Terrorist. Savior. Hero. Villain.

Whatever comes, I and mine will not go like lambs to the slaughter — but like tigers! (Erik Lehnsherr with starcityhq.tumblr.com / fc: Jason Isaacs)

[masterofmagnetismx]

speedingly​:

There’s relief in his arm finally healing itself. The bone had been fractured in two places and the last couple of weeks have proved to be quite difficult to manage. He hasn’t really been dealing with that trauma well as most might think but that’s how the speedster goes about with anything that happens throughout his life. He pushes it down as if stuffing everything into it’s own concealed box. These are filed away somewhere in his mind to deal with at a later time. Tommy usually is good about keeping his composure until pushed to his limits and they all come tumbling off the shelves and the lids of each box come off — revealing his true colors all at once. He might have gotten better at showing his emotions but certain things aren’t dealt with for a reason. The Shepherds? One of the memories hidden away to deal with when the moment feels right.

Plans were established that have been delayed but Tommy understands the reasoning. Yet the thought lingers, wondering when they’ll finally take action. The voice on the other side of the door pulls the white-haired boy out of his thoughts, jolting up while racing over to the door. His hand swiftly opens it up and grins up at Erik. “Hi, grandpa. You came to visit me? Do you want to come in?” He leaves the door open and is racing around the room faster than anyone could see …  trying to clean up a little. Mostly his snacks that he has been working on the last hour or two.

“Briefly,” Erik agreed, stepping inside. When he’d first relocated to Star City nearly four years prior, he’d lived in that very house. It had been his while he kept up the facade of abiding by the ban and taking their ‘out.’ He’d been a damned physics professor at their university, even. It was a life short lived and not one that he missed for a second. It had been a necessity at the time, much like that home, and he’d been content to shed both. At least the latter was being put to better use. It pleased him to be able to give it to his children and grandchildren - a small token in the grand scheme of things, but something nevertheless. 

“I have something for you, as promised.” He held out a long box that he’d walked up to the door carrying. Inside, Tommy would find a redesigned suit. The color scheme was nearly identical to his current one. The design, armored with thin yet nearly impenetrable metal, had been carefully crafted by Erik’s own hand to shift with his body as he ran. It offered more protection, should his speed fail to let him dodge some blow or bullet. New goggles lay across the top. 

[masterofmagnetismx]

annamariexrogue​:

Options. Anna knew that Erik was doing everything he could to help Wanda, but she didn’t think grief could be rushed. Besides, it wasn’t as if Wanda couldn’t be reached. She’d visited her already, in that beautiful alternate universe that was purely of her creation, and she could understand how tempting the fantasy would be. It would be easy to get wrapped up inside of something so gloriously ideal. 

“Don’t,” she interrupted quickly, her teeth catching on her lower lip as she watched him with the wine. “Wanda should stay here as long as she needs. As long as she wants. You’re her family.” Even if they were engaged, Anna knew she wasn’t technically part of that. She had no right to interfere with Erik’s plan for his daughter, or take issue with it, even if she was wary of forcing her to face reality before she was ready. “But I think anyone who speaks to her needs to be gentle, Magnus.” At that, Anna gave him a look. She knew he must be considering Emma as one of the options when it came to fully connecting with Wanda, it didn’t take a psychic to figure that out, and Emma wasn’t exactly known to be comforting. Or tactful. “Just promise me ya won’t let anyone hurt her more than she’s been hurt, an’ that means not rushin’ her through this. Not that I think ya would on purpose, I ain’t sayin’ that, I just…” Sighing, Anna shook her head. “I know ya wanna help her. I just think it’s gonna take time.”

“She will, and I am, but that doesn’t make the circumstances ideal for any of us.” Wanda included. She didn’t want to be experiencing what she was, surely, and the fact that she was with him spoke to her desperation to be rid of it. He wasn’t a fool. He was not her first choice, but a last resort. That was a product of his own actions and his own words over the years and he was capable of admitting it. It would have been better for all of them if it was different, if any piece of it was different, but it there was no undoing any of that. Whether Anna wanted him to or not, he still appreciated her patience. 

Erik poured both glasses half full and offered Anna the first one. “I can be a very patient man, my dear. I’d think you would be more aware of that than anyone else.” Not taking the right steps to help Wanda was a mistake that he’d already made and it wasn’t one that he was eager to repeat. He hadn’t done enough the last time she’d been lost to her grief. He’d left her too much to the whims of other people. Her brother, namely, who had done more damage than good. “No one will be involved if I don’t know exactly what’s happening.” 

