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I had to admit, patience wasn’t exactly one of my strong suits.
“You’ve been using the mirror how I instructed you to?” Adrian asked.
This time, I did roll my eyes at him.
“Yes,” I hissed. “I did everything exactly like you instructed me to. I’vebeendoing everything you’ve told me to do, and I know how to follow instructions. I assure you, like I’ve been assuring you, I am doing everythingexactlyhow you told me to do it. Nothing is happening. I bleed every other night into the bowl. I put the blood on me, and I put it on the mirror, and I say the words you told me to say. But I never actuallyseeanything in the mirror. It moves, and everything in the mirror shifts, but there’s nothing new there outside of my bedroom. Sometimes the reflection grows a little hazy, but there’snothing there.”
“You must be patient,” Adrian repeated. “Sometimes these things can take time. We also know that you have some sort of block where your father is concerned, which could explain why you cannot see him in the mirror.” He held his pudgy hands up in front of him and spread his fingers wide in surrender. The jewels on his rings glinted off the overhead light. There were so many that it was a wonder he had the strength to lift his hands at all.
“It is not an exact science, and, as much as I would like it to be different, we cannot force the things we want to happen to actually happen.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear him say that last bit. However, I was surprised that the little man couldn’t simply snap his fingers and make things go how he wanted them to. It seemed like that would have been one of his life’s goals.
“Did you know that our dear Quinton had words with me when I arrived here today?” He asked in a bland voice that masked the true nature of his words.
I wasn’t fooled by that bland tone. I was beginning to understand parts of Adrian, and one of those parts was the different tones he used when speaking. Bland usually meant he was trying to mask anger or curiosity.
I was betting he was going for masking his anger today. He was pissed at me for some reason, and I was willing to bet that reason had to do with whatever Quinton had said to him this morning. Since Quinton usually had a conversation with me when I arrived in the morning, and it wasn’t always a pleasant one, I could only imagine what he’d said to Adrian.
“What sort of words?” I asked, bluntly. Adrian usually demanded bluntness from me. There was no skirting around issues with him.
“It seems you shared with him what it is you’ve been doing. What it is that I’ve had you doing.”
Yup, that was anger hiding there behind the blandness. I had not been wrong.
“I sure did,” I answered him, honestly, in a sweet voice.
I had promised Quinton I wouldn’t keep secrets from him, and it wasn’t a promise I would be breaking any time soon. Quinton and I were in this together from here on out, no matter what. Figuring out that I loved him had taken some getting used to at first. Once I stopped fighting the feeling, I stopped fighting Quinton so much, and we were getting along better. I didn’t hide anything from him anymore, and I certainly wasn’t about to keep anything Adrian said to me a secret from Quint.
“Why ever would you do that?” Adrian demanded, in a quiet, controlled voice. “The things that go on during our time together are meant to be done and kept in private. You broke my confidence by sharing what we were doing with Quinton. I can’t even believe he’s still allowing you to do it. I also find it unbelievable that he allowed it to go on for weeks and is only now bringing it up with me. However did you manage that?”
Quinton hadn’t wanted me to use blood magic to look for Rain. In fact, he’d been almost vehemently against it from the start. Instead, he’d wanted to use his own blood and his own magic to look for Rain, not mine. I’d explained to him what Adrian had explained to me; it had to be my blood because it tied Rain to me, and vice versa. It was the only thing we had between us, the one thing we shared that no one could take away from us. It was our link and what I had been using to search for him. Unsuccessfully, I might add. As much as Quinton hated it, he hadn’t told me I couldn’t do it, and he hadn’t once tried to stop me. But he hadn’t exactly been encouraging, either. I knew he and Tyson were looking for Rain themselves, but I hadn’t asked them about it. They were letting me do my thing, so I was returning the favor.
“I don’t keep things from Quinton, Adrian.” I said. “I’m not sure how much he’s shared with the rest of them, and I don’t care, because it’s not like I’m trying to hide anything from them. You can be upset with me all you like for sharing with Quinton what goes on here with us. I never promised you I wouldn’t speak of what we’re doing here. Never. And, seriously, Adrian, how could you even think to ask me to keep secrets from them? They are my coven; they are my family, and those things aren’t built on lies. They’re built on trust. Don’t ever ask me to keep things from them. Not ever, because it’s a waste of both our time.”
Adrian chuckled darkly, and I knew the urge to roll my eyes had left me for the day. When he laughed like that, it never failed to creep me out, and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck always raised.
“My, my, my…” he drawled. “You really are magnificent, you know that, dear. You haven’t even been with them for very long, and yet, there you sit, loyal to your coven. So much so that you won’t even entertain the thought of lying to them. You won’t even mutter one little lie, or omit one truth. How truly marvelous you are.”
I sighed, not having expected the conversation to go this way.
“What are you on about, Adrian?” I asked in quiet voice. I didn’t think I’d like what he had to say, and I wasn’t usually wrong about these things.
“You’re easy in comparison to some of the other women. I think it might have something to do with your upbringing and the way you were raised. The other women of our kind have become a bit spoiled, I’m afraid. We give them everything they want because there are so few of them, and it makes their expectations to be a bit unrealistic at times. I must admit, when Quinton told us about your existence, I highly doubted he was telling the truth about you. It’s why I tested you when we first met. I had to be certain you were who he thought you to be. We are very rarely proven wrong, and, normally, we would have found this to be very upsetting. We don’t like to be wrong, you see, dear. But, for you, we are happy to make an exception. You’ve fit in so well with Quinton and his coven, and adjusted so well to discovering you’re a witch, that it’s almost unbelievable. And, outside of asking for help in locating Rain, you’ve yet to ask us for anything. You’ve made no outrageous demands of us, or anything of the like. It’s most refreshing, to be honest.”
I was glad he didn’t take offense to the way I had spoken to him. Quint had told me time and time again not to be rude to the Council members, to treat them with the utmost respect. I knew the Council members were dangerous people, and that I should really think before speaking to them. But, advice was always easier to give than to take, and even harder to put into practice.
“We don’t like not knowing where you’ve come from,” Adrian admitted. “It’s embarrassing, and makes us look bad.”
My eyes grew round in shock as they shot to Adrian. I could not believe he just admitted that to me.
“I would like to put this behind us as soon as possible, and the only way to do that is to find your father. We’ve been combing through family records in search of anything possibly related to you. If only we knew what your real last name is, it would be so helpful…”
I blew out a frustrated breath as I tossed my head back and stared up at the white ceiling. We had had this argument before, and it never changed. Adrian was even more stubborn than I was.
“Kimberismy last name,” I said in a tired voice.
“As I keep telling you, child, it might not actually be your last name. In fact, it most likely isn’t your name, and never has been.”
