Chapter 27: Confrontation

Bruce’s gruesome howling batted leaves and small branches off trees, and his mouth opened wide before Solaris, wide enough to allow each glimmering silver tooth the size of Solaris’s arm to shine in the moonlight.

Solaris had talked a lot of big game at the council meeting and in front of the species leaders, but it was mostly for show.

With Bruce towering over him, snarling gobs of spit onto his red velvet shirt, Solaris realized, as his mind searched for a spell he had the strength to cast, that he was not as strong as he wanted to be, and that he had messed around with the wrong forces.

Now, he knew he was going to die.

Bruce thumped towards Solaris, shaking the ground with each massive stride.

Solaris tried to skitter away, pushing against the dirt and grass as he scraped his way back to his car.

But there was no way he’d make it back in time.

Bruce reeled his huge, clawed hand behind his head, and prepared to slash down at Solaris.

And just then, Silvana called out to Bruce from her broken window, “Bruce, please, stop! This isn’t you! This isn’t who you are!”

Bruce ears perked and he stopped his claw right at Solaris’s cheek, scratching by his nose.

Solaris felt a warm streak of blood roll down his face and into his mouth, and he stared at Bruce’s werewolf features, and deep into Bruce’s silver, angry eyes that seemed to say, “Silvana has saved your life tonight.”

With a final feverish howl that knocked the spectacles off Solaris’s face and blew his hair behind his ears, Bruce trodded off on all fours, leaving large tracks behind him.

Before Solaris could collect his glasses and his nerves, Silvana was outside in her bathrobe, demanding answers.

“Tell me why you had Bruce locked in your magical cellar!

Through tasked breaths Solaris said, “You won’t understand this now, but it was to keep us, and most importantly you, safe.”

“You lied to my face,” Silvana spat. “I can’t believe you would do any of this.”

“Silvana, listen to me.”

She paced back and forth. Her bare feet collected mud and the thought of helping her father up didn’t even cross her mind.

“If you’re going to say anything to me,” Silvana said, “then you need to be finished lying.”

Solaris sighed. “You understand that I can’t let you become Guardian.”

“That’s what this is about? Some stupid title you want to cling onto?”

“What you fail to recognize,” Solaris coughed, “is that deals needed to be made to put witches on the council in the first place. It’s all complicated and I won’t get my daughter involved.”

“Well you already have! That’s been my life, training for this stupid Guardian thing, and now you don’t even want me to do? I actually can’t believe how you wasted my life away, along with any trust I could possibly have in you.”

“You don’t understand, Silvana,” Solaris said tiredly. “You just don’t get it.”

“Then make me. Get me to understand why you would do something so evil to the man I love. I mean, Bruce told me you were going to kill him!”

Silvana stopped pacing and looked down at her father. “You were going to kill a real, honest leader, and still have the audacity to call yourself a Guardian?”

Silvana grit her teeth and added, “And you don’t even have the courage to speak with your daughter as if you respect her.”

“Respect you?” Solaris shouted, grabbing his cane. He put his hands on his wobbling knees and stood up. “I love you! That’s why I’m trying to protect you!”

“Through dishonesty and murder. Forgive me if that doesn’t feel like a father expressing his love.”

Solaris wiped a sweaty hand to his face. “I need to maintain my position. If the council decides that the child who is meant to inherit the Guardian title isn’t fit to protect, then the child is exiled and the family name branded in shame.”

“Those are archaic rules,” Silvana muttered, hoping her father’s words to be untrue.

“Oh? And so is forbidding a romance between a witch and a werewolf. Not only are you too weak to take my place, but if the council discovered about you and Bruce, or is the absolute worst were to happen, if you had a bastard child with that mutt, I can’t begin to imagine what fate would befall you.”

Solaris shook his head. “You’d be killed, Silvana.”

He took a step closer to his daughter and Silvana took a step back.

“I couldn’t save your mother,” Solaris cried, his glasses getting foggy, “but I can still save you.”

At the mention of her mother, Silvana sniffed. Now all that Bruce had told her about sympathizing with a sick, frightened man was setting in.

“If you wanted to save me, you were going about it the complete wrong way,” she said.

Weakly, Solaris confessed, “If Bruce was not a part of your life, I thought you could focus on becoming stronger while I held the position.”

“Why do you think I’m not strong enough to be Guardian?”

“You’re not ready,” Solaris said grimly. “It has to be me.”

“Dad, I can do it. I’ve been training for this and have worked with Bruce—“

“Worked with Bruce to what?” Solaris snapped. “Have your stomach gashed open? Your hands fried? Your head cut? You. Are. Not. Strong. Enough.”

“I was strong enough to break the seal on the cellar door. Your seal.”

Solaris blinked, stunned.

“I thought Bruce in his enhanced state broke from my bindings,” he said.

Silvana held in angry tears.

“No,” she said. “I did that too. And I saved Bruce from Cecilia Duponte’s magic.”

“You did what?”

“That’s right. When the spirit or Duponte attacked the Silverclaw Masquerade, I broke Bruce out from Duponte’s magic.”

“I don’t believe this,” Solaris said. “Surely Bruce broke himself out from the cellar due to an oversight on my end. I misplaced sigil, or an improper incantation.”

