Sisters of the Coven (Daughters of the Warlock 1)

I looked down. I shouldn’t feel guilty. I shouldn’t. This man wasn’t part of my life until now, and he didn’t want to admit who he was in public. I understood that it was because he wanted to protect me, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but be frustrated at the fact that now he wanted to treat me like he was my father and I was his daughter. He didn’t get to pick and choose when he could be my father and when he wasn’t.

I cleared my throat. “Thank you for coming all this way to tell me about my trial, Matlock,” I said coldly.

He stepped back, addressing us both now. “Oh, well I had some business in the realm, and I heard that Tavlor was here with you,” he said. “I thought I may as well... how do the humans say it? Kill two birds with one stone.”

Tavlor came closer to where we were standing, his magic vibrating in a way I’d never felt before. He could feel it couldn’t he?

The connection between my father and I? The strangeness?

I lifted my gaze and met Tavlor’s head on.

His powers poked into my head and this tome my natural walls slammed down and blocked him out.

I glanced away, unsure of the reason he was looking inside my head. To look for the answers to the questions he now had about Matlock and me?

Or was there something else? A flare of annoyance sparked in my chest. Who did he think he was? Why was he in my head right now? Who gave him that right? Just because I allowed it before didn’t mean I was okay with him doing it now.

I looked towards Matlock. “Tavlor was helping me prepare for tomorrow and he pretty much kicked my ass.” I hoped Matlock wasn’t able to tell that I was lying. We definitely hadn’t been fighting. We’d nearly been about to do something else, before Matlock himself showed up. “Can you tell me how to beat a half Fae, half Warlock for next time I get a go at him?”

I was mostly joking, to break the tension weaving through the air around us, the curse of a first child. I was always trying to make the adults around me more comfortable.

Matlock didn’t laugh, instead he turned towards Tavlor with a scowl. “You used your magic on her? What were you trying to do? Kill her!”

The anger he was directing at Tavlor was totally out of proportion now.

Tavlor didn’t respond, but instead pulled his cloak shut around him so that he looked like a floating head on a black body.

I grabbed Matlock’s arm and dragged his attention back to me. “Don’t scold him like that,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to do this. I knew he was High Warlock and I knew he had a reputation to uphold. Would I be punished for speaking to him this way in front of Tavlor? “He helped me a lot. I was only joking about him kicking my ass.”

I glared at him, and tried to communicate something along the lines of – Stop being so obvious, Dad.

Matlock nodded and shrugged my arm off. He glared – a warning to me. I wasn’t behaving accordingly. “I understand that you are not from our realm, Ava, but you’d do your best to control yourself,” he said. “I am the High Warlock, after all.” He shifted his gaze so they rested on Tavlor before coming back to me. “I’m glad he helped you prepare for tomorrow, but as a warrior, he should not have gone anywhere near you.”

I looked at him with my nose in the air. “Really?” I asked. I knew I was pressing my luck by outwardly defying him, but I was annoyed with how he treated me and how he treated Tavlor. “I would have thought that a warrior would be the perfect training partner.”

“No,” he snapped. “He is too strong for you. He could hurt you, kill you, Ava. I know you don’t understand anything about this world, but Tavlor is a trained killer. Ruthless, incredibly powerful, and without empathy. He might not have been able to control himself, especially if he loses sight of who you are and only sees you as a threat.”

Tavlor didn’t respond to the accusations, as though they were an everyday occurrence. As though he was used to being treated in such a way.

Well, not on my watch. I wasn’t going to let that stand, even if he was the High Warlock.

“Listen, Matlock,” I said, pointing my finger at him. “You may rule over all things around here, but if you want to call someone un-empathetic, how bout I conjure you up a mirror?”

Matlock opened his mouth to reply, but I cut him off.

“He is a man. And just because you and your cronies have trained him to be your killer for hire, doesn’t mean he’s any less human that you or I. Got it?”

I glared at Matlock, not risking a look at Tavlor beside me.

I didn’t know why I cared so much about Tavlor’s feelings, but I was already so sick of hearing how disgusting he was.

Didn’t they all have eyes? Souls? Perception?

The man I’d kissed, touched, fought, had a soul as strong and deep as an ocean. And I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that in this fight for my future and my life, I wanted him on my side.

“Excuse me?” Matlock’s voice was low, dangerous. A warning.

“Ava, thank you for your words, but they aren’t necessary,” Tavlor said quickly. I wondered if he could sense my father’s fury with me. “I am here to serve the High Warlock, and his assessment is not untrue.”