Chapter 52: Chapter 52: A Father's Fight
Daxius POV
"WHERE is Jude taking Lilia?"
Marieke tugged at his sleeve. "Let's get you changed. Your robe is filthy."
"My family is in danger, and you're worried about my robe?"
He pulled away from her and headed for the door. He'd heard the lock click behind her when she came back, but it didn't faze him.
So many ways to open the door. He'd taken one of the decorative pins from the throw pillows on the bed. He could pick the lock if he had to while he distracted her.
If that didn't work, he'd just blow a hole in the door. Or conjure up some bark beetles.
Marieke blocked his way, her eyes earnest. "Daxius, I'll let you out, as long as you don't try to free the others. Trust me, if you do, you'll only make it worse for them."
He choked on his laughter. "Worse? I'd like to see how that could be!"
"No. You wouldn't." She sounded genuinely downcast, and close to tears.
"Then how can you do that woman's bidding?"
Her answer pierced his heart. "For you, Daxius. How do you think you were able to leave your prison and the island? The master rules this place."
By the Twelve Sacred Sites.
He'd assumed that his own strength of will and Marieke's love had helped him escape his prison. A foul bargain with a servant of evil never crossed his mind.
"PLEASE, Daxius. For your family's sake, and for mine, just do as I say," she urged. "She'll treat them decently if they'll only cooperate."
Poor Marieke. Vulnerable, alone, and so desperate for love after her isolation that Melisande could get into her mind and twist it up in knots. Add her to the list of people he intended to lead out of this accursed tower.
"Alright. You mentioned a clean robe." He rubbed a nonexistent spot on his robe. "I'd like one more than anything right now."
Her face lit up with joy, and he felt deeply divided. He wanted to avoid her, and he wanted to hug her and get her away from Melisande at the same time.
Several minutes later, dressed in a fresh, new robe, he stepped into the long winding corridor with the eerie shadows created by globes of light set in sconces. The tower smelled of old magic and seawater.
"Where are they?" he asked softly.
Marieke pushed him down the corridor. "Let me show you everything. I'll start with the library. Master has accumulated quite the collection of ancient and rare books dating back to the Primitive Magic period in witch history. You'll like it here in the tower."
"So, with our house destroyed by Master Bracknell, you mean for us to live with her?"
Marieke's face paled, and he knew he'd hit a nerve. "We can build a new home, of course. She only burned our house to kill our enemies. Your friend the gnome got too big a lungful of smoke for his size. He's dead."
No. Not Duffy. Not the man who'd sharply scolded him for abandoning Ravyn and Lilia. Duffy was a true friend.
The gnome was also a survivor. Maybe he was only playing dead so he could follow them and rescue them at the right time.
He put on a confident look. "Her plan backfired, no pun intended. My family is still alive. The gnome isn't important. He hated me anyway."
Goddess, he hoped Marieke believed him.
She led him toward a junction, and he purposely wandered off the opposite way, toward a stairway. All the doors up here were open, and he saw no one in any of the rooms. They'd traveled the length of the entire floor, so clearly, the others weren't on this floor.
A sharp tug from behind made him lose his balance as he started down the steps. "Where are you going? The library is upstairs!" Marieke sounded cross with him.
She steadied him, and he hated the way her touch made him warm all over.
"I just want to see the others and make sure they're alright. One look, Marieke. That's all. What can it possibly hurt?"
Marieke pulled him upstairs, her eyes stormy. "You mean Ravyn! She's no longer your wife. Master said she divorced you."
He winced at her jealousy. "Yes, and she has a new mate. Ravyn and I were married, it's true, but I'm not in love with her. I want to see my daughter. I've missed so much of her life. I just need to make sure my little girl is unhurt and being treated well. Please, Marieke. I'm begging you as a father."
He held his breath.
Marieke's expression softened. "What a loving father. Follow me."
* * * * *
Lilia POV
Strapped to a table, Lilia lay bound and helpless, staring up at a triumphant Melisande. All her attempts to make eye contact with Jude yielded nothing. He turned away, as cold and remote as stone.
