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Chapter 816 You Call That Fatherly Love

Remembering Artemis‘ warning before he came, Dale forced himself to speak gently to Tessa. “Come back to Black Mountain with me; that’s your home.”

He had thought long and hard before choosing those words.

But the moment Tessa heard them, her brows furrowed. “You think if I go to Black Mountain with you, all our problems will magically disappear?”

“What do you mean?” Dale looked at her, confused.

“I was nothing but a cover for the Ashen Pact uprising,” Tessa said flatly. “Finding me won’t help you.”

Ever since she’d been following Victor, Tessa could feel the deep, bone–deep hatred he carried for the Ashen Pact. That kind of hatred could only come from years of blood–deep enmity.

Tessa wasn’t stupid.

So when Dale came looking for her now, she didn’t mince her words.

“You were just a cover?” Dale frowned.

Tessa nodded. “Yes.”

Dale fell silent.

Just a cover. The phrase hit him hard; the news couldn’t have been worse.

If Tessa really was just a pawn in the Ashen Pact conflict, then things were far more complicated than he’d hoped.

He looked at her face–those eyes and brows that so closely mirrored his own.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Then what do you think we should do about the Ashen Pact’s current crisis?”

Tessa’s

if she did, she wouldn’t say. Her parents stood on opposite sides, and

was something she’d understood clearly the

she knew how to

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And right now…

she couldn’t afford to

grown up without a father; at such a crucial moment, it was better to have none than to have

Dale’s expression darkened.

hate me–for not being

Tess… I am

to remind her where her

of the

Tessa’s lips curved into a smile–one

hardly bear that look from someone so much younger. He drew in another deep breath. “Come back

or desperate to see her. Now

be, if she returned with him to Black Mountain, Victor would

Tessa wasn’t a

“You say you’re my

said,

sneered. “What you really want is to take me back as

been

back to Black

with people who wanted her dead–the twisted twins, the scheming stepmother who played innocent, Manny, Dan… all of

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T

of

for her father–he’d only ever acknowledged the children born of his

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