[masterofmagnetismx]

pixelware​:

2021. 

Most people, when faced with a sudden and shocking truth, would say something like their brain short-circuited, or something to that effect. For Frankie, it quite literally did just that. There was an obvious pause to her face before a glitch ripped through her, cutting her visage in two until her image stilled and smoothed over. She blinked once - it was evident to her that she wasn’t in the same decade, obviously, but, she hadn’t expected to be stuck in electronic hell for nearly forty years.

“2021?” Frankie echoed as a far off look reached her face. “That-” she uttered out a hysterical sort of laugh before she sobered suddenly. “T-that can’t be.” Even as she denied it, she could tell it was the truth. The world around her looked nothing like home. She felt angry, and her hand glitching through the metal railing only irritated her further. “Calm? How can I be calm right now?? I don’t know where the hell I am or how the hell I got here, dude! I don’t know what’s even happening to me-” she looked over her shimmering and translucent hand as it faded in and out of solidity. Her attention snapped back to the floating old guy-

“How are you doing that?” She asked with a sniff.

Given the vast number of strange things he’d seen and the near limitless ways that the X-Gene granted powers, the sudden change that came over her and seemed to nearly take her out of existence got a raised brow, but not much else. Even that expression was mostly lost beneath his helmet. Still, just because it didn’t shock him didn’t mean he understood what he was looking at. Her shock at the year added a genuine layer of confusion, though.

“This is District X. Where are you meant to be?” He remained in the air for a moment longer before finally letting his feet touch the ground when she asked that question. “Electromagnetism. I am Magneto.” As if that should be explanation enough. For a great any people in the world, it would have been. 

[masterofmagnetismx]

lxrna-dxne​:

When the door opened Lorna sucked her breath in. This was a moment she never thought she would experience. People dreamed of the day they could talk to their parents again. While Lorna would never get that opportunity with her mom she had a chance with her dad. She was unlocking a Pandora’s box willingly; come what may. Lorna was taken aback that he knew her name. It lured her anger out of its sleeping corner. He knew about her but never went to go find her. It felt like a betrayal and the man had only said 5 words to her. Lorna pulled herself back in an instant reminding herself what her therapist used to tell her. Don’t assume judgement and open your heart to forgiveness. Back then she was dealing with destroying her neighbor’s stereo. However, Lorna danced with Wrath in all of its ugliness. 

“I-” She chuckled, realizing that she had no idea what to say to Erik. She had just assumed he wouldn’t answer. “You missed a few birthdays. I came to collect on those gifts.” She awkwardly joked rubbing the back of her neck. “Can I come in?” 

.

A tiny smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth with that reply. “I’ve had a few ideas. Please,” he moved aside and swept his arm in a way that showed she should step inside. Once she had, the door closed with a tiny gesture and all the locks and security reset themselves. There was nothing in that house that he couldn’t control. He’d designed and made the entire thing himself for that precise purpose. 

“I’m surprised you came. Your work could have brought you here sooner.” He had to assume that she’d chosen not to let it. He’d been curious about the Underground, and had it seemed like they needed his help he might have gone there instead. Erik tended to draw more attention rather than less, though, and their work had often been in stealth. Even he hadn’t wanted to risk it. When NOVA was active, what they were doing involved too many mutant lives.

[ofbaratheon-deactivated20150606]

..and that is my fault

[masterofmagnetismx]

@lxrna-dxne

[aseaofquotes]

[masterofmagnetismx]

@annamariexrogue

[masterofmagnetismx]

amazingflyingdick​:

Even though he could have, easily by this point, Dick hadn’t looked at Erik’s file stored on Bruce’s database. He’d always felt awkward doing that, like he was being rude, and so made a point to reserve the method for those he considered to be strict enemies. It would have been a lot harder to shake Erik’s hand had he done it, or to sit across from him and look him in the eye.

Nodding, he frowned as he picked at one of his nailbeds. What he knew about Wanda’s past was limited, but he did know the big things. The important things. The… significant things, he suspected, but he also knew what had preempted them. It was hard to blame her after that. Grief was all-consuming, and he couldn’t imagine how someone with so much power could handle it and remain sane, or functional. The fact that Wanda had seen it happen made everything worse. “It’s going to be in Gotham. That’s where his parents are buried, and there’s already a plot there.” He paused, taking a deep breath. Somehow he couldn’t bring himself to actually say the word funeral. “I’m going back tomorrow to handle the lawyers and to start… getting everything arranged. But if she needs more time…” It wasn’t like they had a body to bury. There was no rush to do a service, even though he didn’t want to draw out the grieving process for the rest of his family. Still, it was important that Wanda was there. Bruce would want her there. The thought made his fingernail dig into his knuckle. “I want her to be able to be there, if she wants to be. It wouldn’t be right without her.”

