Off With His Head

33. Did someone turn up the heat in here?

"So, Caleb Calloway then?"

I shake my head in disbelief. Of course my father doesn't want to talk about the whole 'hunting mythical creatures' thing. He would rather focus on my choice of date last night. When my parents had suggested that we meet in the dining hall, I had hoped that I would finally find out the truth from them. I should have known that the first thing my dad would say would be about Caleb.

It's a little too late to be worried about the boys I date. Where were you when I met Henry?

I bite my tongue, hoping to stop the retort from leaping out of my mouth. We're only five minutes into our conversation and I really don't want to start it off with a snarky comment. Thankfully, my mother comes to my rescue.

"Brennan." She places a hand on his arm with a disapproving glance. "Leave the poor girl alone. I'm sure she has a few questions she wants to ask us."

I do. But I have no idea where to start. There's so many things that I want to say to them, and even more that I want to know. But they're here for such a limited amount of time and I already know that the half hour they promised me is not going to be enough.

I settle for the first and most obvious one. "Why did you hide all this from me? And," I continue when I see my mum opening her mouth to respond. "Please don't say it was for my protection. I could have spent years training. I should have at least been given the choice."

They exchange a glance, a million unspoken words passing between them. I can almost see them debating how much to tell me and how honest they should be. The silence stretches on so long I wonder if they will actually answer me, or avoid my question altogether.

"Peyton," my mom finally says. "You should have realised by now, there isn't a choice. Once you're in there's no going back. We wanted to keep you from this and let you have a normal life."

"You could have at least told me about you guys though," I insist, not completely satisfied with her reasoning. "Why all the secrecy?"

"You won't be able to understand until you have a child of your own," my dad answers. "As parents we made what we believed to be the best decision under almost impossible circumstances."

"By letting me think you didn't care about me?" I'm annoyed to find that my eyes are starting to itch slightly and a lump is building in my throat. "You were always gone," I accuse, doing my best to keep my voice from cracking.

"We were making the world a safer place," he points out.

"But I didn't know that! I thought you just felt like your work was more important than me." A traitorous tear rolls down my cheek and I angrily wipe it away. "Do you know what I said to Zach when I first joined and he told me to think of an excuse to tell you? I told him you probably wouldn't notice anyway."

"That's not fair, Peyton," my mum says. "You know we love you. We did the best we could."

I nod, knowing that, in a way, she's right. It's impossible for me to judge them when I've never had children of my own. I can't imagine the situation that they were in. Despite their absence, I know that they do love me. And, even though they've lied to me for the majority of my life, I can almost understand their choices.

Almost.

"For what it's worth," she adds, placing a hand on mine. "We are truly sorry we ever made you feel that way."

It doesn't make it any easier, and it definitely doesn't make up for all the years I spent without them. But, maybe it's time to let go of the resentment and pull myself together. Carrying my anger around is only going to do me more harm than good.