Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 4:3

The next couple of weeks were mind-numbingly slow, but the time to leave for Avery's ceremony finally came. I packed lightly. A few changes of clothes, and almost as an afterthought, my cell-phone. I wasn't sure it'd be useful, but it'd never hurt to carry it. Dad and I set out a day or two before Mom and Liam. Mom had wanted to finish setting up the greenhouses for our week long trip away and Liam had offered to stay and help her.

Dad, Poe, and I loaded up into my SUV and drove south as the sun rose up over the mountains. I drove first, taking us out of the Blue Ridge Mountains and into Gastonia where we stopped briefly before Dad took over driving for a bit. I felt anxious and nervous at the same time all because I was basically on my way to see my bride. After this ceremony, Avery and I would be as good as married in the eyes of our Families. I watched the road signs, mentally following the map of Interstate 85 as it headed southwest to where we'd have to switch to I20 in Alabama. So when Dad took the exit off of 85 in Atlanta for I75 South, I noticed.

"Wait Dad, you're in the wrong lane." I watched helplessly as we merged into I75 traffic. Then glanced back at him. "Why are we going this way?"

"There's something I want to show you first."

I crossed my arms against my chest, watching the minutes tick by on the dashboard clock, waiting for him to tell me more as we continued to drive further south, and further away from Texas. After another hour of silence I couldn't take it anymore. "Where are you taking me?"

"Just be patient; I promise we'll still make it to Texas in time." Dad stayed mostly silent the rest of the way, only complaining about the traffic and the lack of good music on the radio. I kept my responses short, if I said anything at all. This was ridiculous. Why couldn't he just tell me where we where going? It wasn't like I was a child, where the excitement of adventure was all that would keep me happy.

It was another two hours before he turned off the interstate and drove along the winding back roads. I must have fallen asleep at some point in the afternoon. Because when I woke up, Dad was pulling up to a pump at a small gas station. The sun was low on the horizon, the sky afire with orange and reds of the sunset as it shone through the ancient spanish moss filled trees that lined the road sides.

Dad opened his door and I sat up with a groan.

"Where are we?" I asked, hoping he'd give in and tell me.

"Almost there. Want anything from inside?"

Nodding, I untangled myself from the seat belt. I reached for Poe, letting him out to stretch his wings while Dad and I were inside.

I poured myself a coffee while waiting for Dad to come out of the restroom and grabbed a candy bar from the snack aisle.

"Three fifty," the old man behind the counter said. He looked up at me and swore, putting a hand to his heart.

"Mother Mary, you're one of them Reinhardt's, ain't you boy?"

My body froze. Was he a witch? Why was he asking? My brain was running too fast to think.

"Uh, what?"

He nodded to me, pointing at my chest. "That there necklace, where'd you get it?"

I looked down to see the pendant on the outside of my shirt. I usually wore it hidden underneath, but it must have fallen free while I slept in the car. "Oh, it was, um, given to me by a friend." I passed over my cash quickly. "Why do you ask?"

Dad came up next to me with his own coffee and snack, and a worried look in his eye.

"Hmp, you got that look about you. Looked like you might be one of their kids that were always running in here. They were always wearin' charms and the like, like that." He paused, passing me my change. "That was years ago they stopped coming in here. That ain't right then, you're too young to be one of them kids."

I moved aside so Dad could pay for his stuff and the gas. "These Reinhardts, they live around here?" I asked.

"Yeah, or they used to, anyhow. I remember driving up by their place once after the kids stopped coming, just to check 'n' see if everything was alright. It was all boarded up. Not a soul in sight. Just gone."

Dad placed a bill on the counter. "Keep the change."

I followed him out the door, glancing back at the old man.

"We're going to the Reinhardt property?" I asked, as he pulled open his door.

Poe cawed from where he sat on the roof rack, and flew the few feet to perch on my shoulder.

"I thought you might want to see where the other summoners once were." His words were slow, painful almost. "Maybe we can find some of their reference books to help you with your Talent."

To see the Reinhardt house, to see where my father had grown up and had probably gone through so many of the same problems and decisions I had as a Talentless, it made my chest tighten as I thought about it. "Yeah, that'd be great."

We got back into the car and Dad pulled onto the country road. Holding my coffee, I watched the trees pass on the edge of the car's high beams. Even after everything I'd said the last few weeks, he still thought of doing something like this for me. He'd been distant ever since my Test, but I also hadn't made a great effort to connect with him either. Maybe having to face the reality that I wasn't really his son had done something to him. Hurt him in some way, similar that it'd hurt me to learn that they weren't my 'real' parents.

I examined Dad out of the corner of my eye. He looked tired, and not just from the long day of driving, but the kind of weariness that comes after a long week or a bad few months. Mom and Dad, they had done what was best for me. They'd even let me go off to college when they were afraid of me running into Witches. Dad was right. They had treated me just like their own.

"Poe told me something, a few weeks ago when I started walking up to the Vault," I started quietly. "I had asked him about how I'd gotten to the Vault, the night you found me."

Dad glanced over at me, before looking back at the road. "What did he say?"

I picked at the rim of my Styrofoam cup. "He told me who my biological parents were, kind of."

"Were?"

"The Witches caught up with them, made it look like an accident. My birth father was Talentless, but his parents were Reinhardt and Stanwood. I think that's why Poe chose to bring me to you and mom, because we've the same blood."

I watched Dad's eyes soften a little, and after a few long minutes, he said, "I'm sure they would be proud if they were to see you now."

Settling back into the seat, I watched the stars wink through the passing trees, wondering just what it might have been like if my birth parents hadn't died. 

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Thanks for reading! Next update will be on 2/8/2016. <3 J.D.