Woman King

CHAPTER 40

William, Josef and I arrived at the bar and grabbed two tables outside facing the canal. The night air was crisp but clear and so, with a good hat and coat, it was bearable to sit outside. William and Josef volunteered to go up to the bar and place an order. That left me sitting next to Gabriel. I leaned in closer to him to better hear our conversation over the din of traffic on the street. I hadn’t mentioned my mother was meeting us until we arrived at the bar. His face, upon hearing the news, took on an odd expression.

“You mustn’t worry,” I said, watching the traffic pass by. “My mother is a bit of an eccentric, but harmless. I promise.”

Gabriel smiled, but said little. He seemed a bit nervous. I could feel his tension, but could not detect the cause of his distress. It didn’t concern me. It seemed natural that he would be anxious, given the last few days. As I leaned in once more to speak to Gabriel, the sound of my mother’s voice caught my attention.

“Olivia, Olivia,” she said, pleading for my attention as she crossed the street to join us.

I stood up as she reached our table. “Mom, hello,” I said. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with dread; icy cold and creeping slowly up my spine. I shrugged off the sensation, hoping to understand everyone’s feelings better as the evening progressed. Since Gabriel was directly next to me, I decided to begin introductions with him.

“Mom, let me introduce…”

“I don’t need an introduction,” my mother said, cutting me off. “I know who your boyfriend is and you must stop immediately.”

I couldn’t fathom how she knew about William and I glanced at the bar where he stood placing our drink order.

“Mom, why would you say such a thing? I asked. “You’ve only just arrived and…”

“For God’s sake, Olivia, the man is your father.”

“My father, what on earth are you talking about?” I was baffled.

Now it was her turn to be silent. Her gaze was fixed on Gabriel, and to my surprise, he was staring back at her.

“Hello, India,” he said, sorrowfully.

“You two know each other?” I asked, feeling their collective dread freezing the blood in my veins. It was obvious they had not planned on seeing one another again in their lifetimes. William and Josef arrived, drinks in hand, but paused as they read our body language. I held out my hand and drew William to my side.

“Mom, this is my boyfriend,” I said.

India Rose narrowed her gaze, and I held my breath waiting for her to discover he was a vampire.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“All of the travel you two have been doing, the last-minute trip to Paris…I assumed that he was preparing to make you his lover,” she said, waving her hands frantically in the air toward Gabriel. “When I finally realized who he was, I had to come to warn you to stay away.”

“You know Gabriel?” I asked again, realizing that neither of them had answered that question.

“Olivia,” Gabriel said, remorse in his eyes.

In those few seconds, my mother’s ranting became crystal clear.

“Wait,” I said. “She means you? You are my father.”

“I was going to tell you,” he said. “Please, I came to Paris with the intention—”

“But my mother beat you to it,” I said, cutting him off as the blood rushed into my ears.

Then I spun around to confront my mother.

“Mom, you knew where my father was all of these years, but you never told me?”

I was staring at my mother and Gabriel, trying to see them clearly—these two people I thought I knew suddenly transformed by their lies. I turned back to Gabriel.

“Why now? I have been working with you … for how many months?”

A long, cold silence unraveled before us.

“I never told Gabriel I was pregnant,” my mother blurted out, breaking the silence. “I didn’t want him to take you away from me.”

“Take me away?”

“Olivia,” Gabriel said, “I am from a powerful family of witches. My relatives would have wanted to raise you in France.”

“But I…I’m not a witch,” I said, shocked by the facial expressions of the four people before me. I was in the minority opinion in this argument. I looked over at William, whose face wore the grim mask of someone who had inadvertently gotten trapped in the middle of a major betrayal.

“You knew?” I asked, quietly.

“I suspected,” he said.

“Mom?”

“I didn’t want him to take you away,” she said, “His family wouldn’t let him marry a human. So I never told him that I was pregnant.”

“Are you telling me that you knew he was a witch?” I asked. “You must have known I would have some of his traits. Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead,” she answered. “I wanted to keep you with me, with your grandmother. I knew one day I would have to tell you, but then you refused to use your powers, and I thought maybe it wouldn’t matter. Then your grandmother died and I didn’t know what to do.”

“Grandmother,” I repeated. “She’s the one who caused all of this. She is the one who summoned Elsa.”

“Who is Elsa?” my mother asked, confused.

“I’m not really sure,” I said under my breath.

“Elsa didn’t realize who you were at first,” Gabriel said. “I was the one who figured it out. She wanted to tell you. She wanted me to tell you.”

“She didn’t though. And you didn’t,” I said. “All of you knew, but you didn’t tell me. How dare you play with my life like that? How dare you lie to me?”

“Olivia,” Gabriel pleaded. “You must listen. You are my daughter, my only heir.”

“You can go to hell,” I said. “Both of you. I never want to see either of you again.”

