I staggered with relief and considered conjuring a chair to sit down in.
“We do, however, have some... conditions if you want to remain our High Warlock and have Ava as your legal heir,” Thomas continued.
“Conditions?” my father asked. “What conditions?”
I swung around to ask the very same question.
Thomas glanced at me and smiled, and the look in his eyes made me want to hurl up my breakfast.
Fuck.
That couldn’t be good.
What did they have in store for me now?
Chapter 8.
CONDITIONS? Stipulations. Of course, they had those! Why was I even surprised?
And from the evil look on Thomas’s face, I wasn’t going to like them.
I looked away from him. The last thing I wanted was for him to notice the hesitant weariness inside of me, itching to come out.
I rushed forward to join my father, who put a hand out to stop me coming too close.
I stopped in my tracks, trusting him to guide me the right way.
I couldn’t help but wonder why he needed me to stop walking, though. What would happen if I did get too close? Was there some kind of trap?
Matlock spoke. “So, the Council is willing to accept Ava as my legal heir? Irrespective of illegitimacy and... her female sex?”
He furrowed his brows, as though he didn’t trust the Council to make sure all our conditions were met, as though they had found some kind of loophole they could try and jump through without us noticing.
I wanted to roll my eyes. I nearly opened my mouth to apologize for having a vagina, but I managed to refrain. I did want to attempt to take this seriously.
I looked over at Tavlor who hadn’t flinched. Then I realized for him, it probably was a big deal. After all, most human royal families had made males the only legal heirs for thousands of years. For some countries, those rules were only recently changed.
For humans, it made no sense to have such a rule, but for witches... it was probably possible to make such a rule. If they controlled their High Warlocks to the point that they were only allowed to have one child. One heir. Of course, they would make sure it was a male.
It was probably in the laws they made the High Warlock abide by.
Really should have studied that contract before today. Why didn’t I ask my father for a copy... shit!
Thomas nodded. “Yes, we will accept her despite those faults. She will need to be trained, of course. As you were. She will need to be schooled in our laws, ou
r way of life, her responsibilities...”
They were making it sound terrible! So much more like a job than I ever thought it would be.
I didn’t want to appear ungrateful. This was what I wanted. This was what I said I would do in order to ensure my safety. But if they gave me conditions I couldn’t meet, then that wasn’t fair, either.
I had to say something. “Okay... but I have time for that, right? It’s not like I’ll be taking over my father’s responsibilities for years.” Decades, preferably. “I assume I only inherit on his death? Not before?”
It wasn’t something we’d discussed, and as I asked the question, I realized I really didn’t know a lot about the role I was about to take on. I’d simply wanted to be a part of my father’s life. I wasn’t sure if showing my ignorance in this matter was a good idea or not.
I sighed and started twisting my fingers together. I just wanted to know my father and be with him as his daughter.
But maybe we should have had some heart to heart discussions first?