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I wanted to tell him how upset I was about being pushed to the sidelines to sit on the bench while the rest of them went off and threw themselves in harm’s way, but for whatever reason I couldn't do it.
"Am I a burden to them?" I asked my father without looking at him. I stared straight ahead through the windshield, not bothering to look at the brothers in the backseat either. "Do they see me as someone less than what they are, just because I am playing catch up with the rest of them? It's not my fault I wasn't raised how they were, surrounded with magic, and the magic I did have had been choked to the point it had been gagged. I get that I'm a female witch and that's a coveted thing. I really do. But now that more are surfacing I'm worried. These other females probably know all about where they've come from and how to use their magic like pros. I'm not like that and always feel like I'm playing catch up here. I did good at Dash's the other night, no matter what anybody else says. I did what I did for Dash, because I know how much his cottage means to him, I wouldn't have done it at such a personal cost to myself if it hadn't been worth it. There isn't a single one of them who would have shied away from it if it had been something they were capable of. I don't want to be wrapped up in bubble wrap for the rest of my life. I want to stand tall with the rest of my coven and actually be something outside of a treasure and something they tried to protect."
I sighed as I slumped back in my seat, my own words washing over me.
"Baby girl," Rain said gently. "They can't help themselves. They've grown up in a world where women like you are a rarity and that's the world they live in now. I can't fault them for this because it's the same world I grew up in, and I can't help but being thankful to the bottom of my blackened soul that I have men like that looking out for my daughter, especially when I wasn't able to. Cut them a break. Not for you, but for them. They'll need it and I'm the last person who wants to say this to you, but I think this is the real deal here for you. They all love you and want what's best for you. It won't matter to these boys that there are other women popping up around the world with magic, because the only woman they see is you."
His words were sweet and what any girl would want to hear from her long lost father. Rain loved me, there was no doubt about it.
"Wait a second," Rain added thoughtfully. "Did you say that there were other women popping up, women who are witches? What are you talking about, Ariel?"
I raised my hands and I lowered my face into them. I groaned. In my anger I had made a mess of things and stupidly blurted out things I hadn't meant to. I had wanted to give that information to Rain privately and not in front of the two brothers I really knew absolutely nothing about.
I'd spilled the beans about the woman who'd stared back up at me from that photograph Marcus had given me.
Damn.
I hadn't meant to do that.
"Uhh..." I muttered through my hands. "Maybe you could forget about that part?"
Fat chance, I knew.
"What aren't you telling me, daughter?" Rain asked quietly.
I lowered my hands from my face and looked to him in defeat. This wasn't at all how I was supposed to do this. Marcus was going to be so upset with me.
Rain eyed me with hard eyes and a cold look on his face. It wasn't his dead look so I knew I wasn't in trouble just yet and maybe could salvage this situation still.
"I'll be right back," I grumbled under my breath as I jerked the door open and slipped out of the Rover. No one tried to stop me and I wasn't surprised.
I retrieved the manila folders from the passenger seat and brought them back to the Rover. I climbed inside and closed the door behind me. The whole time I wondered why Marcus hadn't just simply put both pieces of paper into one folder. It seemed wasteful to me to use two folders when you really only needed the one. I was tired of everything, though, and not willing to dial Marcus up on the phone and ask him about it.
Rain took the folders from me and opened first one, and then the other, without saying anything to me. Neither of the brothers sitting in the backseat said anything either. And, honestly, I couldn't blame them. They were probably wishing for a different female to guard at the moment.
"Who is this woman?" Rain asked me.
Who indeed? I really had no freaking clue who the woman was.
"Marcus gave those folders to me to give to you," I said in a tired voice. "He stole them from Adrian and thought she was a witch in hiding from the Council."
I stopped there because there was nothing else for me to tell him. I couldn't tell him my theory, and Marcus's, on who she was because there was a chance it might not actually be true and I would never lie to Rain.
"Hmm," Rain muttered noncommittally, as he folded both folders in half and stuffed them inside his black duster.
What the hell did ‘hmm’ mean?
I eyed him and knew he wouldn't give me an answer if pressed.
"Are we going to take her home and to safety, or are we going to go back and fight the hunters?" One of the brothers asked from the backseat. I didn't know them well enough yet to be able to tell the difference in their voices, but was pretty sure it had been Trenton who'd spoke.
Rain patted his chest, where the folders had been tucked away, and I knew he was done with what was now going on in the shop and ready to move on to what he thought was important. That being the lady in the picture.
"We go home," I said, my voice sounding upset and defeated even to myself. "We go home and we wait for them to come back to us. That's all we can do so that they don't know about Rain."
Both brothers grunted from the backseat like they were angry and upset by my decision. Neither of them argued with it though.
Rain drove us back to the Alexander big house while I watched people die on the video feeds on his phone.
