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Chapter 22

Matt Bomer as Dylan Merrick 

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When Megan entered the double oak doors of his massive office, she found him still seated behind his ginormous desk. He waved a hand and said without feeling or inflection, "Have a seat." As he indicated one of the two comfortable high back chairs in front of his desk.

So she took a seat and leaned her crutches against the adjacent chair. Her father's eyes lingered on them for a moment and for a second she thought she could see a flash of emotion, but it was gone as quickly as it had arrived.

He turned his electric blue eyes on her the same color as her own and said stoically, "To what do I owe the honor of your visit."

She wanted to scream: I'm your fucking daughter you moron, but instead she said, "I've come to ask for your help. "In a shockingly firmer voice then her feelings attested.

All of a sudden she felt like a frightened little girl again just begging for her daddy's approval, but she squelched those useless feelings down and returned his stare with a hard one of her own.

She was distracted for a moment though by how attractive her father was. His jet black hair shone in the sunlight streaming through the massive window behind him; apparently it had stopped raining on her way up. The sun now bounced off his sun kissed complexion void of lines or any hint of blemishes, his shockingly blue eyes and lean features denoted a man with the vibrancy of youth. He looked like an extremely attractive man in his mid 30's but she knew for a fact he was centuries older. And she thought ruefully he will continue looking the way he does today long after she turns to dirt in the ground. Somehow that thought just made her angrier.

She wanted to throttle him for his . . . his . . . what . . . longevity? Then she knew why. He didn't deserve to still be here when the one who'd truly loved her would possibly be gone.

But she'd suppressed that emotion for the time being she needed him to help Cam.

Her father steepled his fingers coldly, turning his cool gaze on her and said with his crisp British accent, "How may I be of service to you?"

Megan ran her shaky hands over her pant legs and took a moment to respond, she wanted to phrase it perfectly, she wasn't going to take any chances with Cam's life.

"I need your help. Someone I love very much is going to die if you can't help me."

Her father just examined her through his dark lashes.

She shivered under his scrutiny but continued bravely, "He's a selkie who's rejecting his skin. I need you to cure him. I need you to save him." Her voice hitched at the end, she hadn't meant it to, but it had.

"What makes you think I can do anything for your lover?" her father asked in a detached tone.

"You're the Lord of the Sea for Christ sake. Can't you do anything?" she blurted out before she could stop herself, but then it dawned on her: how did he know the selkie was a 'lover'?

She fixed her eyes on her father and inspected every nuance of his being. He wasn't as calm and collected as she thought he was. He was sitting a little too rigidly in his seat. His shoulders were too tense. Suddenly she got the feeling that he knew more than what he was saying.

"How did you know I was referring to my boyfriend? "She asked narrowing her eyes on him.

He seemed to abandon all pretenses then and announced with a frustrated growl, "Do you think there is anything you do that escapes my notice?"

Megan reeled back in her seat. His announcement visibly rocked her back as she recoiled from his words. If he knew what was going on with Cam -- and she didn't know how, but that was to ponder at a later date – why hadn't he helped?

"Y-y-ou know? She sputtered.

"Yes," her father hissed sitting forward in his chair, "and I also know about your little escapades with your friends."

"To think, He spit out, "your mother gave her precious life for you and you treat it with such disregard." He was standing then leering down at her.

Megan reared back again feeling like she'd been slapped. Tears pooled on her lashes. She was shocked. There were no words to describe the hate she felt emanating from her own father. She'd been so stupid to come.

She clutched her crutches and swung up off the chair like someone had set it ablaze. She turned to leave intending never to utter another word to the hateful man, but she couldn't help the words that came anyway. It was her guilt that forced her to utter them.

"I know it's my fault she's gone and that's why you hate me." A solitary tear tracked down her cheek and careened to the floor. She couldn't help a last look at her father, but when she looked back over her shoulder she nearly missed a step with her crutches.

He stood behind his mahogany desk like it was a shield. His eyes haunted. His hand on his chest like she'd pierced his heart. Tears formed in his eyes. Could it be? Was he not indifferent to her, after all?

When he spoke again it was with a trembling voice. He threw his hand up and indicated the seat saying with a deep sigh, "Please sit I need to tell you something."

"I prefer to stand," she said indignantly with an upturned thrust of her chin.

"Suit yourself." Her father returned to his seat unbuttoning his suit jacket and regaining his composure, running his hand expertly over the crisp pleat in his slacks. Ever the gentleman, she thought.

"Let me start by saying your mother's death was not your fault."

"No," she shook her head emphatically, "I begged her to swim out to the breakwater."

Her father slammed his palm down on his desk effectively cutting her off. He took a long shuttering breath and grabbed the bridge of his nose to calm himself.

"Do you think I am made of stone?" He pounded his chest. "this is very difficult for me please don't interrupt again." He commanded.

Megan legs suddenly felt weak she hadn't witness this much emotion in her father since before her mother's death. So she changed her mind about sitting and plopped down in the vacant chair closest to her.

They sat silently while he formulated the words or drummed up the courage, whatever it was, and with each passing moment Megan became more and more nervous. She wished he'd just tell her already. And when he finally spoke it was a relief.

