The woman went mute, her eyes glazing back. She went rigid, but there didn’t seem to be any indication of pain across her features. She reached out and pressed a few buttons before opening a door to the next level.
“What did you do to her?” I asked in a low voice, trying to shield my face with my long blonde hair.
“I didn’t want to use my magic to get through this part, but they leave me no choice when they try and tell me that you don’t have a right to speak to someone they think is going to condemn you to death,” he said.
We stepped through the door and whooshed into the next realm.
We were confronted by multiple body guards. They looked from me to Tavlor. He used his magic on them as well and this time we were directed to a gold door that would take me straight to my father’s realm.
I inhaled quickly as my stomach did a jig alongside my tangled nerves. “Ah... why does your magic work in here?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to accuse him of anything, but I did want to know what was going on and why he was so effective. “I thought you said there were wards to stop such a thing?”
Or had I been wrong?
He smiled. “My Fae magic works, in part. In their arrogance, they only have wards up against Warlock magic. Of course, I never let them know their mistake just in case I needed to take advantage of it. Like now.”
“Ah... sneaky,” I said, giggling inappropriately with stress.
Tavlor put a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone. They would change everything if they did.”
I nodded. “Our little secret.”
He walked over to the door and opened it.
“After you,” he said, gesturing for me to enter.
I blew out a breath and stepped forward. I was back, and I was about to see my father again after so long.
“Well, here goes everything,” I said, and then stepped into the inner sanctum of the High Warlock of all the realms.
Chapter 18.
I held my breath.
I stood inside my father’s office, but my father was not there. Instead, a man I’d never seen with beady black eyes, silver hair tied in a ponytail, and an air about him that made my skin crawl, stood in his place.
I couldn’t explain what it was about him that set my insides off. It could have been the narrowed eyes, the sneer on his old face, or the way he looked at me as though I was little more than dirt on his shoe.
“Who are you?” I asked, pulling up all my mental shields and placing my feet in a fighting stance in case I needed to get out of the way quickly.
My father had special wards in place to stop people doing magic within his inner sanctum, but my powers still worked because I was of his bloodline—the same way it worked with my mother’s magic—and I had no idea if the man in front of me had altered the original rules or not. If he was even powerful enough to do such a thing.
Best to be prepared, as Horlow always said.
I ignored the feeling of my heart squeezing painfully at the thought of my Fae trainer.
You’ll see him again, Ava. You just have to get through this first.
“Rasslor.” Tavlor said, sounding surprised, as he stepped into the room behind me and shut the door. “What are you doing here?”
Rasslor ignored the question. “Tavlor, it is good to see you back, and well,” he said. It was as though I was suddenly forgotten about. Which was fine with me. “We heard you had an altercation on Faerie with some wolf shifters.”
Tavlor stiffened but didn’t show any outwards signs of guilt. It was almost as though he hadn’t expected them to find out what had happened at all. What sort of reach did mages have if word got back to them from the Fae realm?
“I was attacked, and completely un-necessarily,” he replied.
“We were told that you were aiding Ava Melfi in her escape...” His eyes slid sideways to me, an evil glint in his dark gaze. Ice skittered along my spine. “But it seems like they were wrong.”
“Ava has come to speak to the High Warlock about the charges against her,” Tavlor said. It was some kind of talent, the way he danced around Rasslor’s insinuation without outright lying. I would have to get Tavlor to teach me how to do that—if we survived this, of course. “She does not wish to run and hide, although she was doing a very good job of it when I found her. She wants a fair trial and a chance to prove her innocence.”