40 Chapter 40: The Quiet Silence (1/2)

ELINA: I figured he'd ask about Julia Abernathy. Ask for the information I kept a secret. Why the Church wanted me. Something of obvious importance.

But he didn't do that.

He looked at me.

”Tell me about your father.”

”My father?”

”Yes.”

”Why do you want to know about my father?”

”He sounds like an interesting man.”

I gave him an odd look. Not what I expected.

”Are you sure? Is that what you want to ask?”

He nodded.

I couldn't help but smile a little. It was rare for him to surprise me. But it was a pleasant surprise.

Maybe my story softened him? Maybe that was why he wanted to know more?

Heh-heh~

Can you afford to have thoughts like this?

”Why does he interest you?” I asked.

”He's a man who decided to have a child with a witch, then had the courage to disagree with said witch, managed to avoid getting killed, then raised a witch on his own.”

He paused. Looked ahead. Stared at the endless stretch of grass and road.

He said, ”I'm trying to decide if he is a fool or an extraordinary man.”

I said nothing. Most said that he was a fool. And then I would kill them. Nobody ever considered the latter. Until now.

I said, ”It's a long story.”

He said, ”It's a long road.”

So I kept my word. Answered with honesty.

”After my mother left me to die, my father went into the forest to find me. But my mother thought that might happen, so she hid me deep inside a cave. Wolves and bears could sniff me out, but no human should find me.

”At that time I couldn't control my magic, so I didn't. I cried and sent out waves of magic. Killed every wolf and bear. Anything that walked near the cave. That was how my father found me. Just go in the direction bears and wolves ran from. Follow the stench of blood.

”He waited until I stopped crying. When I was on the verge of death and had exhausted all my magic. Then he picked me up and took me back to his hut. He would've taken me to his village, but his people banished him when he decided to go with my mother. It was in this little hut, in the middle of the forest, far from everything where he raised me.”

I fell silent. I waited. What is he going to say?

Salem glanced at me. A look on his face. Like there was something else he wanted to know.