Miranda [Watty Awards 2013]

Chapter 10

"Alexa."

            I jumped a foot off the ground, my keys jingling as they slipped from my fingers. There was no doubt it was my father, but I couldn't see where he was. Trying to catch my breath, I crossed the kitchen cautiously, peering around the doorway into the living room.

            The fireplace was blazing, but the flames only made the room colder if anything. Grim sat upon a vintage armchair, but it wasn't one that had originally been there. I couldn't see his face, nor sense his emotions, and that set me on edge. I didn't want this to be a bad meeting, but I knew it would be.

            "Yes?" I asked, shifting my feet at the line in the floor separating the two words.

            "Sit." His hand swept out to indicate the dusty couch, and without a word I took a seat where I could see half of his face. His eyes were expressionless.

            The house was silent while I waited for him to speak, knowing that I should not take the first, or the last, word. The fire flickered, but it did not crackle, and the logs inside were blue and frost-covered.

            No, this was no good. Grim was in a death rage. His preferred method of murder was the cold, and he was practically making it snow in here. It had been a long time since he had been in this mood. I wasn't sure what to expect, only that it would be a punishment.

            For Jack.

            "What's been going on lately?" he asked, voice like thin slivers of ice.

            I swallowed, fists clenched on my lap, wanting to crawl out of my own skin. "What do you mean?"

            The flames shot a foot higher. I flinched.

            "From what I understand," he said slowly, "you've been straying from your job."

            My eyes fell to the floor. I didn't know how he could take the thing with Jack so seriously when I didn't even know what it was, not really. Just that it was something.

            "It wasn't supposed to happen," I said to my feet, hoping it was one of the right answers. It wasn't.

            His fingers curled around the ends of the armrests. "Then why did it?"

            A surge of anger rushed through me, but I didn't let it show. Who was he to tell me how to do my job, when I've been doing it right all the years? And on my own, much less. Who was he to be pointing out my mistakes when he'd never been there to guide me to begin with?

            I've never had problems with a boy before. Sure, a few had chased me, but none had ever gotten as close as Jack had tonight. Grim had never allowed me to have a relationship. Hell, that had been my first kiss, and I was almost eighteen.

            Shouldn't it have been magical? Perfect?

            Safe?

            Age didn't matter. Grim did not age, and when I was legal he would still have control over me. The police wouldn't be involved, because my father was more powerful than all of their forces combined. I didn't know how long I would be chained to him, but I knew that I didn't want to be. I hadn't for a long time.

            "Because I don't see the future," I finally answered, with a tone to my voice that said I wouldn't continue on the subject, no matter how hard he pushed.

            Grim's finger tapped the armrest once, and I thought he would crush the whole thing in his concealed rage.

            "We don't have room to be anything but perfect, Alexa," he hissed. "Do you have any idea what that one little 'mistake' could do? What it could cost? Do you know anything at all?"