The old man’s head jerked up. Cal hadn’t actually seen him in a number of years and was surprised by how much he had aged in that time. Gnarled hands, bent and withered body, long yellowing beard—he looked ninety years old when really he wasn’t a day over fifty-five.
He stared at Cal with cold dark eyes but didn’t say anything. They’d never shared the loving bond one would expect between father and son. Cal had been raised by the other Hunters, many of the men acting as more of a father than he’d ever know from his actual dad.
“Father? How are you?”
Luther narrowed his eyes and nodded. “You’ve just bonded with your Huntress.”
It sounded more like an accusation than a fact. Cal merely nodded as he pulled a chair out from the table and seated himself across from Luther, not sure where to start or how to approach a topic that was so taboo among their kind.
“What is it you want, Caleb?” His tone was harsh, cold and hostile, his glare enough to tell Cal how unwanted he truly was.
Cal cleared his throat, suddenly wishing he had something to drink. “I came down here to ask you a few questions about your Huntress. About Mother.”
Luther flinched at the words. He raised a wrinkled hand, curling it into a fist to lie on the table. “I have nothing to say on the matter.”
Cal sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. As much as he was loath to be there, this man was the only one Cal could speak to about Morgan, the only one who had the answers he needed. “Father, I know that it’s not the easiest subject for you to discuss. It isn’t exactly a conversation I covet, but I need some guidance.” He laid his hands on the table. “I’ve come down here to speak with you because I need your help.”
Luther’s bushy brows rose, which Cal took to be a positive sign. At least the old guy was listening to him.
“I have bonded with my Huntress, but we have a problem.”
“She’s his bride, isn’t she?” Luther’s words were hardly audible, a whisper escaping his lips.
A chill ran through Cal as he nodded. “We don’t know for sure but we have our suspicions.”
Hissing a long breath, Luther pushed himself back in his chair. “I’m sorry to hear that, Caleb. It is a terrible burden to carry.”
Cal nodded. “The Oracle has portended some tragic events to come.”
“She will die.” Tears sparkled in the old man’s dark eyes and Cal knew at that moment that he wasn’t the only one who had a hole in his heart where his Mother used to be. “You’ll have to kill her.”
Cal gulped down the lump in his throat and nodded. “She will betray us—that has been foretold.”
Luther shook his head and laid his finger down on the book in front of him. “It isn’t written here.”
Cal frowned as he gazed down at the text. He couldn’t decipher the meaning of any of the words there, but he recognized the inscriptions. He’d seen the texts before, watched as they wrote themselves—the language and the code difficult to master even for the most experienced of the scholars. “No, the Oracle has decreed it will be so. My Huntress will betray us.”
Luther nodded as he laid his shaking hand down, his palm flat on the page in front of him. “That is a truly unfortunate thing. I would not wish it on anyone, let alone my son. I am sorry, Caleb.”
Cal fidgeted in his seat, wanting so badly to get the hell out of there, hating the intimacy of their conversation—hating the pity he felt rolling off his father. He gulped down a rising lump of bile. “How did you do it? How could you kill your Huntress, my mother?”
Luther turned his palm upward and shrugged. “There is only one way.”
“I won’t know how to do it if you don’t tell me. I can’t separate myself from her. I’ve tried but she’s under my skin. She’s in my heart. I want to be with her constantly. I can’t get enough of her.”
Luther nodded, his eyes soft, his lips downturned. “You must break the bond with her.”
Cal sat back. “What?”
“You must break your bond with her in order to rid yourself of those feelings.” He sighed as he closed the book in front of him, causing a cloud of dust to rise. “You must sleep with another—that’s the only way. If you betray her with another woman, the bond will break and you’ll stop feeling that connection—that need. It will make it easier for you to do what you must do.”
Of course, so simple. Destroy the link by betraying her in the flesh. Basically, his father was admitting to adultery and the idea of it made Cal’s stomach roil with disgust. “What about her powers? Did breaking the bond make her weak?”
Luther raised his gnarled hands slightly as if to indicate indifference. “Physically, no. Her powers remained. She had strength, magic, all her training intact.”
“Emotionally?” Cal gulped his revulsion at the idea.
“She will be…” He paused, wiped his mouth. “Distraught, perhaps slightly disoriented, as you will be. It passes with time.”
Cal raised his hand to cover his mouth, hiding his look of horror.