“Oh well, then it’s perfectly fine,” Curran said. “As long as you choked the life out of her gently, I guess there’s no hard feelings.”

I leaned forward. “How did I turn out? Are you proud of the monster you made?”

Roland smiled. Hugh and Landon were right. It was like the sun had risen. Like digging a hole in your backyard and finding a glittering jewel in the dirt.

“Child, my dangerous one, my beautiful one. You’ve claimed your city. You shouldn’t have been able to do that for another hundred years. I’m so proud that my pride could topple mountains. If you let me, I would show you to the world. I would show the world to you.”

“So I could see it through your eyes?”

“So you could see it through your own.”

I leaned forward. “From the time I could walk till I was fifteen years old, every memory I have is about you. If I wasn’t studying about you, your children, and your kingdom, I was training to kill you or hiding from you. I was never afraid of monsters in my closet or under my bed. I was afraid you would find me. The entire purpose of my existence was so I could one day murder you.”

“Here I am. You have a sword. Why don’t you use it?”

I met his gaze. There was no point in lying. “Because I’m done living my life according to Voron’s expectations. I don’t know you. I know only what I was told. If you threaten Curran or anyone else I love, if you try to destroy this city, I’ll do everything in my power to kill you, no matter how futile it is. But I won’t do it because a dead man told me so.”

He leaned back and laughed softly. “You truly are my daughter.”

“That’s not a compliment.”

He smiled at me the way one would smile at a talented but naive child. I pictured kicking him in the head. I’d die a second later, but it would be so satisfying.

“Shall we bargain for the future of the city you love?” he asked.

“That is why you came here, isn’t it?”

He rubbed his hands, his eyes bright. He looked . . . happy. “Very well. Do you know what you did?”

“I’ve blocked your claim on Atlanta and claimed it instead.”

“Anyone crossing into Atlanta now will feel the borders of your territory. They won’t necessarily know the territory is yours, which will give you the element of surprise. A territory claimed is a challenge. It will be answered, if not by me, then by others.”

“I realize that.”

“For my part, I can’t allow you to remain in a position of visible power. You and I are invaders in this land. Our magic wasn’t born here.” Roland nodded to Curran. “Your magic was. Somewhere back in the mists of time your ancestors made a pact with a creature of this land. The blood might have been diluted through generations and mixed with that of the newcomers, but not enough to matter. You pose a threat.”

“Which is why you’ve been trying to destroy the Pack,” Curran said.

“To be fair, I haven’t really tried,” Roland said.

“The rakshasas,” I said.

“They were more of a nuisance than a real threat. They sought an alliance with me. I found them annoying, so I gave them a target as a condition of the alliance. They failed as brilliantly as I had expected.”

“And my aunt?”

My father leaned forward. “Eahrratim.” He said her name with grief as if something of great beauty had been lost forever. “Your aunt didn’t want to wake up. She did in spite of herself and when she rose, she was a mere shadow of herself. She didn’t like this new world. She was going through the motions of living, but she couldn’t permit herself to give up on life. We were taught from the earliest age that life is precious. Death must truly mean something. I wish you could’ve seen her at the height of her power. She was a force. Erra wanted something to do. I told her of the Pack. She thought it over for a few weeks and one day she told me she would go and see if she could find anything of amusement in Atlanta. She must’ve been so thrilled to have found you, her niece, in this distant age. You look like her.”

“I know,” I said. I had looked so much like her, it was eerie. Except she was more. Larger, stronger, faster, with magic that made whatever I could do pathetic. Killing her was the hardest thing I had ever done and it took both Curran and me to do it. I nearly lost Curran because of her. He’d spent eleven days in a coma.

“She could pass the torch and finally let go. There is no shame in being killed by one of your own bloodline. The night before you fought, she called me.” His eyes clouded. “She wanted to talk about the Water Gardens. In the palace where we grew up, there had been water gardens, acres and acres of shallow water, crossed by narrow pathways. It was a beautiful place, of sand and warm water, where flowers bloomed and small fishes darted back and forth. We used to splash through it for hours. My fondest memories had been born there. I knew when she spoke of it, I wouldn’t see her again. I felt the moment she surrendered her life and then I understood that you were still alive. She was the City Eater. You must’ve realized her death came too easily.”

I nearly choked.

Roland sighed. “I suppose we should return to the business at hand. You can’t fight me. I can sear the walls of this Keep until they melt with everyone inside it. In a day, everything you’ve built and everyone you serve will be gone. The city will do nothing about it, for such is the nature of human prejudice.”

“He won’t do it,” I told Curran. “When he decides to do away with us, he’ll do something elaborate, like send us magic seeds, which will sprout beautiful flowers with poisonous pollen. The pollen will root through our veins, we’ll die in agony, but our corpses will be covered in gorgeous blooms. If he’s feeling like making a statement, the flowers will drip blood just for fun.”

