(continued)
"You burned the Carolan to protect me?" Loss, pain, something else - what was this, eating at me? I tried to speak around it, forming the thoughts, the images, the words. Why was it so difficult tonight? "Papa, it's true he hates me, but he can't harm me. Even if he had the power, he hasn't the permission. I'm the Slayer, the Chosen One. Much as he hates me, he's my Watcher. He's bound to protect me."
"Was he bound tonight, petite? Protecting you? Telling the boy to watch you and your filthy sorcery? Do you feel protected?" His contempt was outside my experience. It hit me like stones, the stones thrown by a mob, stone the witch, burn the witch... "So you think the Watcher's boy will take your part. Are you really such a fool, that you would let sex or love weaken your sorcery? Because if you cannot protect yourself, then you are no good to anyone or anything. Do you think neither of them would go to their Council, when all that's needed to do you harm, to put an end to you, is a word?"
"Rupert wouldn't betray me. I don't believe that." It hurt, physical pain now, a deep grinding ache in me. What did I believe? I didn't know.
"Well. Then you will learn the hard way, will you not? I will tell you one thing more, petite, and then no more. There will come a time when you will choose. Are you slayer, or are you sorceress? And trust no one to defend you. Trust yourself. Goodbye to you, Amadee."
A shimmer, the circle breaking. I was alone in the darkness.