The Angel's Fall (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 6) Read Online Free Page A

say is true, but not the only truth.” He sighed. “There are times in life when one is surrounded by bad choices, and tries to find a way out. In all of my days, son, people have always told stories about me in the worst possible light. Perhaps I deserve that. But I would have you know, at least, why I chose to do what I did.”
    Merlin nodded and clenched his jaw. “Fair enough.”
    The man sighed again. “My Merlin Ambrosius. Son of sons. Your mother was a true love of mine, and if I could have I would have protected her and raised you.” A tear fell from his eye and slowly coursed down the wrinkled folds of his cheek. “But it was either leave you behind or bring you to Hell. And this realm has a way of warping us all. I’ve imagined raising you here, often and vividly. I’ve imagined how it all might have gone well. How we could have been enough for each other: you, your mother, and I. But even the paper people that I conjure and pretend are you and your mother always grow ragged. I made the choice, long ago, to leave you and your mother to fend for yourself. I let Sigrid die young. I gave you merely a silhouette of pain where your father should have been.” His steady gaze stayed on Merlin, even as another tear fell.
    Merlin fidgeted where he sat. His hand reached across the table but then dropped before he touched his father’s hand. My wizard was a forgiving man, but a father’s failure was a weight not so easily cast aside.
    “So I left you, and you have lived a long and interesting life on Earth. For that I am glad. Though I am sorry your life has been plagued with rumors of your demonic father, and the whispered story that you were born to greatness but also darkness.” He looked down at his plate, and speared a piece of cod on his fork. “I wanted you free of any and all of that. Free of me. If I could not be your father, at least I could have not been a weight to pull you down.”
    Merlin shrugged and cut into his fish. “It was not so bad to live out my fate of serving King Arthur and all the rumors that surrounded me. All of that is so long gone and over that I’ve had plenty of years to live beyond any stories of my birthright.”
    Merlin’s father blinked. He shook his head. “Arthur? The young king? No. He has nothing to do with your destiny.” He blinked slowly. “Tell me, you are truly here, yes, and not the daydream of this aging father?”
    “Yes, Father,” Merlin said.
    “Father! Honey on my tongue, and yet….” The old man chewed slowly. “That’s exactly what one of my delusions would say, but never mind that. You both stink too much of sweat and fear to be delusional.”
    I ate a large bite of fish, salted yet otherwise plain. Simple and perfect.
    “Yes. Good. Eat!” the man said. “Give an old man the pleasure of starting two young ones out right upon their day’s long and hard quest.”
    “About that,” I said. “Tell us of the Queen and the King. What are their weaknesses? What kind of tricks and traps will they have laid out for us?”
    The man shrugged and stared passed us. With palsied hands, he poured tea into small ceramic mugs. He seemed to drift in and out of the conversation, like many of the old.
    I repeated my words slowly and loudly.
    “I’m not sure who sits on the throne at the moment. It is hard for me to take this Marid business too seriously. Though I know, I have known, I will know that it is to you of utmost importance and I respect that. Good friends, you are, to this ferocious creature.”
    I sipped the tea and didn’t say any number of biting things that entered my mind. The strength of the tea, cut with the slightest hint of rose honey, turned my breath sweet. I looked around and wondered about this place. Where in the hierarchy of Hell did this house sit? Merlin’s father was an ancient yet lesser demon, I guessed, living in the hinterlands, keeping to himself. Which made me notice something. “Your house, it does not shift and go gray,