Callista squeezed my hands again. “Are you well?”
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think so.”
“What are you thinking?”
I blew out a long breath. What was I thinking? I started thinking out loud. “Everything I’ve ever known about myself is a lie. I’m a quarter fae. What does that even mean? And is that why my family—my aunts and uncle and cousins—have always had such powerful magic? And do any of them know?”
I looked at the book. I knew there were pages and pages inmy father’s hand. “My father knew. Which means his siblings most likely knew. But their children? My cousins? Robin’s parents died when he was a child, and he grew up here. Since I didn’t know, he probably didn’t either. That only leaves Guyan. His parents died before mine, but after Robin’s. Acantha finished raising him, so I have no idea if she told him before the curse stranded him outside of Sirun.”
I raised my eyes from our hands to Callista’s face. “Why did all our parents die so early? Mine went from an unknown poisoning, Robin’s technically killed each other, and Guyan’s were in a strange accident.”
My voice trembled. “Callista—what if that wasn’t what really happened? What if someone found out and has been killing my family?” My mind jumped to Acantha—was she safe? What if she was next on a murderer’s list?
But… why hadn’t she already been killed? The others all died years ago. What if…
Could she have helped with a conspiracy?
“Callista. What if it was Acantha?”
“Your aunt?”
I nodded slowly. “All her siblings and their spouses died, but she’s been fine. She blamed the fae for my parents’ death and Guyan’s, but she had to know that we were all part fae. Blaming the fae doesn’t make any sense, unless it was to distract from something.” And she’d been playing the role of a doting aunt and helpful advisor to me for over a decade. Was she just waiting for the right opportunity to strike? That scene in the rose cave made so much more sense if she’d been playing me—
“Aedan?” Callista looked at me hesitantly. “I don’t know what to think about your aunt, but I don’t think you should do anything… rash.”
Myheart started to pound. I would not give Acantha a chance to kill me if she had already killed my parents. And Robin’s and Guyan’s.
“Aedan?”
Even Fagan had warned me about Acantha’s dangerous side. I needed to put up walls around every thought or emotion that would make me sympathetic to my aunt.
“Aedan.” Callista’s voice intensified. I focused on her. “I don’t like your aunt, so please don’t mistake what I’m about to say.” I nodded, and she continued. “You’ve just found out something so big and so huge that I can’t even imagine what it would feel like. Maybe like part of you died. Maybe you’re mourning a loss and also trying to figure out the part of you that you just discovered. Maybe it feels like I felt when you told me what happened to Motab.”
Her voice cracked, and my walls shattered. This revelation was world-shattering, but it could not be worse than what she’d been through.
And she’d left me alive.
She swallowed and kept going. “I just don’t want you to jump to conclusions about your aunt and do something that you’ll regret later on. Maybe just knowing the possibility of her duplicity will help you. Maybe your father recorded something about her that will help you know what to do when we read it. But I would hate to see you have to deal with the regret of a decision that you can’t undo if you change your mind later.”
Losing my identity. Gaining a new one. Considering Acantha as a traitor. Holding Callista’s hands. It was all so very much.
I blew a deep breath and laid my forehead on our hands. I took a few more breaths—slow, very, very slow breaths. One of Callista’s hands slipped away from the pile and landed onthe side of my head. Her thumb brushed over my scalp, slowly, over and over, for at least a minute.
Her touch was soft and careful, but it wiped away some of the tension that had overwhelmed me. Being part fae shouldn’t change anything essential about me. I was still the Cursed King of Hemlit, drekkan by day and elf—and fae—by night, more powerful than any other elf in the kingdom. More powerful, according to my grandmother, than any fae as well.
Callista did not find my new history repulsive. She sat here and stroked my head and held my hand. I was still the embodiment of royal power, protection, honor, and—hopefully—kindness. I straightened up and looked at her.
“Thank you,” I finally said. “Thank you for being here.” The book summoned my attention, and I glanced at it, still in shock over the secrets it contained. “You are right. I will be cautious, but I will not attack Acantha until I know more. At least until we finish reading my father’s words.”
“Do you want to read any more tonight?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think I can handle any more tonight. But tomorrow morning, if you wake before dawn?”
She tightened her fingers around my hand one more time. “Of course. I’d love that.”
After I’d delivered Callista safely to her room and secured her door with magic, I could not rest. I had too many things on my mind.
I started to review everything Acantha had done since my parents died, but the confines of my room feltclaustrophobic. I returned to the corridor and paced its length. When I reached the end, I saw Koan and Jolter approaching.
