He shrugs. “I didn’t want you to be born. I didn’t want Cassia to give up immortality for you. I didn’t know if she’d be able to get it back. Nobody’s ever tried, but once what was done was done, I wanted to talk to her. I wanted her back. I wanted to see you. I believe she thought I’d be angry with her. I’m a hard man, and any softness I had was for her. But I never gave up that softness for her, even when she kept the thing I loved the most from me.”

His eyes are distant. He doesn’t mean me. He means her.

I think of his hall of pictures. I’m the one who took that from him. It wasn’t my dad at all.

“Do you still wish I hadn’t been born?”

He doesn’t answer right away. My stomach pinches. I don’t know why I’m bothered by what his answer might be. He’s blood, not family. Dad and Parker and Mom are still my family. He can’t make me doubt that. I shouldn’t be upset, but I can’t stop myself from needing to hear his answer.

“All I want now is to know you. The daughter of two powerful magicians? A daughter who might be holding more power than anyone else in the world? Of course I want you.”

He doesn’t really answer the original question. He didn’t want me, but he’s seen what I can do, and he wants me now.

“Did you know where I was? After she died? Do you know who killed her? Why? Was it… she used magic right before she died… was it that? Did that bring the vampire to her?” I’m all questions, but I don’t really care. I’ve had old ones burning holes in me, and now I have new ones, and I need to let them all out. I need answers to bandage the pain.

His face shifts into a snarl. “If I could find the vampire who killed her, I’d already have their dust sitting on my mantel.”

His fury soothes me in some way. It’s good to know I wasn’t the only one feeling that way all these years. I wasn’t the only one carrying around that pain and hate. He had it too. His eyes still burn with it. Perhaps it was better that he didn’t bring me here sooner. With our pain combined, we might have burned the whole world to the ground for a single vampire. I don’t want to do that anymore, but his anger pulls at those parts of mine that aren’t completely buried.