Free Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) by Erika Gilbert Page B

could smell him. The urge to drain his blood nearly overwhelmed me. But first I had to heal Daniel. I turned back to face him and discovered he was gone. The Ink Sorcerer must have dragged him away somewhere.
    My phone started to ring again.
    “ You probably want to take this call. Mother dearest has a message for you,” the Ink Sorcerer’s words send a sliver of fear through me.
    “ What have you done to her?”
    “ I haven’t done anything. I promise I won’t touch her.” Implying someone else would.
    “ Mom?”
    “ Lucy?” She sounded confused.
    “ Are you alright, mom?”
    “ I...I don’t know…I…did you call me, Lucy?” She sounded scared.
    “ No, mom. You called me.”
    “ Did I?” Now she started to cry. “I don’t…I don’t remember.” She must be thinking she was losing her mind.
    The Ink Sorcerer whispered in my ear. “I can make her do whatever I want.”
    My fist tightened around the phone. “Mom, I love you. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
    “ Okay, Lucy. Please hurry.” She sounded like a frightened child. “He was here. I thought he died. But he came back to me.”
    I knew who he was then. I heard the familiarity in her voice, a touch of nostalgia that confirmed my suspicions. “Who came back, Mom? What’s his name.”
    “ Your father” she said vaguely.
    “ Who is my father, Mom?”
    She paused so long I began to wonder if she was still even there.
    “ Who, Mom?”
    “ Your father. Markus Bint is your father.”
    I’d known as soon as I saw him. I recognized his eyes, so dark they were nearly black and the rounded face with dimpled cheeks. Like staring at an older, male version of myself, I knew family when I saw it.
    “ I’m sorry I never told you about him, Lucy. He was a bad man. He killed people. I thought it better if you didn’t know. The police they shot him. He died. I went to his funeral. To make sure it was done.”
    “ But he lived,” I finished for her.
    “ I did, thanks to a few weak-minded Ink Mages with necromancy powers, I came back to life,” Markus said. He grabbed the phone out of my hand and closed it, cutting my mother off.
    I didn’t have time to think about the fact that not only did I have Ink Sorcerer powers but I was also the daughter of a murderer. I had to think about mom. He had gotten to her. Using his tattoo, he had magically hypnotized her. He could make her walk out in front of a car. He could make do anything.
    “ Dad?”
    He stiffened and for a moment I thought I saw a hint of emotion in his eyes but he didn’t answer.
    “ Are you my father?” My mother thought so, and I had no reason to disbelieve her. But I really wanted to know if Markus knew.
    “ Yes.”
    “ Why didn’t you tell me?” I said. Why didn’t you let me know you were alive years ago, I wanted to say.
    “ It’s not important.”
    My heart sank. I don’t know what I expected. He was a heartless killer, so I didn’t exactly envisage a heartening family reunion. But to be told to my face that I didn’t matter to my own father hurt more than I cared to admit.
    “ Is that all you have to say to me after all these years?” Against my wishes tears filled my eyes. I bit my lip to keep them from flowing.
    Again he didn’t respond. I realized then I’d never get what I wanted. I’d never get an apology from my absent father. Still I couldn’t stop myself from asking one more thing.
    “ Did you love her?”
    His expression had been blank until then, but my question appeared to faze him. “Pardon?”
    “ Did you love her?”
    “ Did I love who?”
    “ My mother.”
    He winced as if I’d sucker punched him. Screwed up in deep contemplation, his face looked weary and sad.
    “ Some things are more important things than love.”
    So he cared for my mother. He was actually capable of feeling something for another human being. That made his rejection of me worse somehow.
    “ I’ll say,” I blurted. “Like trying to kill your own daughter.”
    “