And here is the next chapter! I hope that you all like it and I'm sorry if I haven't dedicated a chapter to you, my loyal readers, yet. I really hope that you enjoy it and thanks for commenting and voting so far! :D The picture on the side is of Luna. :)
Chapter 18
Troy took a deep breath. He pressed his lips together, wondering how in the world he was going to convince her that her father was evil. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the gift of charm and charisma, the way that she did.
“It must have been a mistake,” Dahlia said. “I’ll call him and figure things out.”
She fished for her cell phone in her pocket but Troy grabbed her wrist before she could fully pull it out. She glared at him as she almost dropped her phone.
“Don’t!” he said, sharply.
“What makes you think that my father is evil?” Dahlia demanded. “It was dark. It is entirely plausible that you just mistook the man for my father.”
“He told us that he’s your father, Dahlia,” Troy snapped.
“So?” Dahlia demanded. “He might be another magician who has the ability to take on the form of another magician!”
“Well, he had the ability to stop us from using our powers!” Troy retorted.
“How do you know that?” Dahlia said. “You might just have been unable to use them because you aren’t very experienced.”
Troy glanced up at the others on the half-an-half’s back. None of them were talking anymore, just listening to their conversation.
Dahlia noticed them too. She twisted around to glare at them too. They stared back unflinching, determined not to be twisted around by her powers.
“Well?” Dahlia repeated. “It is possible, isn’t it?”
Kayla cleared her throat. “Theoretically, it is possible, but I don’t think that any of us would be capable of making those kinds of mistakes whilst we do our magic. We have all been training for a long time. Even Sapphire and Tamarak have been training for about six years. Troy is possible of making those mistakes but I don’t think that it is a fluke.”
“But it is possible,” Dahlia said.
“Theoretically,” Kayla said. “But the odds of none of our powers working at the same time are very unlikely.”
“What if it were the place that made our powers unable to work?” Dahlia asked.
“That’s not possible,” Sapphire said. “Tam and I stayed there before and our powers always worked. Besides, we changed location and none of our powers worked there either.”
Dahlia took a deep breath. Then she looked away from the other magicians, looking over the area. Unfortunately, it was dark and she couldn’t see much of what was happening all around the place.
“Dahlia, your father is evil,” Troy continued. “I just wish that you would believe me.”
“He isn’t evil, Troy!” Dahlia snapped. “Don’t you dare say such mean things!”
“What’s the matter with you?” Troy demanded, exasperated. “Why do you keep defending him?”
“You don’t know him, Troy!” Dahlia shouted. “I do! He’s my dad! You wouldn’t understand, seeing as you don’t have one!”
Troy felt like he had been slapped right across the face. He and Dahlia had rarely quarrelled, but even when they did, she had never deliberately been cruel. She had shouted at him and called him names, but she had never said things that would hurt him.
“At least your sister didn’t have to sacrifice her life for mine!” Troy retaliated, but he regretted the words as soon as they had come out.
“Troy Flarehill, how dare you say that!” scolded Kayla, shocked by the fight.
She had never known Troy and Dahlia to argue before. The most that either of them had done was to have minor quarrels but that had been because they liked each other.
But Troy had been too cruel. The words had come out the wrong way. Neither of them was behaving like themselves.
The problems in the situation had made them both into people that they were not.
Troy glanced at Dahlia, but she had turned away from him. She might have succumbed to tears. Already regretting his brief spit of temper and spitefulness, Troy turned to look at Kayla.
She looked very angry. Her eyes flashed like fire. For a brief moment, Kayla could almost have passed for a Magician of Fire.
Troy knew what Kayla wanted him to do. She wanted him to apologize. But he couldn’t bring himself to do something that he was forced into doing.
Kayla had abandoned him when he had been seven. She could have solved so many things for him, but she had persisted in leaving.
So Troy stared back stubbornly until his neck hurt from facing the same direction.
The others sat still in the uncomfortable silence, not sure what to say. All of them could think of ways to comfort Dahlia but none of them wanted to do it in front of Troy.
After all, it was a problem between the two of them.
Troy finally gave up staring at Kayla and turned back to the front. He glanced at Dahlia again but she still had her back to him and she was not looking at him.
Rain started trickling down. Troy covered his head with his hands. Water streamed through his open fingers and ran into his eyes.
The monster made a grumbling sound.
“We should stop,” Hunter said. “Venus can’t go much further. She’s carrying eight magicians and her wings don’t work very well once they’re immersed in water.”
“You named a monster Venus?” Troy asked, snickering.
Hunter glared at him. “You got a problem with that? Venus sometimes eats magicians, you know.”
Troy glanced at Venus’s elephant-like mouth and cringed at the sight. That was something he had not wanted to see.
“Um… no,” he said.
Hunter smirked. “I thought not.”
A bizarre though filled Troy’s mind. Yesterday, could it only have been yesterday? Kayla had said something similar.
“So, where should we stop?” Sapphire asked.
“A pub?” Luna suggested. “They should still be open. And Dahlia has enough money to pay for a room.”
“How do you know about the money?” Dahlia asked.
Luna winked. “You know me,” she teased. “Actually, I would know even if I couldn’t tell the future. You only spent about two hundred pounds on our clothes and bags that time.”
Dahlia rolled her eyes. “Of course. I can’t hide anything from you!”