Erik was aware of how badly Wanda had wanted a close family. She’d conjured her own children for that very purpose, and still hadn’t been granted what she wanted. It eluded her as much as it eluded him, though for incredibly different reasons. The Wayne family probably presented her with a unique opportunity, even with Bruce’s children all grown. Now that, too, was spoiled. The world could be cruel, and Wanda was so susceptible to it. 

“I’ll speak with her. It’s not mine to decide how much time she needs.” Not that it ever was. Erik wasn’t exactly a guiding hand in her life, and all of his children did things on their own time...or at least someone else’s time besides his. “I didn’t realize the rest of you were so close to her.” 

[masterofmagnetismx]

lxrna-dxne​:

@masterofmagnetismx​

Lorna checked the address one more time as if it would magically change on her. Since coming to Star City she quickly found out her biological father was in town. It took her awhile to seek him out. She had been focusing on cementing a small stronghold and safety among the community. She hadn’t seen her father in years and a few more months wouldn’t hurt. She had thought about what she would even say to him. Each time coming up short and bereft of words. 

Somehow, when all other tasks were done she had nothing left but to say hi. Lorna was still learning about her situation. Hoping to find sense in the mayhem that was her life. She believed for most of it that her biological dad and mom both died on the plane crash. It wasn’t until later in life she found out she had a second chance. It was a bittersweet bit of information. Lorna fist barely reached the wood of the door, pausing briefly before continuing with the motion. She knocked a few times tucking her hands into her leather jacket. She didn’t know what to expect, but she was bracing herself for the worst. 

.

It would seem that fate had determined that the only one of his children he would meet before they were grown was the one who had never lived beyond her childhood. Anya was the only one whose birth he’d been present for, whose first steps he’d watched. She was the only child he’d help teach to speak, or been able to watch learn about the world. Although those memories were terribly old, he still kept them close. He’d never have them with the twins or with Lorna, and he’d fared little better with his grandchildren. Still, all of that was his to make peace with. He didn’t speak of it. The regret was his own.

He’d kept tabs on Lorna as soon as he’d learned who she really was to him. Her work in the Underground was something that was both necessary and that he could respect, so he’d left her to it. There had been several times when he’d thought of reaching out to her, even wanted to, but he hadn’t. Now, he watched on the monitors in his study as she approached his door. The house itself was hardly as grandiose as someone might expect of Magneto, but the security was still heavy. He disabled it before she touched the door that first time, and by the fourth knock he was there to answer. 

“Lorna. What a surprise.” 

[masterofmagnetismx]

ascintillatingwit​:

\

“Oh really? I do a far better job of it.” Emma countered. Oh she did enjoy a good verbal spar. Erik was great at many things. There were many elements she had admired. However, there was some things she believed were his flaws. “Of course not.” Emma agreed when he stated he didn’t come to have a battle of wit. She didn’t believe him to be witty enough to compete with her of all people. Erik had traits she possessed. They just presented them differently to people.

As he brought up the fact he was once a foe to the X-Men, Emma audibly scoffed in return. “I think you forget your present company.” She reminded him just like that without going into further detail. “Besides, if the X-Men didn’t accept a villain on the team every other week, are we really the X-Men?” She humored in a dry manner. “But, your view point is clouded by your emotion. I approach everything with pragmatism, Erik. Your daughter has that nifty little ability to throw logic out of the window. Couldn’t she just, you know, make another one and be done with it?” Emma suggested. Wanda had the power to literally make the world the way she saw fit. Whose to say she couldn’t just make a Bruce Wayne?

“Glad you said it and not me.” She mused before shaking her head. As he explained his case, Emma’s eyes were unwavering. They never left his. “You did have one thing right but I wouldn’t of said old.” She finally said with half a smirk. “Fine. I will help your wayward daughter. As a child to a mutant and a mutant herself, I suppose I can do something.” Emma leaned forward as she rested her elbows on the desk, her fingers weaving together as she looked into his eyes. “But that means you owe me something when I ask. Do we have an agreement?”

