Infernal Father of Mine (49 page)

"I didn't take the rune!" Mom said.
"Daelissa—oh god no. She has it. She has it."

"Maybe it fell into the chasm with the arch,"
Elyssa said.

Ivy raced from a throng of Templars and gripped
me in a hug. "Justin, you made it back! I was so worried about you.
Well, and our deadbeat father, of course." She looked around "Where
is he?"

Elyssa's eyes flashed wide.
"Justin?"

The weight of the world seemed to collapse on
my shoulders. I slumped. My chest constricted to a knot.

"David?" Mom's mouth dropped open a fraction.
She looked around the control room. Templars streamed out of it and
into the way station, but of course, Dad wasn't here.

My throat closed and the world blurred with
tears.

"Please, no." Mom's voice sounded weak and
scared. "Where is he?"

I hugged Mom tight and buried my head on her
shoulder. "He's dead, Mom. He died killing the minders."

Her body shook with sobs as she clenched me
tight. "No, not David. Please, no."

I wondered how much longer she'd want to hug me
after hearing my part in his death. All because I wasn't fast
enough. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked at Elyssa. Tears
filled her eyes. Pain and anguish tied my insides to knots.
I
killed him.
"It's my fault."

Mom released me and backed away, shaking her
head. "Don't blame yourself, Justin."

A wave of anger swept over me. "It's my fault!
I tried to save him. I almost had him. I almost had Dad—" I choked
on the word. "He let the minders grab him so I could get them
inside the disruptor. I didn't pull him out in time before the
disruptor went off and—" I could hardly finish the sentence. "It
killed him."

Mom looked at me for a long moment. She took my
hand in both of hers and squeezed. "It wasn't your fault, son. You
did your best, and so did your father. The two of you saved
us."

I wiped my face and took a deep breath, hoping
to clear the anger and grief from my system for a moment. It didn't
help much, but I was willing to take it. Mom's words soothed some
of the pain, but not the regret.
If only I'd done things
differently. If only.

Mom gripped my shoulders. "Justin, you need to
stop blaming yourself. It'll only lead you down a dark road.
Believe me, I've blamed myself plenty for allowing Daelissa into
this world. How do you think it feels knowing all this started
because of my stupid curiosity?" She released me and looked
away.

"You never would have met Dad if you hadn't
activated the Grand Nexus," I said.

A smile flickered across her face. "True,
though I don't think my love life was worth wholesale destruction
and the enslavement of the entire human race."

Elyssa kissed my cheek. "I'm proud of you,
Justin." Her eyes filled with emotion.

I hung my head. "I couldn't save
him."

"Your father knew what he was doing. He
sacrificed himself for the greater good." She pressed a hand to my
chest. "Never, ever, lose sight of that."

Ivy tightened her hug around my waist. "You're
a good person, Justin." Tears welled in her big blue eyes. "I kinda
wish I'd had a chance to get to know him. He seemed like a cool
dad."

"He was, Ivy. He really was." I ran a hand
through her hair, choking back more tears. "I need to go back and
get his body," I said. "I can't just leave him there."

Elyssa nodded. "I spoke to my father. His
troops successfully secured the Exorcist church." Her lips
tightened. "We still have access to the Gloom arch, but I don't
know how safe it would be to go back to the fortress."

"I don't care." I slashed a hand through the
air. "I'll take a carpet and fly to the roof, pick him up, and
bring him back."

"I'll go with you," Elyssa said. "We can do it
now while it's still night."

"Perhaps we could still retrieve the rune," Mom
said. "If it fell into the quarry, it's possible we could reach it
before Daelissa."

"Absolutely not," Elyssa said. "It's too
dangerous."

"I want to go too," Ivy said. A yawn seemed to
catch her by surprise, and her eyelids drooped.

Mom hugged Ivy. "No, daughter. You need to
recuperate. You're not used to using so much power." She looked at
me. "Be careful, son. Don't take any unnecessary risks."

I kissed her on the cheek. "I will, Mom." I
took out my phone and called Shelton.

"Holy butt muffins," he said. "You're
alive."

"Yeah." I tried not to sound terse, but it was
hard. "I need you to open a portal with the omniarch. I'll send you
a picture."

"Everything okay?" he asked, a note of concern
in his voice. "Meghan got us patched up so we're ready to go if you
need help."

"Just peachy." I didn't feel like talking. I
just wanted to retrieve Dad's body and bring him home. I hung up
and walked through the control room. I thought of looking for
Vallaena. She needed to know about Dad, although his death might be
a plus for her since she could assume full control over House
Slade. I sent Shelton a picture, and a portal opened a moment
later.

Elyssa and I stepped through the portal and
into the omniarch room in the cellar of the mansion in Queen's
Gate.

"What happened?" Shelton asked, a concerned
look on his face. "You don't look so good."

"Too much to talk about right now," I said. "We
need to go back to the Exorcist church and take care of some
unfinished business."

"Alright, kid. Spit it out." Shelton's forehead
pinched. "You look like somebody popped your balloon, knocked ice
cream out of your hand, and stole your lollipop."

"Dad died, I need to go back to the Gloom to
retrieve his body." My voice sounded flat. I felt emotionally
exhausted.

A look of sympathy erased his brusque look.
"Oh, man. I'm sorry. Anything I can—"

I held up a hand. "No, Shelton. We're good." I
turned to the omniarch and, using a picture of the inside of the
church, opened a portal to our destination. We stepped through and
into the sanctuary. Borathen Templars were all over the place. I
noticed the statues the Exorcists had used to ambush us earlier
were smashed to bits or knocked off the upper ledges to reveal
tunnels in the walls. Elyssa walked over to a Templar and
requisitioned a flying carpet from the woman.

