His jaw tightens. “That’s enough.”
“No, it’s not.” I glare. “When are you going to admit that I am more than capable of thinking for myself?”
“When you prove that you can make decisions like a fucking adult!” He slams his hands on the desk and shoots to his feet. “I have driven myself crazy with worry about you, and you acted like a selfish little brat.”
“You lied to me.” I take a step forward, refusing to back down in the face of his anger. “You have hurt just as many people as she has. Don’t act like it’s not the truth.”
“Anything I’ve done, I’ve done for this family.”
I laugh. “That’s rich. It’s noble when you do it, but when she does it, it’s evil. You keep pretending like she betrayed you, but you are the one who drove her out of Olympus so you could play second-in-command to Poseidon without competition. You are a hypocrite.”
His face darkens to a deep red color. “Did you come home to lob insults at me? How mature. If you’re going to act like a child, you can go to your fucking room like a child.”
He’s not going to listen to me. He’s acting like he has every other time one of us has done something he doesn’t like. My father becomes a rage-filled steamroller and annihilates any form of resistance. The impulse to retreat nearly sends me fleeing the room. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to fight, to spit these hateful words at each other.
But if I don’t stand up to him now, I’ll never get a chance to do it again.
“No.” I take a breath.
“What the hell did you just say to me?”
“No,” I repeat. “I am not a child. I am not a rebellious teenager. I’m sure as hell not a princess locked in a tower. You are my father, but I’m no longer accepting you as my jailer.”
He laughs, harsh and cruel. “Now I know she’s put words in your mouth. I’m not your jailer. I’m your father. I only want what’s best for you, and if you can’t see that, you’re not ready to have this conversation.”
It would be so easy to slip back into that old skin, to stop fighting. I have twenty-three years of learned behavior, all that experience clamoring for me to stop arguing and leave the room until he’s less angry. Instead, I plant my feet and straighten my spine. “I am an adult and you keep me locked up in this house, unable to go anywhere without an armed guard, unable to talk to anyone who isn’t approved by you. You keep me from getting a job, from having access to my own money. From everything. Tell me what that is if not a jailer?”
“I—”
But I’m not interested in whatever he’s about to yell at me. I keep going. “I only came home in order to tell you that I’m done. You have to let me go.”
He blinks. “What?”
“You have to let me go,” I repeat. “Do you think that I’ve learned nothing from you? Do you really think that I’m so much of a fool that I don’t know my own heart?”
He leans back a little. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’m moving out.” I measure each word carefully, all too aware that rushing through this will give him further ammunition not to take me seriously. To say that I’m too emotional to be rational right now. “I am starting my own life and making my own decisions while doing it.” I watch him closely. “I would like you to be a part of it, but if you can’t support me, then you won’t be welcome in my new home.”
“Your new home,” he echoes. Father sinks back into his seat, all the red rushing from his face and leaving him pale. “You’re going back to her.”
“You will stop any plans to take your people to Carver City.”
“Or what?”
I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I’ll do what I have to. I can’t afford to waver right now. I only have one chance to make this stick, to protect the people I love and ensure my freedom. “Or I’ll tell Poseidon that you’re utilizing his resources to attack another city and potentially drag all of Olympus into a war. Because of your pride. Because you don’t trust your daughter to make her own way.”
He pauses for a long moment, and finally says, “What makes you think he’ll care?”
“I’m sure he can do basic math. We have a line of supplies that go straight into Carver City for what I imagine is a large amount of revenue. A war would cut that off, in addition to costing both sides a fortune in supplies and lives lost.”
Something like pride flickers through his eyes. “It would seem you have me over a barrel.”
“Father… Daddy…” I sigh. “I love you. I’ve been blind to your faults for too long and let you keep me in this cage because of that love. It’s over now. Either let me fly or get out of my way.”
He surprises me by chuckling. “You’re so much like your mother.”
My chest pangs, but I refuse to soften. Not until I have his agreement. “Give me your word that no harm comes to anyone in Carver City.”
“Including the Sea Witch.”
“Including the Sea Witch,” I confirm.
“If she harms you…”
“She won’t.” I don’t know if I’m lying or not. If she turns away from me when I go back to Carver City… Well, I don’t know what happens next. I’ve sacrificed the money earned for the auction. I trust Hercules’s promise that Alaric’s debt remains paid, but the extra money no longer belongs to me. I’ll be in a city I barely know, with no money or resources of my own. But at least I’ll be free.
I have to risk it.
I have to try.
My father is silent for so long, I have to quell the urge to fidget. Finally, he sighs. “There will be no turning you from this, will there?”
“No.”
“If I lock you in your room, you won’t be able to go running to Poseidon with stories.” He almost sounds like he’s musing. “I could send a team of my best men and finally remove the blight of the Sea Witch from my life.”
My chest tries to close in on itself, but I refuse to quake. “If you do that, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing whatever it takes to bring you down and make you pay for it.”
He nods as if he expects no less. “She’s been my enemy for a very long time, Zurielle. Decades.”
“Is your revenge worth more than my happiness?” I stare at him, willing him to see reason. “Is your hate for her greater than your love for me?”
My father looks at me like he’s never seen me before. “She makes you happy.”
“Yes.” I hesitate. “She will if we’re given half a chance to see what we might become.”
This time, when Father sighs, he sounds defeated. “So be it. I give you my word. With the understanding that if she harms you, I will burn that entire city to the ground, Poseidon’s disapproval or no.” His lips pull up into a half smile. “I guess you really have grown up.”
No point in reminding him that I fucked Alaric while he was on the phone with Ursa. Or in pointing out how beyond out of line his actions have been since the beginning. Not with this fledgling peace blossoming before my eyes, not when I am nearly free. “I love you, Daddy.”