,

Need to talk ASAP. Write back.

Maddie

I was pushing back my chair when a response came in a few moments later.

Maddie,

Can you meet in my office in 30 mins?

Xander

I raised my eyebrows. The message had come so quickly…it was almost like Xander had expected that I would reach out to him.

At least it worked in my favor.

Yes.

I hit send.

Then I stood up from the desk in the library, grabbed my jacket, and walked out of the penthouse.

My mates were at the orphanage, as usual. I still hadn’t seen them since I had heard what Hael had done to Aneurin…

Just the thought made my blood boil.

After Lochness was defeated, it felt like the three of us were on a honeymoon. That feeling had definitely faded.

Out in the city, the sky was grey and threatened rain.

I stomped the sidewalk in my combat boots. My thoughts were as stormy as the sky.

I thought of everyone I was frustrated with.

Xander was number one. After seeing Mason in such a dark place—mentally and physically—I knew there was one person to blame.

Our fucking father.

Xander had fucked me up by basically staying out of my life altogether.

I could only imagine what it must have been like to grow up under his care.

I was also mad at Loch and Hael for fighting with Dane and Aneurin. Why couldn’t they just play nice? For once? For ~me?~

I still hadn’t heard the full story of how Dane had gotten hurt, but I was sure it was some stupid, macho, bullshit reason.

I rolled my eyes.

~Twin Leading Breeds.~

The stupid drama.

I had had enough of that bullshit for a lifetime. The only thing that would make the situation more tolerable would be to have a girlfriend to laugh about it with…

Zayda crossed my mind. She came the closest to understanding me, but the last time we’d seen each other, I had stormed out of the room.

Maybe I had a little drama problem of my own…

Nah. Probably not.

The ground turned from concrete and asphalt to grass and groomed pathways.

The people around me turned from spiky-haired punks and coked-up businessmen to preppy rich kids.

I was approaching XU.

I shrugged, continuing on my way past the Xander University sign.

~Make way for the second coming of your sacred bitch.~

I bit my lip to hide my smile.

Then I saw the chapel.

My smile disappeared, and my jaw hung open.

The bleeding from the rock had gotten worse. So much worse.

The base of the building was red, as if the foundation had sponged up the blood.

Students crowded the chapel doorway to look inside, but I shoved my way through them.

The floor of the chapel was covered in a shallow layer of dark red ooze.

At the back, Freesia’s Rock was covered in congealed blood. It looked like a big scab. A scab that couldn’t stop its endless bleeding.

“Want me to push you in it, dragon bitch?”

Someone jammed their elbow in my back, and I nearly stumbled into the blood.

~“Fuck off!”~ I cried, spinning around to face whatever evil twat had threatened me.

The blonde glared at me and huffed before turning away, pigtails bouncing.

“Goddamn no good piece of shit—” I began under my breath until I noticed a short guy standing beside me.

“Belinda’s such a bitch.” He shook his head.

“No kidding.”

“She really did push someone in there,” he said under his breath. “Apparently the poor girl had slept with her boyfriend.”

“Shit,” I replied. I didn’t know who this guy was, or why he was risking his social standing to talk to me, but I liked him.

“She’s still in intensive care now,” he added with a big sigh.

“Wait, why?” I asked. Sure it was disgusting, but it was just blood.

He lowered his eyebrows at me. “You don’t know? It ~burns.~ Like immediately. Third-degree burns.”

He began to walk away. “I’m glad I told you, otherwise you might have gotten in trouble!”

~What. The. Fuck.~

I’d touched the blood already and was totally fine.

What did ~that~ mean?

I gulped.

Was this more evidence that I was the second coming of Freesia?

I rushed to Xander’s office. I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” he called.

I plopped down in a chair near his desk; only then did I look at my father.

He wasn’t exactly ~glaring~ at me, but he wasn’t happy to see me either.

“Madeline,” he said.

For once in my life, I bit my tongue.

“Quite an exciting day on campus, don’t you think?” he asked.

“It’s a bloody mess,” I quipped. “I’m surprised you’re not cleaning it up.”

He chuckled, though he didn’t smile. “I suppose you don’t know about the last time Freesia’s Rock bled.”

~The last time Freesia’s Rock bled…~

My mind ran back to my vision earlier. Xander discussing the bleeding rock, here in this very office. But what did he mean? Had the rock bled before I was born?

“You might be curious to know,” Xander continued, watching me carefully.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction of asking.

I was here about my mom, not some stupid rock.

“I’m guessing you’re here for information,” Xander concluded.

“I want to know about my mother, Xander.”

I glared at him, expecting him to shut me down. But he surprised me.

“I thought that would be it.”

“Uh, okay. So will you tell me?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” he chuckled again in his freaky way. “Or rather, only if you do something for me in return.”

I seethed, gripping the arms of my chair.

As if this man didn’t owe me enough already.

“What would that be?” I hissed.

“Bring me a piece of Dragonstone from Loch and Hael.”

“I don’t even know what that is,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“Then find out.”

It was clear his patience was running thin. So was mine.

Guess I had something in common with this rat bastard after all.

“If I do this for you, you have to tell me everything I want to know about my mother.”

He stuck out his hand.

“Deal. And I’ll even tell you about the last time the rock bled.”

Our hands only touched for a second, and even that made me squirm. I rushed out of his office immediately.

I leaned against the wall in the hallway. Seeing Xander always infuriated me, but all in all, our meeting could’ve been worse. At least he had agreed to tell me what I wanted to know.

As I exhaled, I felt like the life force was draining from my body.

I became very dizzy.

I staggered down the hall toward the bathroom. A vision was coming on, and I didn’t want to be all alone in the middle of XU when I went under.

I flung open the door and locked it behind me. I managed to lower my trembling body to the floor before the vision took over my consciousness…

***

~It was dark.~

~The voices came muffled.~

~“No, I won’t!” cried a woman.~

~“You will,” came a far-off voice. “Make this easy for yourself, Serena.”~

~The woman was my mother.~

~And the other voice was Xander.~

~In the darkness, I was terrified and alone.~

~“You can’t force me to do that again!” the woman shrieked. “It’s making me sick! And I’m carrying our child!”~

~Through the argument, I heard a loud heartbeat quicken.~

~Then I understood where I was. I was in the womb!~

~“Poor Serena,” someone said from right beside me. The woman’s voice was crisp and clear, not obstructed like the others.~

~I wanted to reply but couldn’t. Who was next to me? I felt her presence, but it was too dark to see.~

~“I wish I didn’t make her so sick,” the woman said regretfully.~

~Then she began to sing…~

“Loud is the blood

“As it lands in the mud

“When it spills from the black, cursed rock…”

***

I woke and slammed my hands onto the tile floor.

I crawled over to the toilet, where I expelled the sourness from my stomach.

I flushed my vomit away, struggling to catch my breath.

This was all so much worse than I had imagined.

In my vision, I was in my mother’s womb. With ~Freesia!~

Part of me didn’t want to know anything more. But the other part was vicious with curiosity—the other part needed revenge.

But all of me needed to get off campus and away from my father ~immediately.~

I opened the door and sprinted down the hall, out into the fresh air.

I kept running, passing the students gawking around the chapel.

I needed to get out of this hellhole. ~Right fucking now.~

But then I saw something that stopped me in my tracks.

Through the open doors, I noticed a figure on the floor of the chapel.

Someone I recognized…

I moved toward her, forgetting everything I was running from.

I joined the others in the doorway, the horror on my face surely matching theirs.

Zayda lay on the floor, passed out in the pool of blood.