I’d never seen my dad this angry before. It was a scary sight. His face was flushed, his eyes piercing, his fists clenched into white-knuckled fists. I even felt the distinctive prickle of magic in the air, though the cameo was safely tucked into a bedside drawer. I guess I no longer needed its help to sense the magic.

I waited in tense silence, hardly daring to breathe. I didn’t really think my dad would hurt me, but he looked like he wanted to in the worst way.

Finally, he let out a harsh breath and unclenched his fists. The magical prickle faded, and some of the angry color faded from his face. He still didn’t exactly look happy with me, but at least he no longer looked like he was contemplating killing me himself.

“I have tried as best I can to treat you as a responsible adult,” he said, each word precise and clipped. “I’ve been honest with you when pretty lies might have been more expedient. But it seems I misjudged you.”

I winced. Dad was obviously a pro at the parental guilt-trip thing. So much so that I felt like I had to defend myself more.

“It wasn’t all because I wanted to get away from Avalon,” I said. “Mom promised she’d check herself into a rehab if I went home with her.” I stared at my hands as I plucked nervously at the sheet. “You don’t know what it’s been like, watching her destroy herself. And she’s never even been able to admit she has a problem, much less tried to get help. I had a chance to try to save her from herself, and I couldn’t not take it.”

Dad came to sit on the edge of my bed. I didn’t want to look in his face, didn’t want to see the anger and hurt and—maybe even worse—disappointment in his eyes. He reached out and covered both my hands in one of his, but I still didn’t look at him.

“Dana, my child, I am not a young man. I have lived in Avalon and among humans for centuries. And if there is one thing I know, it’s that there is no saving them from their own self-destructive behaviors unless they want to be saved. I can understand why blackmailing your mother into going into a rehab would sound like a good idea to you, but even if you’d gotten away with no complications, and she followed through on her promise, it wouldn’t have worked.

“You can’t force her to dry out, not for any significant period of time. Maybe she would have stayed sober for a few weeks or even months, but she would have been drinking again in no time.”

I pulled my hands out from under his. “You can’t know that! If she had stopped drinking, she’d see everything she’d been missing because she was drunk all the time and that would give her a reason to stay sober. She’s just too out of it most of the time to realize the consequences of what she’s doing.”

Dad sighed. “I think in your heart you know that I’m right. There was a reason you came looking for me, and it wasn’t because your heart was full of hope for your mother’s recovery.”

Now it was my turn to be mad, and I glared at him. “Don’t try to tell me what I think and feel.”

His look of gentle condescension made me even madder, but he didn’t give me a chance to tell him what I thought of him. “I suspect we will have to agree to disagree on this point,” he said.

He sat up straighter and wiped the condescending look off his face, changing the subject both with his words and his body language.

“According to the nurse, your doctor will be in to see you within the hour, and then you will be free to come home. I have a lunch meeting, but Finn will take you home and guard you until I’m free. When I get home, we will move you to a more secure location.”

Ah, yes. The dreaded “secure location.” Otherwise known as a prison cell. I knew better than to argue—this wasn’t one I could win—but I crossed my arms over my chest and put on my most mulish expression.

One corner of Dad’s mouth lifted in a hint of a smile. “For your foolishness of the other night, you are grounded for the next week. You will remain in the safe house at all times, and if you feel imprisoned, then that’s not inappropriate.”

I gaped at him. I’d never been grounded in my whole life. Heck, it sounded almost like a normal thing. Of course, his idea of grounding me sounded more strict than a human’s.

“When the week is up,” Dad continued, “you’ll be allowed as much freedom as we deem safe.”

“And who, exactly, is ‘we’?”

“Alistair, myself … and your mother.”

My eyes widened. “Mom?”

He nodded. “She will remain in Avalon. And she has granted me legal custody.” His expression turned grim. “Should you think about running away again, you will find you have nowhere to go.”

I shook my head. “No way would Mom agree to any of this!” After everything she’d done to try to keep me away from my father and from Avalon, I couldn’t conceive of her being party to a conspiracy to keep me here.

“Of course she would. She did.” His expression softened. “All she wants is for you to be safe, and she understands that you will be safer here than in the mortal world.”

As far as I could tell, Dad had never lied to me. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t choose to do so now. I bet he could have been real persuasive in trying to convince my mom that I’d be safer here, but I still didn’t believe Mom would go for it.

“If she agreed to this, I’d like to hear it from her personally.”

“That isn’t possible at the moment.”

My heart gave a nasty thud in my chest, and adrenaline flooded my veins. “Why not? What’s wrong with her? Everyone keeps telling me she’s all right, but—”

“She’s fine, Dana. But she hasn’t had a drink in almost three days, and she … isn’t quite herself right now.”

My mouth hung open, and I could think of nothing to say.

“It isn’t a cure,” Dad said. “I have had her declared legally incompetent, and she is now under my care just as you are. I will not provide her with alcohol, nor will I provide her the means to get alcohol. But if I grant her her freedom, she’ll start drinking again immediately. One cannot cure alcoholism by force.”

I thought about this a minute. “You had her declared incompetent and put under your care,” I said, and he nodded. I was afraid I knew what that meant. “In other words, she’s just as much your prisoner as I am.”

“Yes.”

I grimaced. I’d forgotten how brutally honest he could be. Emphasis on brutal.

“Keep in mind that as long as I have her under my care, she will be sober. I’m sure it’s not much of a consolation to you—and I’m also sure your mother will hate me for it—but it is something.”

So basically, I was trading both my and my mother’s freedom for her sobriety. I wasn’t absolutely certain it wasn’t a fair trade. Not that I had a say in it. I chewed my lip while I thought it over.

“Dana,” Dad said softly. “Even I cannot hold you against your will once you turn eighteen, unless you feel like developing a drug or alcohol problem to give me an excuse as your mother did. As much as you may dislike my methods, you will have to endure them only a year and a quarter. And during that time, I’m going to have to convince you to remain under my protection when you turn eighteen. I am not a fool. I will not win you over by mistreating you or your mother. It won’t be as bad as you think.”

Hmm. A year and a quarter in a gilded prison, and then I’d be paroled. It seemed like a long time when I considered all that had happened to me in Avalon since I’d arrived. But it was also a year and a quarter of enforced sobriety for my mom.

There was a part of me that believed Dad was right, that forcing my mom to stay clean wouldn’t actually cure her. But at least it would give her body some time to recover from the damage she’d done to it. And at least for that short time, I would have a mom I could relate to, whom I didn’t despise and wasn’t ashamed of. I would have the mom I glimpsed ever so briefly when she wasn’t drunk, the mom who was witty, and clever, and … fun.