He cleared his throat then launched into his story, "I think you know that I am Dylan the Lord of the Welsh Sea, but I'm not a God. I'm not all powerful. I'm not even the most powerful in my Sea. We have a God or at least we did. Llyr has long since disappeared. He has a daughter who was considered the most beautiful. We were betrothed once, but I discovered that she was as cruel as she was stunning. So I broke it off causing centuries of bad blood between us. Eventually she found the love that she deserved and it changed her -- made her kind."

"Love can do that," he said with a far off look in his eyes."

She knew he must be referring to her mother.

He shook his head to dispel the memories and continued, "When Llyr abandoned his kingdom. I was approached to take his place. His daughter, Maris didn't want it she was happily married to a lowly selkie who knew nothing of politics, so she abdicated the throne. The responsibility would fall on my shoulders as the next in line, and believe me when I tell you I wish I had declined as well, but in my youth I was far more brash than I am today. So I took on the mantle of the ruler of the Welsh Sea."

"Centuries later Maris came to me to petition my help in taking revenge on the fisherman who had mistakenly hunted and killed her beloved Selkie. She wanted me to wipe out the entire fishing village for their misdeed. She was hell bent on her revenge. I had to refuse her, not because, I'm ashamed to say, that humans meant anything to me, but because, at that time the council had formed and such an action would have meant war for my people. She accused me of being a coward and declared then, most animatedly to someday get her revenge."

He sat quietly for a moment studying his hands like he couldn't look at her while waves of guilt emanated from him.

"In the decades to follow she had grown a deep hatred for humans. She became known as the Witch of the Sea. She did dark and terrible things. " He sighed deeply, "When she'd heard that I fell in love with a lowly human, she was enraged. She came to me accusing me of being a traitor to our kind. And she swore her revenge on me and all I hold dear."

He raised his eyes and looked at her imploringly, "I intended to move you both then to Washington D.C. There's no sea here. No way she could get to either of you, but she enacted the curse before I could get back to you."

His breath hitched as he continued, "By the time I got back the sea was trying to claim you. I couldn't save you both, your mother knew that so she gave her own life to save yours."

Tears were coursing down Meg's cheeks she wasn't even trying to hold them back.

Her father's eyes beseeched her to understand, but her anger grew with her every breath.

"What happened with the witch?" she ground out her fist clenched at her sides.

Her father couldn't look at her when he said, "Nothing she got away. I've been looking for here ever since. That's why I had to ward you. If you ever stepped into the sea the curse would claim you too.

Megan sucked in a shocked breath, "Warded me? What do you mean?

Then the realization struck and it was a physical manifestation. She uttered in a barely audible whisper, "You're the reason I'm terrified of the sea?

"H-h-ow could you?" she sputtered. Her father looked like he'd been slapped.

She jumped up from her seat once again and bellowed, "You let me believe all these year it was my fault!"

"Megan," he father began, "you're a halfblood. I couldn't tell you anything, not until you were enlightened, but by then it was too late."

Megan began to shake in rage as she spewed her venom towards her father, "That didn't stop you from abandoning me! I lost both my parents that day." She swallowed audibly trying to hold back her tears.

"Admit it! I wasn't the true cause but you still blamed me, because," her voice hitched and much to her horror she began to blubber, "s-s-he gave her life for me."

She turned her back on her father then with no intention of ever looking back. But stopped herself just before she stormed out.

"Remove the wards," she demanded through clenched teeth.

"I will not. Not as long as the Sea Witch lives."

"Then at least do for me now, what you couldn't do then, and save the love of my life." She pleaded.

Her father cleared his throat, "I can't help your Selkie. He is lost to the sea. At one point I could have gifted him another skin, but because of his actions he doesn't have enough magical essence left to make a difference."

Her anger suddenly evaporated and all that was left was the pain in her chest and it was excruciating -- with his every word he was breaking her heart and he knew it.

"What actions are you referring to, do you mean the double he created?' she asked.

"No I am referring to him giving his essence to a craven creature. With a venom which is addictive to our kind. There is nothing I can do."

"I don't understand? What are you talking about?"

Her father sighed and stood up to face her from behind his desk. Still he did not bridge the distance between them.

"Your lover went to a creature, called a death worm, that was claiming to be able to grant a Halfblood the ability to become a fullblood, but that was a ruse. The death worm is tricking the halfbloods into allowing him to suck out their magical essence. Your selkie is too far gone. There is nothing I can do."

Megan felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She could barely even formulate a thought, so she spoke the only words she could think of, "You knew and you let this happen? How could you? You're as bad as the council!"

Megan fixed her father with a deadly stare and ground out "I never want to see you again. We're finished!"

Her hand chopped through the air to punctuate her words. When he tried to object she stormed out of the office, but not before she called over her shoulder, "From this day forward you're dead to me."  


****************** THANKS FOR READING********************

I hope you all liked this chapter -- Wow her father cursed her and there's a Sea Witch somewhere still out for blood!

And oh sweet baby Jesus! What has Cameron done? How's she going to save him now?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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