I’ve finally found my father.
“That can’t be the best you can do, Rory!” my father taunts the ghost dressed in a pair of wool pants, cotton button-down shirt, suspenders, and a pageboy hat. “You might be dead, but you've still got some life left in you!”
“More than you I’ll wager, you wannabe wizard!” Rory fires back, moving his legs faster than my eyes can follow.
My father laughs heartily and does his best to keep up with Rory. Never in a million years could I have imagined finding him in such a place, living it up like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Seeing him so content and happy with his life ignites a fire inside my soul so hot and bright that I end up losing what little control I have over a power I didn’t even know I possessed until now. I let go of Lance’s hand to take two steps forward into the circle. The action causes my father to look my way. When our eyes meet, my anger explodes like a bomb, causing a translucent bubble to form around me, my father, and the ghost he’s dancing against. Everyone else outside the bubble, including Lancelot, looks like they’ve been frozen in time.
“Damnit, lass!” the ghost says irately as both he and my father stop dancing. “What did you have to go and do a thing like that for? I almost had him beat!”
“Rory,” my father says, keeping his gaze steady on me, “this is my daughter, Eve.”
“Your daughter?” Rory asks in surprise as he looks between me and my dad. “I didn’t know you had one of those.”
“He abandoned me before I was even born,” I tell the ghost, unable to keep the pain of such a fact to myself. “It’s not surprising you didn’t know I existed.”
“Ahh,” Rory says, slowly backing away from me and my father. “I think this is a family reunion I would rather not be a part of. If you’ll both excuse me…” Rory walks through the edge of the time bubble we’re in, leaving my father to face me alone.
My father looks me up and down. “I see you decided to wear the dress your mother wore the first time we met. Did you think I would need it as a reminder that you’re my child?”
“It seemed wise to take all the precautions I could,” I tell him. “Are you the one the people here were calling Ambrosius?”
“It’s one of my names,” he says while rolling down his sleeves, “but I think you would probably recognize another one better.” He falls silent as he buttons the cuffs of his shirt. I wait for him to reveal this name to me, but it seems he isn’t going to give it up without me outright asking him to.
“What name is that?” I ask testily, playing along with his theatrics if it yields the information I need.
My father grins as he locks eyes with me. “Merlin.”
“Huh!” I scoff, raising my gaze to the ceiling and shaking my head at his ludicrous claim. When I look back down at him, he appears slightly amused by my reaction. “You’re telling me you’re Merlin the Magician? What story are you going to tell me next? That Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table exist?”
“Is that so hard to believe?” he asks, appearing surprised that I’m such a nonbeliever in the fairy tale centered around King Arthur.
“Camelot doesn’t exist,” I state matter-of-factly. “There’s zero historical evidence to support that legend.”
“You’re right,” he says, nodding in agreement. “It doesn’t exist in this world anymore because I had to move it. I had to find a new world where magic wasn’t considered a trademark of evil. It was hard to start it all over again, but I think I have everything right this time.”
“What does that mean? What is it that you did wrong the first time?”
“I didn’t factor in the power of true love.” My father crosses his arms over his chest as he continues to explain himself. “You see, during your first life—”
“Stop,” I order, holding up a hand to prevent him from continuing. “Are you telling me that I’ve lived once before?”
“Of course, you have,” he says, looking at me like I should have already known this tidbit of life-altering information. “You're a constant in the universe, Eve. Until you fulfill your true destiny, your soul will never be able to find peace.”
Either my father is completely insane, or he’s telling me the truth. The only way to figure out which is the right answer is to let him continue his explanation.
“Anyway,” he says, apparently deciding to skip over the whole reincarnation aspect of my existence, “like I was saying. In your first life, I made the mistake of thinking I knew what was best for you. I completely misinterpreted the visions and ended up pairing you with Arthur.”
“King Arthur?” I ask. My father nods. “You’re saying I married him in my first life? I thought that was Guinevere. I don’t recall there ever being an Eve in the story.”
“I know,” my father says irritably. “I told your mother to name you Guinevere, but she obviously took it upon herself to shorten it to Eve. Syndra has always been rather hardheaded when it comes to you. She didn’t want me in your life either, so I graciously accepted her wishes for your benefit.”
“She told me you left her after your one-night stand. Are you saying that was all a lie?” I know my mother is crazy, but to lock my father out of my life completely is something I never suspected her of doing. No wonder she shut me down every time I wanted to talk about him.
“I did leave her after that night,” he admits freely, “but I came back to this world the day you were born. By that time, she was already starting to lose her mind and wouldn’t listen to a word I said.”
“Did you do that to her?” I ask, feeling my anger rise to the surface again. “Did you cause her bipolar disorder in some way?”
“Not in the way you might be imagining. The last thing I ever wanted was to cause Syndra any long-term harm, but she was more sensitive to our kind than I first realized. That’s why I left her after that night. If I had stayed with her any longer, she would have ended up going completely insane.”
“I don’t understand. How did you cause her to start losing her mind?”
“There are people in this world, both human and supernatural, who are what we call sensitives. They can sense the different vibrational frequency that infuses every cell in the bodies of people from different realities. Your mother is one of those people. The side effects vary from person to person, but in your mother, it caused mental instability. The more I was around her, the more unstable she became.”
“She’s still unstable,” I say. “She becomes more unbalanced every year.”
My father sighs heavily. “I know. I was afraid that might happen.”
“Is there any way you can help her? Do you have some sort of magic potion that can reverse the damage? There has to be a cure!”
Merlin eyes me warily. I can tell he wants to say something, but he’s not sure how I’ll take it.
“Spit it out,” I say curtly. “What will cure my mother?”
Still, he delays, but from the despondent way he’s looking at me, I’m not so certain I want to know the answer.