Chapter 208

Agnes

I fidgeted in the passenger seat as Elijah pulled into the dive bar’s parking lot. The place looked exactly as I remembered it from my past life—grimy windows with neon beer signs, chipped paint on the exterior, and a crooked sign hanging above the door.

Years ago, I’d spent many nights here trying to drown my sorrows after Thea disappeared. I figured it would be fitting to meet here—to show him where his daughter spent her lonely evenings after he kicked her to the curb.

“Are you sure about this?” Elijah asked. He put the car in park but kept the engine running. “I can come in with you.”

I shook my head as I pulled a baseball cap lower over my eyes and adjusted the sunglasses I had perched on my nose. The sun had long since gone down, but I was too recognizable these days to risk being seen.

“I need to do this alone,” I said, even as my stomach twisted into knots at the thought of facing my father. “If you’re there, he might hold back on whatever ‘information’ he allegedly has.”

Elijah nodded, although he didn’t look particularly happy about the idea of letting me go in there alone—whether that was because of the group of burly bikers sitting outside or my father waiting for me inside, I wasn’t sure. “I’ll be right here if you need me. Don’t hesitate if things go south.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back in five minutes.” I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss before stepping out of the car. The evening air was cool, and I shivered slightly even through my jacket as I approached the bar’s entrance.

Inside, the place was dimly lit and smelled of stale beer and cigarettes. A handful of patrons sat at the bar, nursing their drinks and watching a baseball game on the ancient TV mounted in the corner. No one looked up when I entered—another reason why I had chosen this place.

It didn’t take long to spot my father. He was seated in a booth at the back with a hood pulled up over his head despite the warmth inside the bar.

I almost laughed at the irony of our matching disguises; me in a hat and sunglasses, him with his hood up like some kind of criminal. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Two of the prestigious Blakes, one of whom had spent his entire life worrying about appearances, meeting in a dive bar in disguise.

I slid into the booth across from him, not bothering with a greeting. Instead, I pulled out my phone, opened the timer app, and set it for five minutes.

“Your time starts now,” I said calmly, placing the phone on the table between us.

My father lowered his hood slightly, just enough for me to see his face. He looked older than I remembered, with deeper lines around his eyes and mouth, and a weariness that hadn’t been there before.

“Agnes,” he began in a low voice, “thank you for meeting me.”

“Skip the pleasantries,” I cut in. “You said Thea and I are in danger. The clock is ticking. Explain quickly, before I decide to cut our time short.”

He nodded. “Your mother was a fire elemental,” he said without preamble. “She kept her powers hidden for years, even from me. It wasn’t until you were born that she finally told me the truth.”

I blinked. “My mother was like me?”

“Yes. And you inherited her gifts.” He glanced around nervously before continuing. “She had planned to teach you how to control and hide your abilities as you grew older.”

“Why was she so adamant about hiding her powers?”

My father’s expression darkened. “She feared those who might have ulterior motives. Fire elementals in particular are valuable—they can be used as weapons of war. If the wrong people found out about her abilities, or yours, you would never be safe.”

The timer on my phone showed that half of his allotted time had already passed. “And who are these ‘wrong people’ exactly?” I demanded.

He hesitated, glancing at the timer before answering. “There are organizations that have been tracking elementals for generations. One in particular—Elemental Enterprises—has been attempting to breed more powerful elementals by combining elemental bloodlines with Alpha werewolf bloodlines. I’m not sure exactly what they want, but my best guess is that they’re trying to create the strongest weapon known to our kind.”

A chill ran down my spine at the mention of the organization Olivia had spoken about, but I kept my expression neutral. I didn’t want to reveal what I knew. “Go on,” I said.

“Agnes, when I kicked you out seven years ago,” he said, his voice dropping even lower, “it wasn’t what you think. I was trying to protect you.”

I stared at him incredulously. “Protect me? By throwing me out on the street when I was grieving for my child? By cutting me off completely?”

“Yes,” he insisted. “Because Elemental Enterprises is owned by your stepmother’s family.”

The world seemed to tilt beneath me. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. “What?”

“I’ve been keeping your true nature from your stepmother all this time,” he continued, the words coming out of him faster now as he watched the timer count down. “The man in the suit who approached Olivia about breeding with an Alpha? I planted him there. I manipulated the situation to make Elemental Enterprises think that Olivia was the elemental, not you.”

“You...what?”

“But when Thea was born, I knew it was only a matter of time before your stepmother realized that both you and Thea had these powers and not Olivia. So I employed a doctor to help Olivia escape the underground facility, and in the process, I gave her the information about Thea that would make her ultimately kidnap your daughter.”

“You helped Olivia take my baby?” My voice was barely above a whisper, but I could feel the rage building up inside of me, the heat that would soon become too much to bear. I would need to cool myself down soon before I started another fire. “Why? Why not just tell me the truth?”

“Because it was safer to keep you in the dark,” he said. “And Thea would be safe with Elijah. So I convinced Olivia—through third parties, subliminal messaging, you name it—to take Thea to him. To hold onto her until she was older. To keep Thea away from Elemental Enterprises.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. But my father wasn’t finished.

“I also provided Olivia with information about the spellbook,” he continued. “I never told her directly—I planted the ideas in various ways, ensuring I wasn’t directly connected. I knew she’d use the book to curse your wolf. A curse that lasts just a little over eight years, so long as the practitioner keeps up with the incantations.”

My hands began to heat even further, and I curled them into fists under the table, trying desperately to control the fire. “Are you saying that you orchestrated everything? Thea’s kidnapping, my wolf disappearing, all of it?”

Thirty seconds left.

“Yes,” he said quickly. “By doing all of this and then kicking you out, I hoped to appease your stepmother while also distancing you from us as much as possible. It was the only way to protect you from them.”

“Protect me...” I repeated, shaking my head. “You destroyed my life to protect me?”

“They would have taken you, Agnes. They would have experimented on you, forced you to breed with Alphas, just like they tried to do with Olivia. They would have done the same with Thea. I couldn’t let that happen to you.”

Suddenly, the timer on my phone began to beep. The five minutes was up, and I still had so many questions, so much left to say. The fire and rage inside of me wanted to leap across the table and throttle him. How could he possibly believe that all of the things he’d done had been justified?

How could he believe that making me and my daughter suffer was better than simply telling me the truth?

I sat there in stunned silence, unable to process the magnitude of what he’d just told me. My own father had orchestrated the theft of my child, the loss of my wolf, and seven years of pain and searching—all under the guise of protection.

“So you’re a coward,” I blurted out.

My father’s mouth parted. “Agnes—”

“No. Your five minutes is up, so you won’t say a word,” I said, rising and jabbing my finger—which was hot and aching to burn him—toward his chest. The fabric singed, and he winced, but didn’t pull away.

“You knew Elijah was my mate. You knew that Thea would be safe with him, so you orchestrated for her to go to him while you left me alone on the street. That makes no sense.”

He ignored my earlier command to remain silent. “I didn’t know—”

“Regardless, you made me suffer for years because you’re too much of a fucking coward to stand up to your second wife,” I hissed, pressing my finger more firmly into his chest. “Because, once again… you chose her over me. You chose your new family over me.”

My father was silent, his jaw clenched with the pain of my burn. Smoke began to rise from where my finger met his chest. I wanted to burn a hole straight through him, watch him suffer just as I had.

But I controlled myself, if only because people were starting to sniff the air and murmur about the smell of something burning.

Without saying another word, I pulled my hand away, turned abruptly, and stormed out.