place?”
A sarcastic comment sprang to mind, but I immediately bit it back. He was right. Asking him would’ve been the logical thing to do instead of playing cloak-and-dagger in the library.
Thank God for Jenna, who looked up at my dad and said, “Mr. Atherton, Sophie’s spent the last sixteen years of her life having people lie to her about one thing or another. At Hecate, she got pretty good at finding things out on her own. Hard habit to break.”
Jenna may have been a tiny blonde with a nearly pathological love for pink, but she was still a vampire, and that meant she could be pretty intimidating when she wanted to be. Right now, I kind of wanted to pick her up and hug her.
Dad looked back and forth between us. “Mrs. Casnoff said the two of you were a formidable team. I see now what she meant. Well, if there’s nothing else you ladies need in the library, Sophie, would you care to accompany me on a walk about the grounds?”
I wondered if there were ever times when Dad didn’t sound like he’d just escaped from a Jane Austen novel. It was weird to think of my superpractical mom falling for a guy like him. She’d never struck me as the type to go for a smooth talker. Of course, I never thought I’d fall for a pretty boy who was secretly a Prodigium-killer, so what the heck did I know?
“It’s getting dark,” I said to Dad.
“Oh, I think we still have plenty of light left. And the view of the house at this time of day is quite spectacular.”
In the few weeks since I’d met Dad, I’d learned to read his eyes and not his tone of voice. And right now, his eyes said I was going on a walk with him whether I wanted to or not.
“Okay,” I said. “Why not?”
“Excellent! You’ll be fine on your own for a little while, won’t you?” he asked Jenna.
She glanced at me. “Sure, Mr. Atherton,” she said. “I’ll, uh, just go see what Cal is doing.”
“Wonderful idea,” Dad replied. He held his elbow out to me. “Shall we?”
W e made our way to the front door, passing one of the servants. She was dusting a marble-top table in the hallway, but instead of using a feather duster or Pledge, she just held her hands above the surface. The dust swirled up in a tiny cloud, vanishing as it rose. Watching it was every bit as jarring as the computer and cell phone had been. At Hecate, no one was that…well, casual with magic. Mrs. Casnoff certainly wouldn’t have let us use our powers to dust.
Dad and I didn’t speak until we were outside. “Look,” I said, “I’m really sorry I touched your magical bookcase or whatever that was. I didn’t know.”
Dad just took a deep breath as we walked down the gravel drive. “Lovely. Can you smell that, Sophie?”
“Um…smell what?”
“Lavender. Thorne Abbey has it planted in every garden on the premises. It’s especially fine on evenings like this.”
I took an experimental sniff. It was nice, and the evening was beautiful; the air wasn’t too warm or too cool, and there were shadows creeping across the green lawn. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t been at the Home for Wayward Demons.
We kept walking in silence. My hand rested lightly in the crook of Dad’s elbow, which was equal parts nice and weird. As we walked, all I could think was, This is my dad . I’m hanging out with my dad, and we’re acting like he hasn’t been the World’s Most Absentee Father for nearly seventeen years.
Dad led us over the stone bridge and up a small hill. We stopped at the top and turned to look down at the house.
Dad was right. The view was amazing. Nestled in its valley, Thorne Abbey was bathed in soft, golden light. In the distance, the forest seemed to curl around the building, protecting and sheltering it. I wanted to think it was beautiful, but looking at it, all I could think about was how different my life would have been if Alice had never come here.
“I’ve loved this house from the moment I set eyes on it,” Dad
A sarcastic comment sprang to mind, but I immediately bit it back. He was right. Asking him would’ve been the logical thing to do instead of playing cloak-and-dagger in the library.
Thank God for Jenna, who looked up at my dad and said, “Mr. Atherton, Sophie’s spent the last sixteen years of her life having people lie to her about one thing or another. At Hecate, she got pretty good at finding things out on her own. Hard habit to break.”
Jenna may have been a tiny blonde with a nearly pathological love for pink, but she was still a vampire, and that meant she could be pretty intimidating when she wanted to be. Right now, I kind of wanted to pick her up and hug her.
Dad looked back and forth between us. “Mrs. Casnoff said the two of you were a formidable team. I see now what she meant. Well, if there’s nothing else you ladies need in the library, Sophie, would you care to accompany me on a walk about the grounds?”
I wondered if there were ever times when Dad didn’t sound like he’d just escaped from a Jane Austen novel. It was weird to think of my superpractical mom falling for a guy like him. She’d never struck me as the type to go for a smooth talker. Of course, I never thought I’d fall for a pretty boy who was secretly a Prodigium-killer, so what the heck did I know?
“It’s getting dark,” I said to Dad.
“Oh, I think we still have plenty of light left. And the view of the house at this time of day is quite spectacular.”
In the few weeks since I’d met Dad, I’d learned to read his eyes and not his tone of voice. And right now, his eyes said I was going on a walk with him whether I wanted to or not.
“Okay,” I said. “Why not?”
“Excellent! You’ll be fine on your own for a little while, won’t you?” he asked Jenna.
She glanced at me. “Sure, Mr. Atherton,” she said. “I’ll, uh, just go see what Cal is doing.”
“Wonderful idea,” Dad replied. He held his elbow out to me. “Shall we?”
W e made our way to the front door, passing one of the servants. She was dusting a marble-top table in the hallway, but instead of using a feather duster or Pledge, she just held her hands above the surface. The dust swirled up in a tiny cloud, vanishing as it rose. Watching it was every bit as jarring as the computer and cell phone had been. At Hecate, no one was that…well, casual with magic. Mrs. Casnoff certainly wouldn’t have let us use our powers to dust.
Dad and I didn’t speak until we were outside. “Look,” I said, “I’m really sorry I touched your magical bookcase or whatever that was. I didn’t know.”
Dad just took a deep breath as we walked down the gravel drive. “Lovely. Can you smell that, Sophie?”
“Um…smell what?”
“Lavender. Thorne Abbey has it planted in every garden on the premises. It’s especially fine on evenings like this.”
I took an experimental sniff. It was nice, and the evening was beautiful; the air wasn’t too warm or too cool, and there were shadows creeping across the green lawn. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t been at the Home for Wayward Demons.
We kept walking in silence. My hand rested lightly in the crook of Dad’s elbow, which was equal parts nice and weird. As we walked, all I could think was, This is my dad . I’m hanging out with my dad, and we’re acting like he hasn’t been the World’s Most Absentee Father for nearly seventeen years.
Dad led us over the stone bridge and up a small hill. We stopped at the top and turned to look down at the house.
Dad was right. The view was amazing. Nestled in its valley, Thorne Abbey was bathed in soft, golden light. In the distance, the forest seemed to curl around the building, protecting and sheltering it. I wanted to think it was beautiful, but looking at it, all I could think about was how different my life would have been if Alice had never come here.
“I’ve loved this house from the moment I set eyes on it,” Dad
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