One Broken Legacy

Chapter 34: A Future for All

It had been two days since I woke up and after wobbling around the room three times, I proved that it was more dangerous to keep me in the linen captivity of my bed rather than send me in to talk with my uncle.

Aunt Bea agreed to go with me, but I suspected she wanted to watch me and make sure I was really as fine as I claimed.

Throughout the long drive to the Place With No Name, she kept checking on me. Her constant nitpicking got old as we passed the road leading to the manor and continued into the mountains. By the time the dim lights of the houses appeared, I was feeling sicker from her than the butterflies in my stomach.

We reached the prison as the sun was beginning to set, the old two-story concrete building built into the stone walls and hidden from the world. You could just see the village from the balcony on the second floor, but it was nearly impossible to reverse that effect. It worked perfectly.

This conversation was meant to give my uncle something to think about just as much as giving me answers. I didn't know how it would go and what I was about to say would probably turn a few heads as well. Might as well enter my new position with a bang.

"Are you ready?" Aunt Bea asked, placing her hand on my shoulder. "You really don't have to go in there."

The facility was small, and it only took a few minutes to get through security and to my uncle's cell. I had only been here twice before. Surprisingly, there weren't many Coth who were willing to break the law... or get caught.

"I want to go in," I patted her hand. "Do you?"

"He killed my sister," Aunt Bea muttered, the kindly tone gone. "He's lucky they'll give him the choice. Still, I wish he makes one. I'll happily administer the punishment."

"They wouldn't let you, but I know the feeling." I was romantic to think of killing him, but that would also risk my future and make me no better. His death would serve no purpose.

The guard gave me the go-ahead and I opened the door with a slow, lazy swing. I wanted to make it clear that I was not afraid of him and he had no power here.

"Alexis, how lovely of you to come to visit me." Uncle looked like he hadn't showered since he was captured, but that only made him look more like the killer he was. "I wondered how long it would take."

"I have questions that you will answer." I took a seat across from where he was chained, just out of his reach.

"You want to know about your mother, yes?" I nodded as my nails sunk into my palm opening the old wound from my ruin. "You're angry, I can spell the blood."

"You killed my mother, did you kill my father as well?"

"Not personally," he picked at his nails.

"Impulse." He nodded. "Why?"

"I couldn't have the Morill heir having a human father, it would ruin us." My nails sunk deeper, but the pain grounded me.

"And my mother?"

"She suspected me and refused to keep the father secret. A liability but it broke my heart."

I knew how my father died, mugging gunshot. It wasn't hard to find the file with his name. My mother, on the other hand, death was something no one had confirmed.

"You used gorgons' blood to kill her?"

"She never saw it coming. Peaceful." There was nothing peaceful about surviving for three days fully conscious while your body slowly died.

"Why keep me alive? You knew I had no magic and had numerous chances to kill me," my voice spike, "why keep me alive if I was such an abomination?"

"I needed your name, your blood. If you wouldn't take the demon's offer, I would have made do. Mutts can have powerful children." His expression contracted to something resembling the fatherly look he wore in my childhood. "I liked you in any sense. Killing you would break my heart more than your mother's betrayal."

He wanted to use me as a breeder. I gnashed my teeth. Probably killed him when I fell in love with Kiri, I would never be a breeder for him. Even though all sirens were female, they couldn't have kids with other female species, only the male.

"And when you learned I would never be a breeder? That your plans would never happen?"

"I almost got rid of her, but the damn girl missed. I should have known better than to use one of those protesters." He leaned back in the chair, a smile on his face. "I suppose you're quite happy I missed."

"It wouldn't have killed her," I prodded. "I would have killed you."

"All the barriers I put between you didn't work so I had to resort to those measures. And she would have died of salt loss. You don't pay attention, didn't study her enough. She constantly used salt baths to stay healthy. Three days without it coupled with the poison would have done her in."

I stood, my chair knocking against the back wall. "I have nothing left to ask. Aunt Bea, do you have any questions for the prisoner?"

She shook her head, standing as well but I could see her legs shake. Her eyes burned brighter than I could have known, and I noticed the sparks of electricity bouncing among her curls.

"Then I want to leave you with one last thought." Both sets of eyes turned to me with surprise. "I am going to open the manor as a school for both humans and Coth. They will learn how to open the doors between us, help us understand each other. The house you have lived in will be home to humans. I will fix what is broken, work with humans. The seat will be filled, I have a nominee. Officer Reese, the man leading the officers at the school, agreed to help make the name Morill mean something to humans. I will up the world up to those willing to accept us."

Uncle was shaking now, his jaw clenched as his knuckles went white. The pupils of his eyes retracted and dilated in rapid-fire. If I knew better, it would have to look like he was having a seizure.

"This is goodbye," I opened the door, "maybe I'll send you an update on how the world has changed without you."

"You can't do that," he yelled, "you'll lose everything I've worked for. You won't be able to foster peace, no one can. You can't," his protests continued, but I closed the door before he could start a long tangent on why I couldn't do what was needed. That was the last time I would hear his voice and the last time I would ever let his words affect me.

"Did you mean what you said back there?"

I didn't meet her eyes, not sure what I would find. "The Gathering was meant to be a shared council between humans and Coth. If we don't open up to them, they won't open to me."

"Then you want to expose us to humans?"

"No," I admitted, "but some have proven they are good. We just have to give them the chance."

I left her in the hallway, making my way down the stairs that lead to the balcony overlooking town in the valley below. I could see the little specks of people going about their evening like a charming film. They would get married, go to school, all hidden from humans. I wanted to give people, families that sense of normality everywhere.

A crazy, reckless plan was forming, and, once in motion, there would be no going back. I needed to call a Gathering.