.

“By your own account. Self assessments are often favorable, aren’t they?” Emma had plenty of reasons to think so highly of herself, and certainly the air of it got her many things and into many places, but he simply had no time for it right then. The request he’d come to her with was, in some ways, a vulnerable one. It was not something he’d have laid at the feet of just anyone. Being spoken to like some witless idiot was not something he was willing to endure.

Erik folded his arms in front of his chest and pressed his lips into a hard line for a moment before answering. “If Wanda started to bring the dead back to life to comfort herself, let’s not pretend that would be any more acceptable than what happened before. I’m trying to help her, Emma, not damn her again.” Wanda tended to do that to herself, or her brother did it for her, and he would not.

He had expected nothing to come for free. “We have an agreement. I owe you a favor of your choosing, and you make your best attempt to help my daughter.” A favor owed by Magneto was no small thing, and Emma knew it. Moreover, Erik kept his word. The lines of morality and honor that he drew didn’t usually match up to the standard ones, but he kept to them. If he promised something, it would be done. 

[masterofmagnetismx]

Delayed Retribution

@speedingly

Erik had taken great care at and after the explosion not to let Wanda see the injury she’d inflicted on her son. If she found out, and he suspected that she would eventually, it would not be from him. Tommy would be fine - a broken arm, a bone that would quickly heal - but the grief it would cause her would far outstrip the damage she’d done. It had seemed better for all of them that she not know. He’d checked in enough to know that he’d received care and that the only thing to be done was wait. 

The debacle with NOVA and Tommy’s injury had delayed the plans he’d made to deal with the scientists and doctors that he’d tracked. Still, he didn’t let them slip away. He’d kept his tabs, and when his grandson had healed he was ready to move. Unlike the times prior, Erik arrived at the house his daughter and grandsons shared. He’d gifted it to them nearly two years prior and, though he never said a word of it, it made him glad that they still stayed there. Still, he knocked. It was their home, no matter how they’d acquired it. 

“Thomas,” he called through the door. With any luck, he would get the right twin. Billy, much like his mother and uncle, would likely try to interfere with what they were doing.

[pixelware]

[ OPEN STARTER !! ]

The first thought that came to mind was that - she had a headache. It was head splitting, from ear to ear, and it certainly didn’t help with whatever the hell her current situation was. She wasn’t home, that’s for sure, and she definitely wasn’t in the same warehouse-esque type of building, either. It looked more like a school, from what she could gather through the headache turned migraine, but none of that really mattered right now because where the hell was she?

Panic started to ensnare her. She stumbled quickly out of the halls, her fabricated body glitching as she hurried past bewildered students and sidewalk enthusiasts. With quick blinks, Frankie clumsily tried to find a quieter, less crowded space to gain some sort of bearings. She didn’t know how long she’d been in there, and she couldn’t tell - there was nothing but light, blinding and bright.

A heavy glitch ripped through her when she bumped into someone; it was getting harder to breathe as she ushered out a slew of apologies as she hurried away towards what looked like a railing of some kind. As she drew nearer, she could see the ocean. With her grip heavy, Frankie willed herself to take in a deep breath of salt air and try to ease herself from the shock that threatened to take over - except there was no salt air, nothing but a memory of a breath and simulated tears that rolled down her cheeks and fell into nothingness.

She needed to know something, at least, so through the haze Frankie turned to the nearest living soul and through a broken, and quiet, sob, she asked, “what… year is it?”

[masterofmagnetismx]

Erik had a project that had routinely taken him out over the sea in recent days. It wasn’t something he’d breathed a word of to anyone, nor would he until it was finished. It saw him near the beach more often than usual on the to-and-from. It was the latter, that day, when he saw the figure that was nearly doubled over. It was someone young, he assumed a student at the school, which made them a far cry from his personal responsibility. All the same, he lowered himself to the ground until his feet hovered only an inch or two above it just as the girl asked her question.

“2021,” he answered simply, his brows furrowing as she seemed to struggle to draw breath. He didn’t recognize her face, nor the odd...feeling...that seemed to surround her. “Calm yourself, girl. I can get someone from the school.” One of the staff might know her. 

[yennefer]

Before we met, the days were calm and the nights were restless. But now… you’re important to me.