She rolled it up under one arm, but said
nothing, apparently recognizing my maudlin mood. After speaking to
a Templar guarding the Gloom arch, I opened a portal and we stepped
inside the shadow world. The air was clear of fog since it was
still night in Atlanta. Even though I doubted we had anything to
worry about, I rode the carpet like a surfboard about ten feet
above street level, using buildings as cover.

Elyssa held onto my waist but remained
silent.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm acting like a
child."

"No, you're not," she said. "I remember when I
thought my dad had died after Maximus blew up his car. Even though
my dad was more like my commander than a father, the pain was still
awful. Almost unbearable." Elyssa squeezed me and kissed my neck.
"I only had a taste of what you're going through, babe. I
understand if you don't want to talk."

I squeezed one of her hands. "I'm the luckiest
guy in the world to have you."

We finally reached the outskirts of the quarry
and stopped behind a worn building across the road so we could
reconnoiter the area before moving in. Dust clouded a new hole in
the ground where the arch chamber had once stood. A massive pile of
rubble filled most of the quarry. Figures made tiny by the distance
crawled over the remains like ants. I zoomed my vision, but could
only barely make out Nazdal combing area.
They're looking for
the rune.
I saw no sign of Daelissa or the Shadow
Nexus.

"They're looking for the rune," I said. I
looked over the front of the fortress and saw no sign of enemies.
The tree line on the opposite side of the road looked as though it
would provide ample cover for making our way to the roof where I'd
placed my father's body. At the moment, I felt no fear of returning
to the fortress. I felt no malice toward the Nazdal or Daelissa. It
was just hard to feel anything. I'd probably passed the point of
feeling and was comfortably numb.

Even so, I played it safe and guided the carpet
low and behind buildings and trees until we were directly across
from the part of the fortress where Dad should be. We flew low to
the side of the fortress and angled up as we closed the gap.
Gliding near the edge, we looked for the body. It didn't take long
for me to realize it wasn't there. Someone had taken
him.

I remembered Daelissa's desire for my father
and wondered if someone had found the body and taken him to her.
Anger pushed through the layer of numbness over my
heart.

"Justin, there's a minder coming." Elyssa
pointed to the direction of the road.

All minders looked pretty much the same to me,
but even at this distance, I could detect a familiar vibe from this
one. It reached me and put a ghostly appendage to my
head.

Back already?
Minder Justin sounded
surprised.
You must really want a beer—or are you two here to
help me seduce Elyssa's minder?

I didn't feel like engaging my shadow self in
witty banter. "They took Dad's body. Do you know where?"

I felt a hint of confusion from my shade.
I
know exactly where his body is. Follow me.

"Thanks." We flew away from the fortress,
across the woods, and descended toward a side street pitted with
potholes. I wondered if for some bizarre reason Daelissa had made
her people dump bodies from the battle away from the fortress. I
stifled a sob at the thought of Dad's body being dumped like
garbage.

Chin up, dude. You did
well.

"My father is dead," I growled. "I don't
exactly feel like celebrating."

Dead? That's really strange,
because isn't that him walking down the road?

I looked at the road and saw a familiar figure
trudging down it. My heart climbed from the depths and dared to
hope. I zipped the carpet down to street level and flew in front of
the man. He looked up at me with a lopsided but devilish
grin.

"Hi, son."

Dad was alive.

"Dad!" I gripped him in a fierce hug and felt
one of his arms tighten around me.

He grunted. "Easy, now. I feel like crap." His
voice was a little slurred.

"Not that I'm complaining, but how are you
still alive?"

He shrugged. "The disruptor whacked the
ever-loving crap out of me, but since the Shadow Nexus was still
open to Eden, I guess my healing abilities kicked in." He took a
step forward, but his right leg dragged. "The portal obviously
closed before I was done healing. I think I still have partial
brain damage."

"Brain damage?"

He returned a lopsided smile, one eye
twitching. "Either that, or I got drunk."

"But I saw your body. You were dead. It didn't
look like you were breathing."

He shrugged. "It takes longer to heal in the
Gloom."

"Justin, why don't we get him home, let his
brain heal, and then you can question him?" Elyssa said, a huge
smile on her face. "That twitch in his eye is super
creepy."

We stepped onto the carpet and glided down the
road. My spirits soared.
Mom's gonna freak!
How stupid had I
been to think a man who'd survived so long could be killed by a
little brain damage?

I'm glad you're feeling better
, Minder
Justin said.
You're such an angsty dude
sometimes.

As if you're not just like me
, I sent
back.

"Are Alysea and Ivy okay?" Dad
asked.

I nodded. "Aside from thinking you're dead,
they're fine."

He grimaced. "Well, at least they'll save money
on the funeral costs."

I snorted.

Elyssa regarded us with pinched eyebrows. "You
two certainly share the same demented sense of humor."

Dad elbowed me. "You hear that? We're
demented."

"Cool," I said.

Cool
, Minder Justin added.

Dad's smiled faded. "What happened after we
killed the brain?"

I filled him in on the subsequent events. His
eyes flashed surprise when I told him about the fight with
Daelissa.

He looked in the direction of the fortress.
"You're telling me the rune is buried in a mountain of rubble where
the arch chamber was?"

"I think so." I bit my inner lip in thought. "I
don't know if the Shadow Nexus was destroyed along with the room,
or if it's buried under there too."

"Either way, this isn't a positive
development."

Elyssa steered the carpet along the street.
"Will the Gloom rune even work with the Grand Nexus?"