“BY TAKING WHAT IS MINE LIKE A THIEF? YOU SHAME ME, DAUGHTER.”

The press of his magic was almost too much to bear, but I was too angry to back down.

“I wasn’t there. I was in Mishmar, talking to my grandmother. Ask her, if you don’t believe me.”

His magic punched me. “RETURN THE DEMIGOD TO ME!”

I pulled my magic to me and punched back. The floor under my feet bounced. “No.”

The magic was so tight around me, it responded every time I took a breath.

“YOU’RE A POOR EXCUSE FOR A DAUGHTER.”

His magic clashed with mine. It felt like the air around us was breaking apart.

“Kate!” Curran snapped.

I glanced around me. The mercs cowered by the walls, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t give a crap if the entire roof caved in and crushed them all. I would not back down. Not this time.

I raised my chin. “You’ve killed your own family, Father. Even now, you’re trying to reach through time with your hand and strangle its future. You are the reason no descendants of our blood survived. You reap what you sow. I’m exactly what you deserve.”

He stared at me, his gaze boring through me. His face stretched and Roland laughed. “YOU ARE, INDEED, MY DAUGHTER.”

The light contracted, sucked into its own center, and vanished.

I turned around. The Clerk stared at me, wild-eyed. His nose was bleeding. On my right, shell-shocked mercs blinked. The closest to me bled from the nose and ears. I glanced up. Saiman stood on the third-floor balcony, his face bloodless. Above him Christopher gripped the balance beam, staring at the spot where my father had been, his ruby wings opened wide, his face twisted by fury.

Juke wiped the blood from under her nose and looked at it.

I’d done it again. Damn it. I’d let the magic drag me away from who I was.

“What the hell was all that about?” Juke asked. “All I heard was a weird hissing language with some ‘fucks’ in it.”

The tension hung in the air. I had to say something to break it. “This is nothing. You should see the fit he threw when I told him I wasn’t coming to visit for Christmas.”

Barabas laughed.

The mercs looked at him, then back at me.

“Family,” Curran said, putting his arm around me. “Can’t live with them, can’t kill them. You ready to go home, baby?”

“Sure,” I said.

Outside I stopped. “I did it again.”

“I know,” he said.

“I’m trying.”

“I know.”

I had to try harder. “He really wants Saiman for some reason.”

“Did he mention the tiger?”

“He thinks we stole it. You still feeling okay?”

“Yes.”

I glanced at him. “Why did you eat the tiger?”