THE WITCHER 1.06: “Rare Species”

[annamariexrogue]

[ @masterofmagnetismx ]

[masterofmagnetismx]

chaos-hexes​:

“There was an older woman in our caravan,” she said to him, pushing to her feet and letting her colorful skirts drag the floor as she crossed to take the kettle off the heat. “She had one just like this. It was colorful, patterned, and always felt so warm. Welcoming.” She hummed. “I miss Wundagore. Often.” Things had been simpler before they had had to leave. “The way it used to be, I mean. I went back for a while after… Everything.” He’d know what she meant. “But that Wundagore was taken away.” She had been sad about that forever. And, under that, angry. But there was not enough room in her for it yet. She was too busy trying to sort through everything. 

Wanda hummed. “The Romani–my people…” She swallowed. She wanted to be honest with her father. She had been thinking about how things might change between them if she finally was open to him. Maybe she needed to change. There were things in her that needed to weeded out. She had been think a lot about that too. “We were happy. Pietro and I. There was so much love until it was destroyed.” There had been pain, but Marya and Django had protected them. Kept them from it as best as she could. 

“Why did you leave?”

“Everything was always colorful.” Colorful and alive - that was how he remembered his time with the Romani, at least in a sensory way. Colorful, alive, and simple. It was the last thing that had ultimately damned their future with them. “But things are rarely as ideal as we remember them to be, are they?” Wanda’s return to Wundagore showed that. Once a moment had passed, there was no sense in trying to find it again. The pieces never seemed to settle in the same places twice.

“That’s often how it is. You’re happy until you’re not. The less you try to anticipate what might take it, the less you’re prepared when it happens.” It was a hard lesson that both he and Wanda had learned while young - a painful, crippling kind of lesson. Erik was intimately familiar with how things had been ‘destroyed’ for his children. He’d found them in the midst of it, after all. It was how they’d met, how he’d convinced them to come with him and join his Brotherhood before he’d had a clue who they really were to him. It was another thing that, if given the opportunity, he might not have done differently. If he’d not gone to recruit them, would he have known of their existence at all? Perhaps not. They might have been killed, eventually, or something worse. There was little point in what if’s once a thing was done. 

The reason he’d left was easy to give, at least. “After what your mother and I lived through, I wanted something bigger than what her village could give us. I wanted to give her a better life, everything that we’d been missing.” That had never changed. Erik still spent his time working toward that - a better life, a better world, something greater for the people he was meant to help. “We couldn’t have it if we stayed.” 

[masterofmagnetismx]

fightbattlesthatmatter​:

Steve blinked. He always thought that Erik Lehnsherr was considerably cold. Like he didn’t have the kind of connection to other people that his children did. Or that really anyone did. But he reasoned it could be because he simply had no desire to show any kind of attachment or weakness. People were like that sometimes. Steve wasn’t ashamed of how he felt about things and he normally made few efforts to hide it, but not all people were comfortable being outward.

Still, the words had him nearly scoffing, though he bit that all the way down both to stay polite and because if he pissed off Erik, he might not be allowed to see her. “Of course I do,” he responded instead. “She’s my family.” And that was true. The Avengers had been Steve’s family for a very long time. And Wanda was on his forward drop team. She was important to him. He knew she was literally Erik’s family, but he also knew that that was sometimes contentious at best. 

“What’s happened to her?” He asked. He remembered the explosion. Natasha was still recovering. “Does she… Is it like before?” Were they about to face another rewritten world?

“She’s my family,” he corrected. She was his family, and it was to him that she’d come, him that she’d asked to help her. It was a rare occurrence that any of his children come to him with a need that they actually thought he could or would fill, and it had prompted an even more hardened exterior against anything that Erik perceived as having even the potential to interfere. 

He folded his arms in front of his chest with his jaw set. “She’s withdrawn into her mind. It couldn’t be more of the opposite of what happened before. Whatever world she’s creating for herself, it’s within her head. If you speak to her,” and unless Steve gave him a reason that he shouldn’t be allowed near her, Erik expected that he would, “she’ll take you there. She’s barely present here.” 

[quotes-gr-ellhnika]

― The Lover (1992)

[masterofmagnetismx]

@annamariexrogue

[masterofmagnetismx]

orangeflyingangelgirl​:

Still Grieving || Koriand’r and Erik

@masterofmagnetismx

Koriand’r didn’t know how a whole city could feel like it was weeping, but after the death of Bruce Wayne, of Batman, she felt that it was the case. So many hearts cried out, including her own. Though Koriand’r’s had never really recovered from the loss of her people or the distance she felt from everyone around her. Now add the deep pain she knew that people she cared about were experiencing–and likely staving off, in some cases–and she was left feeling nothing but grief, both her own and for the people she loved. Tamaraneans felt their emotions deeply and weren’t ashamed, but she was so tired of being trapped within those four walls that she had had to leave.