“You’re unbelievable!” Silvana shouted. “I broke him out from the crimson lightning cuffs, which, come to think of it…”

Silvana stopped and paced again. She found her breath and said, “I broke Bruce out of your magic which looked a hell of a lot like Cecilia Duponte’s and the red lightning that has brought the spirits.”

Solaris’s face dropped. He squinted with rage and muttered, “What are you trying to say, Silvana?”

Silvana exhaled and pounded a finger to her chest. “I’m saying that I’m strong enough to be Guardian, and that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll fight to protect every species, I won’t lie to anybody, and I’ll stand right in front of the council and tell them that I’m with Bruce. What are they going to do, exile the two strongest members of the town? I don’t think so.”

Solaris hunched over like he’d been struck in the head. “You can’t do any of that. I won’t allow it.”

“And I won’t allow you to ever harm Bruce again.”

“You’d be wise not to threaten me, Silvana.”

Solaris, weakened, embarrassed, and frustrated, made for his car.

“I didn’t threaten you, Dad. I promise I won’t ever let you harm Bruce again.”

Solaris yanked the door of his car open, shoved the key into the ignition, and slammed the door closed without another word.

When he pulled out of the driveway, he didn’t give Silvana another glance.

Silvana took a long shower and debated calling Amelia, but she was too emotional to even begin to work through what had happened.

She channeled her frustration into a spell, touched the edge of the window frame, and in a flash of pink light created new glass for the window.

And her father thought she was too weak, yet she’d just cast a complicated spell without even so much as a symbol or incantation.

Destruction magic, Silvana had found, was far easier to maneuver than healing.

When she changed into a black silk nightgown, she fixed herself a tall glass of red wine from her father’s expensive bottles just to spite him. Then she swept up the broken glass in her room while playing her favorite spooky movie, the one she’d watched with Amelia the day she met Bruce, and sipped on wine so old it was double her age.

But even when the movie was over and she had replayed it a second time and opened another bottle, Silvana still couldn’t fall asleep.

She was tormented by her father’s actions, and it just plainly hurt to be lied to after working as hard as she had to impress him.

Nothing that she had ever done had been enough to win his affection, only his deception and lies.

It was at sunrise when the birds started chirping that the wine started to make Silvana’s eyes heavy. They were weighted and red from binge-watching movies, and she was well into a carton of chocolate-chunk ice cream.

She bundled up in her down comforters and fuzzy robe, and as she closed her eyes, there was a knock at the door. She nearly let it go and thought it to be a noise in the movie she had running in the background, but the knocking persisted.

Silvana dragged herself out of bed and slumped downstairs. She opened the door and smiled.

Bruce stood in the doorway, clean-cut and handsome in a tight white shirt and gray sweats, with a bouquet of purple and white roses and an overnight bag slung over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry about your window,” Bruce said in a way that was almost shy for him. “I didn’t want you to see that side of me.”

Silvana smiled so hard she laughed, and she leaned forward to kiss Bruce on the lips.

“I’m happy that side of you came out and taught my father a lesson,” she said. “He’s run off and I can’t imagine he’ll be coming back tonight.”

She rested her head against Bruce’s chest and sleepily said, “The flowers are beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” Bruce confirmed.

He chuckled cutely and kissed her head. “And also you sound a little buzzed, and very tired.”

“I’m both those things,” Silvana giggled.

They walked inside, shut the door behind them, and Bruce put the roses in a white vase on Silvana’s wooden desk in her room.

Silvana groggily brushed her teeth with Bruce unpacking his bag beside her, and she said, with her toothbrush hanging adorably out of the side of her mouth, “My dad doesn’t think I’m strong enough to be Guardian, and honestly it’s really bothering me.”

Bruce squeezed toothpaste onto his own brush and told her, “Yeah, well, he didn’t see shining pink-eyes Silvana. I bet he’d be singing a different tune if he did.”

Silvana washed her mouth out, dried her face, and said, “I don’t know about any of this anymore. I just need to sleep.”

Bruce watched her walk over to the bed and collapse under the covers. He realized in that moment that his obsession for her, his deep-rooted connection was in large part due to the magnificent size of her heart, her all-around decency, and her ability to be both honest and loyal.

Of course, there was still something else making her dominate his thoughts. Something so strong it was ethereal.

Something so powerful about her it was enchanting.

Bruce brushed his teeth and joined her in bed. She turned over to face Bruce and used his strong chest as a pillow, and he rested an arm over her back.

“You know, babe,” he whispered. “I really think you can become Guardian.”

She smirked and hazily responded, “You’re my boyfriend. You have to say cute things like that.”

“Oh no,” he assured. “I’m so confident that I’m willing to make a deal.”

“So now you’re a gambling man?”

Bruce quipped, “Maybe only if I know I’m going to win.”

“I’m listening,” Silvana said.

“Here’s the deal. If you become Guardian, I’ll get you something very personal that nobody else can, and I’ll give it to you the moment you get the good news.”

“Oh, I love surprises,” Silvana said, giving Bruce a kiss on the cheek.

They both looked deeply into each other’s loving eyes.

“So, what do you say?” Bruce asked. “Are you up for it?”