“Olivia,” Gabriel said, “You cannot walk away. There is too much to discuss.”

“That is exactly what I am doing,” I said, barely aware of my surroundings, my pulse in my throat.

“What did you think would happen when I found out that you both had lied to me?” I continued. I grabbed my purse and began to walk away. “Did you really think this would end happily?”

I turned my back on the only mother I’d ever known, my newly discovered father, and walked away. I did not look back, my forehead burning with anger and humiliation. All the years I had wondered and asked about my father and my mother had known who he was. And then there was the Council. There had never been a real opportunity for me there. It was a setup from the start, from the minute Gabriel knew of my existence.

Looking back, it seemed even worse than that, for he must have known I had skills—like becoming invisible, or the telepathy—that I could not even imagine possessing. And he sat back and watched them unfold, an owner watching his pedigreed animal prance and kick to the pace of its trainer. I felt sick, wondering if anything or anyone I’d come to rely on could be trusted.

William and Josef trailed alongside me, saying nothing while they raced to open the door to the apartment. They were right to treat me gingerly. I was infuriated, horrified at being betrayed and unsure of whom to trust. Once we were inside the apartment, I turned to face William, my hands clenched at my sides.

“Did you know Gabriel was my father?” I asked. “Did he set this whole thing up so we would meet? Are you my compensation for him dragging me into his intrigue? Did he promise me to you in exchange for being my bodyguard?”

William glared at me and then picked up one of the nineteenth-century vases in the room and threw it against the wall. I winced at its impact, exploding into a thousand pieces.

“Give me some credit, Olivia,” he said. “I am 181 years old. Do you really think I would agree to an arranged marriage to a human?”

“Ohhh, but I’m not human, not one hundred percent anyway. I’m part witch, a fact you seem to have figured out some time ago.”

“I only suspected, but I wasn’t certain,” he said. “Gabriel told me you were his daughter the night Aidan died. He intended to tell you everything in Paris, but your mother got there first. He swore me to secrecy. He wanted to be the one to tell you. As usual, you fled the scene before you gave him a chance to explain.”

“Explain what?” I barked. “How he tricked me into joining the Council? How he lured me into his convoluted schemes, putting my life in danger, while failing to let me know he was my father? How can he possibly provide a satisfactory explanation for any of this?

Josef walked into the room, a furious look on his face. As he approached I thought he might strike me, his body was coiled so tightly.

“That’s enough, Olivia! Calm yourself. No vampire would bind himself, give his blood, risk his life, unless he was truly in love,” he said. “If you want to be angry at your mother and father, fine, be angry. But don’t take it out on William, or me, for that matter. We’re your allies… maybe the only people you can trust.”

Josef words snapped me out of my hysterics and I hung my head for a moment, feeling deflated. He was right, of course. I looked up at William, transmitting my deep regret through every fiber of my body.

“I am sorry,” I said. “This is all so shocking.”

William came to stand next to me, holding my hand and running his fingers across the copper bands on my finger.

“I’m sorry, too,” he said. “I should have told you my suspicions.”

“Listen up,” Josef said. “We have bigger issues to consider. First there is the fact that as Gabriel’s heir, Olivia is technically eligible one day to assume his seat on the Council. If Nikola and his allies find out, it will give them another reason to harm her. Second, she is next in line to head one of the most powerful witchcraft families in Europe, not to mention one of perhaps a handful of children ever produced from a human and witch union. Rare, powerful and in line for the throne, that is a potent trio of considerations.”

I was shocked to hear myself laughing at Josef’s remarks, perhaps out of distress, perhaps out of fear. “Forgive me. I think you are making too much of it,” I said. “I’m not nearly that important. I was running one tiny campaign in Silicon Valley.”

“Yes,” Josef agreed, “Because that is what Gabriel wanted. He wanted to keep your profile low, until he could assess your abilities, but then you stumbled onto the robbery and began to reveal your skills—telepathy, invisibility. He knew he was running out of time.”

I stood silent, unable to think of a response.

“Olivia, darlin, stop thinking like a human,” William said. “You’re an Other, at least partially, and that part, however big or small, is what counts now. The rules in our world are different and, I’m afraid, less forgiving.”

I was too bewildered to speak. Lily was thousands of miles way. Elsa was missing. I was estranged from my parents and far from San Francisco, and yet I knew I could not go home again. Nothing I knew, or remembered, made sense.

“We need to get out of here,” I said finally. “I want to disappear for a while, until I can figure this out.”

William nodded. “I’m ready to go now,” he said, clasping my hand. “But you know you can’t stay hidden forever.”

“I know,” I said. “I just want a little time to think about all of this. Someplace where Nikola won’t find us, or at least might not try to kill us.”

Josef regarded us both for a moment before speaking, a knowing smile slowly appearing in his face.

“Pack your bags,” he said. “I know just the place.”


THE END