Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [97]
She took a step back. “Fergus, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t play stupid!” he roared, then immediately looked around, making sure no one else had heard. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter but no less intense. “You’re not stupid, Stephanie. You’re not a stupid girl. We all know it. We all know how smart you are. My girls aren’t like that. My girls need someone to look out for them. That’s my job.”
“I’m not getting them into anything,” said Valkyrie.
“This is a sickness, you know that?” he said, so angry he was almost laughing. “My grandfather had it. This magic thing. He told us all about it when we were kids, me and Gordon and your dad. He tried to pass on what he knew to us. He didn’t have much magic. He couldn’t do a whole lot. Some people can’t, he said. He was hoping that we’d be different, that we’d be proper sorcerers. We loved the idea, but our dad, he hated it. He didn’t want us growing up and getting into wars that had nothing to do with us. He wanted us to be normal. He wanted us to be safe.”
Valkyrie just stared at him, unable to speak.
“When our grandfather died, our dad asked me to cut it out – cut out all the nonsense and the games and the stories. He asked me, and he cried as he was asking me. The only time I’d ever seen my old man cry. Of course I said yes. I started telling Des that it was all just pretend. After a while, he believed me. But Gordon wouldn’t play along. He was the eldest, and he refused to do what our dad wanted. Maybe it was because he was the eldest that he felt he needed to rebel, I don’t know. They barely spoke after that.”
“So you’ve known all along,” Valkyrie said.
Fergus nodded. He seemed suddenly drained, like this had been building inside him for years and now that it was out, he had nothing to hold him up. “I knew that Gordon always wanted to be a sorcerer, but he just didn’t have it in him. So he wrote about it instead, and he travelled that world, surrounded himself with all these strange people. I don’t know why he did it, to be honest. It must have been hell, to be surrounded by the kind of person that you wanted to be with all your heart, but knew you never could.
“We had so many arguments about it. I was focusing so much on keeping all of this away from your dad. I was terrified that Gordon would do or say something that’d make Des realise that it was all true. And then what would he do? Would he change his life, now that he knew magic was out there? Would he take Melissa with him? Would he take you with him? Would he ruin your lives as well as his own?” Fergus shook his head. “I saw some of Gordon’s friends, over the years. I met this beautiful woman. My God, she was beautiful. The first time I saw her, I actually fell in love with her. Can you imagine that? I actually fell in love. I was ready to leave Beryl for her, for this woman who barely even noticed me. That’s magic for you, isn’t it? It can ruin your life with one little glance. I saw others, too. That tall man, the one who was at the reading of Gordon’s will, you remember him?”
“Skulduggery Pleasant,” Valkyrie said softly.
“Oh,” said Fergus. “So you do remember him.”
“Yeah.”
“Magic ruined our family. My grandfather and my father argued about it constantly. Gordon and my father barely spoke because of it. And Gordon and me… When he died, we hadn’t spoken in four years. Four whole years, I didn’t speak to my own brother. I cry about that at night, you know. Some nights, I just can’t help it. Don’t let this ruin your family, Stephanie. Your parents love you. Your dad loves you. Do you know what he’d do if anything bad ever happened to you?”
“Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“Don’t insult my intelligence,” he said, glaring. “I was never as smart as either of my brothers, but I’m not stupid, either. If you’re involved in that world, your life is in danger.”
Valkyrie said nothing.
“I don’t want you teaching my daughters anything,” he said.
“I don’t want to either, I swear I don’t. They saw me do something last year, and they’ve been at me ever since. I