Roland smiled. “Death should have a terrible beauty to it, don’t you think?”

“What is it you want from us?” I asked.

“I want to know you. You are precious to me, as your mother was before you. But I can’t let you lead the Pack.” He looked at Curran. “You alone are enough of a threat. The two of you together at the helm of that many shapeshifters is too clear a statement for me to ignore. You’ll be seen as actively opposing me.”

“And?” Curran asked.

Roland looked at me. “I want you to leave the Pack.”

My heartbeat sped up. Curran would never walk away from the Pack. He was the Beast Lord. He’d hammered it together; he gave it laws and structure, he lived and breathed it. The shapeshifters were his people. If I stayed with him, I would be Consort, even if I refused to have anything to do with the Pack. It would never work and my father knew it. The only way I could step down would be to leave Curran.

“In return, I’ll let you keep your claimed territory,” Roland said. “And your city.”

“Not good enough,” Curran said.

He was actually thinking about it. It made sense. We would avoid a bloody war. We could keep so many lives safe . . .

“Very well, let’s put a number on it. I promise to take no direct action personally, nor instruct my people to take any action against anyone within the territory my daughter has claimed, for the next hundred years. Should any of my people challenge you, they would do so without my permission and incur my wrath. I will, however, keep the installation of the People in Atlanta and their business will proceed as usual.”

My mind started working. “I want more. I want you to promise that neither you nor your people acting on your orders will ever harm Curran or Julie, in my territory or outside of it.”

“I’m being rather generous. It’s already a good trade,” Roland said to me. “You wish to protect your people. I’m the biggest threat you face. Eliminate me as a danger. If you refuse, blossom of my heart, I will come to Atlanta and I will bring fire and ruin to it. I will purge the Keep the way I purged Omaha.”

The earthquakes of Omaha had killed thousands. But they had always been viewed as a freak cataclysm brought on by a flare, a massive magic wave.

“You . . . ?”

He nodded.

“Why?”

“There was a Native power that chose to oppose me,” Roland said. “I didn’t strike the first blow. I merely retaliated. Is that disturbing to you?”

“Yes.”

“You will understand eventually. No challenge, no matter how insignificant, can be left unanswered. Even a cry in the wilderness must be acknowledged, because someone might have heard it.” Roland smiled. “I’m fortunate you survived. It will be so interesting to watch you grow. We have nothing but time on our hands.”

“You’re telling me to give up the man I love,” I said.

“I can’t say I approve of your choice. He’s powerful, but also paranoid and xenophobic. He will be difficult to bend.”

“Oh that’s rich,” Curran said.

I unclenched my teeth. “I can go years without worrying if you approve of me. And I have no interest in bending him. I like him the way he is. You have no right to comment on my relationships.”

“I’m your father. That’s the great privilege of parenthood; we can comment on whatever we want.”

“I don’t want you to be my father.”

“Of course you do,” Roland said. “You want to be loved, just like all of us want to be loved by our parents. Don’t you want to know about your mother? What she was like? About our family?”

“Our family consists of monsters.”

“Yes. But we are great and powerful monsters. Love demands sacrifices. When you love something, the way you love your people, Blossom, you must pay for it. Besides, I’m not forcing you to leave him, only the position of power that comes with him.”

“How exactly does this get around me challenging you?”

“You claimed a territory. I made you step down in retaliation. This demonstrates to those who are watching that I have power over you and our relationship is much more complex than the simple rebellion of you against me.”

“You are incredibly powerful,” I told him. “But I’m your daughter. If you hurt Curran or Julie, I will hunt you. I will dedicate every waking moment of my life to killing you, and I will succeed. Maybe not now. Maybe in another century or two. But I will never give up. Your powers work half of the time, when the magic is up. My sword works always. Promise me, Father. Promise it.”

Roland looked at Curran. “So be it. But this is the last concession I’m willing to make.”

“We have a deal,” Curran said. My heart broke into small jagged pieces.

Roland smiled again. “I always gave my children what I thought they wanted. Usually they wanted power. I am giving you what you need instead. Consider it an early wedding gift.”

There wouldn’t be a wedding. The Beast Lord and the Pack were one and the same. Even if we tried to make it work, we’d fail. The Pack would pull and pressure him to spend time at the Keep, where I couldn’t be, while I would pull and pressure him to stay with me.

Roland rose. “The two of you have some choices to make. I shall leave you to it. Oh, and I would like to be invited to the wedding.”

“No,” Curran and I said at the same time.

Roland paused by the door, his face wise, his eyes timeless. “I’ve often asked myself why I could never raise my children to be the people I envisioned them being. I believe it was because they were with me. Power corrupts, it is true, but none succumb to its rot as readily as the young. You don’t see it this way, but what I am giving you now is a blessing. You will understand in time.”

He put his hand on the door handle. “Almost forgot. Teleportation by water requires an incantation and the ignorance or agreement of the one being teleported. Aar natale.”