My Fate: From Within

Chapter 8

Enjoy!

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As the night progressed, and after everyone had arrived, Morrigan had met Saracen Rue, Dexter Vex and Tanith Low.

She met and spoke to the Monster Hunters. She tried so hard not to fangirl over them as they spoke about their books, told her all the things they had done and introduced her to Dai Maybury as another member of the Hunters. 

She also find out that Fletcher was part of the Monster Hunters, and she punched him in the arm for not telling her about it.

It turned out that when Morrigan felt like she was being watched, she was. By Tanith, who had been sitting on the wall, just above Morrigan's head.

Morrigan just grinned when she heard that, and laughed. She decided she liked Tanith.

Skulduggery walked up to her while she was talking to Tanith. Morrigan was on her fourth bottle by that time. It hadn't started to affect her too much. She was just in a happy mood.

She smiled at Skulduggery as he approached her.

"Hey."

"It's just about time." His voice sounded on edge. Morrigan figured he was as nervous as she felt.

"Time for what?" Tanith asked, looking at both of them.

Morrigan swallowed the last of her drink. "You'll see in a minute."

She binned the bottle and followed Skulduggery to the base of the stairs. He had explained to her that she would stand a little higher than him so everyone could see her. 

She didn't like the idea, but she just wanted it all over with.

Everyone was already looking over and following them to the staircase. Morrigan's hands started to sweat as she climbed two steps up.

Now that she was higher than everyone else, she could see everyone. She noticed that Valkyrie had brought Gordon. 

She smiled, and scanned the rest of the crowd. 

Skulduggery was talking but he hadn't said the important bit yet.

She looked over as Anton climbed the stairs to stand on the other side of Skulduggery, parallel to her.

Morrigan continued to search the crowd. She spotted Ravel. He had his eyes on her but was listening to Skulduggery. 

She kept her eyes on him as Skulduggery came to the part she was waiting for.

"By now, everyone should have met Morrigan McCord." He held his hand out to her and she took it. "When you were all introduced to her, you weren't introduced properly." Morrigan held her breath as several people started to look confused. "Morrigan is my daughter."

The room went so quiet, Morrigan could've heard a pin drop. She saw Erskine Ravel's eyes widened at the revelation. 

She took a lot of satisfaction from his reaction.

Anton crossed to the other side of her as voices erupted.

Skulduggery let her hand go and stepped down. People surrounded him and bombarded him with questions. Morrigan was glad they were asking him and not her.

Anton leaned towards her. "Did you see Erskine's face?"

Morrigan nodded. "I get so much satisfaction from that, you have no idea."

Anton laughed and led her down the steps, back towards the drinks. She let out a breath as they walked passed everyone.

Morrigan picked up another bottle and went back to the stereo. She was ok with letting Skulduggery deal with onslaught of questions and comments. She didn't really feel like dealing with it.

She felt hot all of sudden. She needed to get out of there. 

Just as she got to the door, she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned to see Gracious and Donegan smiling at her. She smiled back and led them out onto the veranda.

Donegan stood next to her. "So, Detective Pleasant's daughter, huh?"

Morrigan leaned on the railing and took a mouthful of her drink.

She nodded. "Yea. I only found out a year ago, a few months after I met him. It was a crazy time."

"Well, you have friends now too." Gracious spoke from the other side of her.

Morrigan smiled. "And you have no idea how grateful I am for that, guys. I thought I handled being on my own fairly well, but now...I don't think I could go back to being alone."

Morrigan saw something move in the tree line, on the other side of the clearing. 

She stood up straight and frowned.

"What is it?" Gracious asked, searching the direction she was looking.

"Nothing good." She placed her drink down on the ground, and walked down the steps.

Donegan and Gracious followed.