Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Sixty-SixMaddox

Chapter Sixty-Six

Maddox

I left Evaline in the bathing room after dawn, preparing to go get Aurora and Jacqueline, and went straight to the war room to search for my father.

Since the moment the Vasi appeared on our shores my father had spent nearly all of his time there, so when I opened the door to find it empty—to find the books and paper and writing utensils that he regularly used gone—my brows furrowed.

I turned from the room and went to his study. Wondering if he’d decided to go work there.

He hadn’t been spending time in it because he couldn’t have any discussions aloud in the room without the Vasi off the shore to hear everything he said through the open walls behind his desk.

I opened his door and peeked my head in to see him working.

“Can we go to the war room?” I asked him. I needed to give him the update, and I couldn’t very well do it here.

The anxiety pushed my heart to race in my chest. We had not been seeing eye to eye as of late, and had been downright confrontational. I didn’t know whether he’d even agree to see me, so I prepared myself for rejection.

He looked up at me with furrowed brows. “Why?”

“We need to talk.”

He shook his head. “We can talk in here, Maddox,” he said, gesturing for the chairs in front of his desk.

I took a step closer. “No, we can’t,” I said, then gestured to the Vasi outside.

A look of confusion flashed on his face. “You didn’t see?”

He stood and walked to the balcony, waving a hand to the water. “Look.”

I followed him out there, and my eyes widened as I took in the water below us.

Where the Vasi and Sorcerers had once been, was empty. Only water rippled there now. There were no Vasi ships on the horizon, and no screams in the distance.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Did you attack and not tell me?”

My father shook his head and walked back to his desk.

“No, they left.” He shrugged, sitting. “Must have done so in the middle of the night, because when I went to sleep they were there, and when I awoke they weren’t. You didn’t look out the window today?”

I walked to sit across from him. “I guess I didn’t,” I said, dumbfounded. “I was pretty occupied with making sure I came to tell you that Evaline and Sage took the ward down yesterday.” I sank into the chair. “I was going to ask if you planned to attack, but it appears that their Sorcerers had already figured out that the wards were gone.”

I couldn’t help the relief that flooded through me. Relief that we didn’t have to fight the Vasi, and relief that I didn’t have to fight my father about whether we needed to fight the Vasi.

My father tilted his head. “Or they just now got the word from Vasier to pull back after Evaline’s disappearance.”

I nodded. “To regroup. He wanted Alannah at his side when he attacked you, and now she’s out of his reach.”

My father sighed. “I hope he’s just given up. Run back to Mortithev to plot for a few more decades before coming with a new attempt to start confrontation.”

I tilted my head. “You know that can’t be true,” I said, my voice low. “You heard Evaline and Sage. He’s planned for this, the entire time. All those wars of before, he only saw as battles. He has the numbers, and clearly the magic, on his side. We need to prepare for war, or we risk losing.”

And while I hoped my father was right, hoped the war that had been brewing at Vasier’s behest was dead in the water, I knew, in my gut, that it wasn’t. My father hadn’t seen Vasier at the ritual. He hadn’t seen the way Vasier lit up at Alannah’s emergence. Hadn’t seen how enraged—how devastated—he was by losing her. By Sage’s betrayal, by our escape.

But I pushed it away for now. We’d already covered this all at the last meeting, and I knew it hadn’t ended well.

“After Sage reinforced the Vasi ward, she took down the Kova ward. She made it her own, so that Lauden couldn’t come in and tear it down,” I added, changing the subject.

My father nodded, looking back down at the paperwork on his desk. “Good.”

I cleared my throat. “Have you considered letting her be Arch Sorcerer, instead of looking for a new one?”

His head snapped up at me. “Of course not.”

I sighed in disbelief that it was me constantly defending her after what she did to Evaline.

“Father, you need to talk to her. You need a new Arch Sorcerer, and she’s already functioning as one.”

My father scoffed and fell back into his chair.

“She is a traitor, Maddox. She is Vasier’s daughter ,” he said, eyes alight. “I will never trust her with anything again, let alone the responsibilities of Arch Sorcerer,” he hissed and I shook my head.

“That’s not fair. She has made amends, and she’s already done more for this kingdom than Lauden did, or any other Sorcerers here for that matter.”

He shook his head. “No, and I’ll need her out of the loft as I look for a replacement.”

I scoffed. “Gods, Father, give her a moment to breathe. She just got back and left everything she knew behind. Don’t throw her out of her home, too.”

My father opened his mouth to speak, but there was a knock at the door.