WaterMage Rising

Chapter 16

Selena swallowed and tried to pretend she couldn't hear her pulse pounding in her ears. She pasted on a smirk, hoping Father wouldn't notice her extra loud heartbeat."Creating mayhem and destruction, of course. What does it look like I'm doing?"

Father crossed his arms as he fixed her with the stare of doom that promised pain and punishment."Don't get flip with me, girl. If you're meddling in stuff you shouldn't, I swear —"

Selena stiffened involuntarily and scrambled to her feet, not wanting to remain in her vulnerable position on the floor. Had he seen what she'd done? If he'd caught her duplicating that file, she was done for. He might have been the one who murdered Uncle Franklin, his best friend in the world, for doing the same thing. Anyone who could do that wouldn't spare his own daughter. A sudden chill made goosebumps prickle on her skin at the thought. She had to throw him off his suspicion of her, and fast.

"What meddling?" Selena jabbed a finger at the growing pile of artifacts surrounding her as if the answer to his question should be obvious. "I'm going through these boxes like I'm supposed to while Adam gets the dark objects expert to deal with the clock."

"Don't lie to me," Father hissed, his eyes narrowing. He took a threatening step closer to her, his black dress shoes clacking against the metal floor. "You were doing magic."

"I needed more light. It's a bit dim over here in this corner of the room, and I was having trouble seeing some of the fine detail on these artifacts," Selena lied. She held her ground, refusing to back away from him or show fear.

"Using flashing vines?"

If possible, Selena's heartbeat sped up. She doubted Father knew enough about magic to understand what the flashing vines meant, but the sheer suspicion and fury in his eyes, and the tautness of his muscles as though coiled and ready to strike, unnerved her. He was often harsh and cruel, and he frequently lost his temper. This tightly controlled rage she saw now from him, however, went far beyond his usual outbursts. Everything in Selena screamed at her to run from the room before she ended up like Uncle Franklin. Father saw her gaze stray to the door and moved to block her path.

Despite the times he'd hurt her over the years, Selena had never truly feared for her life before. Until now. She considered her options through a haze of denial and terror. If he tried to attack, she could use magic to strike first and prevent him from somehow activating a deadly curse. She'd never done such a thing when he'd hurt her before, because to use magic as a weapon against someone nonmagical would violate the primary law of the mage world.

Forget the law. No court would convict her for using magic as self-defense against a deadly curse.

Selena made one last attempt to reason with Father before it came to that. She threw her hands in the air, the better to defend herself with, and made a show of scoffing to cover her terror. "You're always pushing me to strengthen my magic, and now you complain when I practice? I'm sorry, but when did you mention that using magic in here was forbidden? It's not like I used fire or water magic that could damage the artifacts. I needed to see the contents of the boxes, especially when I came across some documents. Speaking of which, you said to give you anything I found on the lost relics. Well, here, check out this box, because we hit the jackpot. Mr. Cunningham will want to see this."

Without taking her eyes off Father, Selena channeled air magic into her kamea. A wind funnel swirled around the box in question and lifted it up into her arms. She shoved it with all her might into Father's chest.

"Oof," Father grunted as he wrapped his arms around the heavy parcel. He examined a few of the files on top and gave a curt nod, as if finally satisfied with her explanation or with the contents of the files. "Easy, now. Mind that temper of yours, little girl."

"My temper?" Selena huffed, a quick little exhale of breath that released a fraction of her pent-up tension and terror. Her pulse began to slow. "What about yours?"

Father sighed and turned away to set the box down onto a nearby table. Not meeting her eyes, he said in an uncharacteristically low voice, "Forgive me. With everything that's been happening lately — the spying and the deaths surrounding this project — I've been on edge."

"No kidding." Selena frowned. An apology wasn't like Father at all. In fact, Selena couldn't remember him ever apologizing for anything, but she wasn't ready to forgive him yet. "Let's just keep working, yeah? We have a ton to get through."

With a snort, Father surveyed the work they had yet to complete. "That's an understatement."

The door clicked open, and a tall, clean-shaven man dressed in a black button-down shirt and black slacks stepped into the room, trailed by Adam. "I'll have the clock ready for the artifact exhibit in a few days," the man said in a crisp, business-like tone. He scooped up the box holding the clock with practiced ease and swept out of the room without another word.

The rest of the afternoon flew by, but by the end of it, Selena had greater confidence that all the work might actually get done in time. Selena fled the room to avoid Adam, grateful that Father detained him for a quick word about something or other. Selena raced up the steps, and when she reached the main area of the ship, she pushed open the stairwell door, only to find it slammed shut with a burst of green magic.

"Going somewhere?" A girl's voice snickered from behind her.