"Melisande, stop this. I'm the Luna of the Evenhide Pack–"
"Not here," Melisande said. "Here, you're the subject of my experiments."
Lilia jerked her head at Jude. "Is that what you turned him into? You know that doing this to an Alpha is an act of war. You're going to start a terrible, devastating fight between the witches and the shifters!"
She knew Melisande didn't care, but Lilia had to speak up, as a witch and as a Luna.
Melisande laughed coldly. "I welcome it."
Those three careless words had Lilia thrashing her head from side to side, straining against the tight bonds that bit into her flesh. "What did the shifters ever do to you? Was it that whole thing with Cyran?"
Melisande marched over and held a vial of milky, odorless potion to her lips. "Drink."
"What is it?"
"Just do as you're told, or else Dane and your mother and your father will suffer."
Lilia hesitated, then opened her mouth. The potion may have looked bland, but it tasted disgusting.
"Drink it all or I'll hurt your family," Melisande said.
Something bumped her from behind and made her spill the rest of the potion all over Lilia. She spun around to see Jude. "You fool," she snapped. "What are you doing?"
"She was going to resist," Jude said in a monotone voice. "I was going to hold her mouth open so you could give her the potion."
Somewhere on the other side of the room, Daxius shouted, "LILIA! Get away from my daughter, both of you."
* * * * *
Daxius POV
He didn't believe his ears. Jude, a slave doing Melisande's bidding?
But the way Jude had bumped into Melisande when she'd been force-feeding Lilia some sort of sinister concoction didn't make sense either. He'd observed Jude closely. The man moved with grace and poise.
Could he be faking his enslavement?
On the other hand, Jude didn't look like himself. He had a flat expression. Alphas were often stoic, but this was emotionless.
"Jude, Ravyn appreciates you taking care of our daughter," he called out.
With a disdainful look over her shoulder as she fetched another vial of potion, Melisande called out, "It doesn't matter what Ravyn thinks anymore."
Daxius hid a smirk.
How delusional could Melisande be?
"And she's no longer just your daughter. She has an important role to play in the destiny of the witches. More than she realizes."
Melisande waved Jude away before feeding Lilia more of the potion, or trying to. His daughter turned her head so that the liquid splashed all over her face and soaked into her beautiful hair.
With a forbidding stare, Melisande beckoned Daxius. "You! You haven't been doing anything great in the father department for eons, but surely you remember giving her a bottle when she was little."
Choking on his laughter, Daxius said, "I knew what was in that bottle! Pure breast milk, and later cow's milk."
"This is a Harmony Potion. Two dashes of jade spearmint, one cup of blue safflower, two handfuls of scarlet saffron, two heaps of wolf thyme, and one tablespoon of venom cumin."
Daxius knew what such a mixture smelled like and looked like–and what it tasted like. He looked at Lilia. "Will it lower a shifter's blood pressure?"
She got the message right away. "Oh, yes. We don't want to give it to Dane. I hope you didn't give it to Jude, Melisande!"
"Don't you worry about that," Melisande replied, her mask of control slipping. "You can see he's fine, and you will be, too. Daxius, give her the potion. And Marieke, after he's finished with that, I want you to put him to work doing whatever needs to be done around here. You'd better hop to it, Daxius, unless you want your daughter and new grandchild to suffer!"
New grandchild. Goddess! Was it true? He glanced at Lilia, and she nodded, her face determined. She would protect her unborn child.
Daxius caught Jude's expression over Melisande's shoulder. Was that … Yes.
Jude winked at him. He'd swear on Lilia's unborn child that Jude winked at him. Maybe things weren't so dire after all!
"I'll do whatever you ask, especially for Lilia's and Ravyn's sake," he answered, darting over and taking the vial from Melisande. "And for my grandchild's sake. Lilia, please hold still and open wide."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AmandaMadden
AmandaMadden Here, we get more insight into Daxius and his personality--and I hope readers understand how and why Ravyn fell in love with him originally.
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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