Page 278 of Scarlet Wars
“Why am I here?” My voice was still too quiet, barely a whisper.
“You are here to learn about your role in the great scheme of things. And you are here because I am a weak man who wanted to see his daughter in person again.”
“That might have gone a bit smoother had you not, you know, abducted and hurt the people I care about to get me here.”
He inclined his head, completely unfazed. “My apologies. I’m new to the whole father thing.”
That made me almost snort, until my brain caught up with something he’d said. “Wait… What do you mean, you wanted to see me in personagain? When have you before?”
He leaned back in his chair, perfectly at ease, which only made the knot in my chest tighten. “On quite a few occasions, actually.”
“Aside from when I was born? Because I think I would’ve remembered meeting you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Gordon stilled for a beat, the casual ease slipping enough to notice. “How much do you know about your healing powers?”
I shrugged, deliberately careless. “I’m still learning. But I know how to heal myself and others when the injuries aren’t too complicated.”
He studied me for a beat. “You need to learn to hone your powers on instinct rather than knowledge. I’ve acquired all the knowledge there is,” he said calmly, “so your haze will respond accordingly.”
I snorted. “Thanks for the tip,dad.”
He ignored the jab. “You’re a Specialist, an Offensive,anda Healer, Emma. You possess more power than anyone on this planet, myself included.”
I frowned. “More?”
“Yes.” He leaned forward now, interest overtaking ease. “Because you’re born human, your hazes never fully meshed with each other. You carry twoseparatehazes, where Julian’s haze—and mine—absorbed the other.”
Okay. Nottoobad for the ego.
Gordon rose to his feet and crossed the room to the window, hands clasped behind his back. “Have you ever tried to alter your appearance?”
“I haven’t enlarged my boobs or anything,” I muttered, “if that’s what you mean.”
He didn’t snort. Didn’t laugh. Didn’t even smile.
“But you do realize,” he said evenly, “that healing means you can influence the body. And influencing the body means changing your appearance.”
I nodded once. “Seems fairly straightforward.”
Gordon’s voice softened into something silky and lethal. “Our golden healing abilities are so powerful, they allow us to alter our appearance enough so no one recognizes us unless we choose to be recognized.”
The smile on his lips was cold enough to curdle blood.
“You say you don’t remember meeting me. Maybe you’ll recognize me more like this.”
A swirl of transparent light rippled across his face—soft at first, then violent—twisting bone, re-forming skin, reshaping the man in front of me like clay being molded by a sculptor with no regard for mercy.
The shimmer crawled down his jaw, up his cheekbones, across the bridge of his nose. His eyes shifted, his mouth changed, the entire structure of him bending into something sickeningly familiar.
And then, standing where Gordon had been, stood a man from another life.
A man I had fought beside.
A man we’d trusted.
