A shiver shook my body as I realized how angry he was.
I nearly sighed with relief. I thought he had returned to that shell he was when I first met him and he followed orders blindly.
I turned back to my father. “What do you mean, that’s why they’re doing it?”
Matlock rolled the contract back up and handed it to me. “The rest of it is standard, they haven’t tried to weasel anything new in.”
“Nothing other than the fact they expect utter submission and complete control over me, you mean?”
My hands tightened into fists, squeezing the life out of the contract, and my heart beat an angry tattoo against my ribs.
Of all the things to want me to do... Marry a complete stranger? Never!
Matlock nodd
ed. “Yes, the role of High Warlock has always been one of service.”
I pointed at him with an angry stare. “No. It wasn’t! It started out as a simple representative of the council, a judge of sorts. Someone to implement rules when the others wouldn’t or couldn’t agree. I don’t know when that changed into what they expect now... but it’s ridiculous! Even a queen can choose who she marries! How can they do this to me?”
My father walked forward and grabbed my upper arms. “I told you, because they know you won’t agree. Now calm down, so we can discuss this rationally.”
He let go of me and stepped away. I shivered with the stress of it all.
Then I blew out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding, and focused on finding a solution. Not an emotional reaction.
“Okay... okay.” My fingers shook as I combed my hands through my hair.
At least it was some release from the pent-up energy, from the magic pushing against my fingertips, wanting to destroy everything, especially that damn contract. “What do we do?”
My father was pacing and Tavlor still stood like a silent statue.
I sidled up closer to him.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a low voice.
He didn’t answer immediately, then he gave a stiff nod.
Liar.
He was not okay.
I cupped his face with my hands, forcing him to look at me. “I am not going to agree to this. They can’t keep us apart. I won’t allow it.”
He blinked, as though only just realizing I’d spoken. “They’ll never let us be together, Ava. Not in the way we want to be.”
I went up on my tip toes and kissed his cold lips briefly.
Then I turned back to my father. “How are we going to fix this?”
Matlock stopped in his tracks and looked straight at me.
“Any chance you’re pregnant already?” he asked bluntly. He didn’t seem to care that I was his daughter in this moment and that he was asking a drastically personal question.
My jaw dropped open and I glanced at Tavlor, then back at my father. “Uh....”
We’d used no protection either time we’d made love, and I had no idea when my cycle was due.
“I don’t know.”