The dying sun shone on the ripples of the water as she stood beside the banks, her green eyes burning with tears she had long since run out of. Her hair blew behind her like a banner of flame as she finally wiped a hand over her face. She had hoped she would be alone. She had expected she would be. Most people seemed to avoid the area given the ruined bridge.

The shock of white hair had her blinking. Magneto. She remembered his face from the District. She remembered thinking how sad he looked and how angry. “Hello,” she greeted, ever polite. “Did you come to watch the water as well?”

With Wanda recovering at his home, he’d split his attention between her, Anna, and the unspoken project that he’d begun after the SRP’s dissolution. Several miles away from Star City, where there appeared to be nothing more than endless water, Erik had been working. There was nothing to be shown for it yet, but there would be. He’d intended only to return home, but it was impossible to miss Koriand’r. There was no one else in the city who looked like her. None alive, anyway. 

He lowered himself until his feet were on the ground and the bubble of electromagnetic energy that held him in the air dissipated. “No. Only passing through. I’m afraid this view of the city doesn’t inspire much in me.” All it looked like was failure and threats - a ruined bridge, remnants of an attack that had neither been foreseen nor prevented. The only relief in it was that Summers had thought to evacuate District X first and none of their people had been caught there. 

[masterofmagnetismx]

ascintillatingwit​:

\

Emma looked up as he spoke about Bruce Wayne. Apparently he shared the same feelings she did on the matter. Was it sad? She supposed. Did it concern her? Not at all. If anything, her people were killed for simply having a different gene in their body. The homo sapiens could mourn one of their own for a change rather than them. Petty maybe but she didn’t care about being fair. That was life. Oh how typical she would sound if she said that out loud.

Emma’s expression didn’t change before she smirked a little before scoffing. “You know, this is why you never could get your own way, your tact with people is something left desired.” Emma sat back in her seat, looking back to her report. “Usually, if someone asks for help, they would ask a little nicer.” Emma then raised her eyebrow at him. So this was the game they were going to play? “I was second choice to what exactly? A bald man strapped to a chair?” Emma laughed a little as she shook her head. “You are a smart man, Erik. I know you aren’t stupid enough to think you can beat me in a battle of wit.”

“I don’t know if you remember my original suggestion in which I advocated to put her down. Albeit, a comment made out of self-preservation than anything but she does have some nasty little habits.” Emma spoke about the matter as if it was nothing more than trivial. That was Emma. Nothing was a panic. Nothing was chaos. It was refined. Controlled. Even the way she spoke. The way she displayed herself. “I can’t make any promises.” She said after a moments pause. “I cannot force her into something that she doesn’t want. Any resistance could be painful which we don’t want to happen.”

.

“My dear, I hardly think you’re one to offer me or anyone else a lesson in tact. I didn’t come here for an exchange of wit.” It was not that Erik was incapable of holding his own, but he saw no point in it. Clever back and forths were a waste of his time. If there was dialogue that needed to be engaged in then he was perfectly able to do it, he didn’t lack the words, but repartee alone held little to no interest for him. 

Erik fixed his gaze on her as she reminded him of that other suggestion. “It would be a shame for you and anyone who thought to agree if you were to advocate for that same thing again. I haven’t made myself an enemy of the X-Men for a long while, but let us never say never.” He wouldn’t let harm befall his family for the same reason he’d been unwilling to let it pass the last time. He was keenly aware of what Wanda was capable of doing and what it had meant should it get out of control, but that was the burden he’d agreed to bear.

He took in a slow breath. “I don’t have any reason to believe she’ll resist. She came with me asking for help. I don’t think I need to tell you the desperation necessary for either Wanda or her brother to ask me for help.” It wasn’t as if their contentious relationship wasn’t widely known. “Do what you’re able to do. If I doubted your ability, I wouldn’t have bothered to ask.” He wasn’t a man of half-measures or one to tolerate incompetence, and he’d have looked elsewhere if he didn’t think Emma had the capacity to manage it. “It’s in all our best interests that you succeed. It doesn’t matter if you care nothing for my daughter and you think me an old fool. You certainly care for others who are here.” Even Emma couldn’t deny that.