Jar shook his head, murmuring words that even my shifter hearing could not make out. The rest of us stayed deathly silent. It was foolish to provoke an ancient unless it was life or death and since the time I could remember I had always been respectful of the power Jar held at bay. There was a reason he chose the art of healing instead of death.
Blinking back the haunted memories, Jar’s hand shook as he placed it over his son’s supportive hold. “We were all pawns in the games of war for the gods and Ichor had many years to plan his conquest. Faerie's grip on her brother began to slip.” He gave us all a pointed look. “You all must understand that much of her power is utilized to sustain the world she loves, fighting her brother and keeping the lands stable weakened her greatly. So she sent one fae deep into the depths of Sheol to recover her absentee older brother, in hopes that he would agree to turn the tide of the war in herfavor.”
“Shea.” Remnant murmured, her brow furrowed as she listened.
Jarquinn’s eyes twinkled. “Yes. Shea, the god of death, initially wanted nothing to do with the battle, seeing it merely a squabbling feud between his two siblings. He had his own realm to rule and it was currently flourishing from the influx of souls the blood war created.”
“What convinced him then?” Penina interrupted.
“Not what…but who.” Jarquinn’s eyes leveled on Remnant and the whole room turned to gawk at her.
She snorted and let out a small laugh. “Really? I hadn’t even come into my powers yet and was doing my training in The Under during that time.” Remnant cocked her head. “You have an art for story telling, Master Healer, so I’ll ask what everyone wants to know. Who was it that Faerie sent?” Remnant inquired.
Jarquinn smiled. “Shewas a stubbornly fierce, intelligent, and beautiful shadow fae named Eve—”
Remnant froze next to me and her shadows sprung upwards, cloaking my soulmate in darkness. “My mother? My mother was the one Faerie sent to Sheol.” She whispered, shocked from the information.
I frowned. Either Eve never shared this information with Remnant or rather could not. As Jar had said, all of our minds had been erased of such knowledge.
Jarquinn nodded sadly. “Yes, your mother Eve saved us all really. She convinced the God Shea to join his sister Faerie for the good of our world. Together, God and Goddess defeated the blood fae but at a great cost. As a god of death, Shea was bound by a set of rules, one of them being that he was never to interact with our world. If he did, a price had to be paid.”
“Our memories.” Eshe whispered.
“Indeed. But I do believe that he suffered a worse punishment for his partaking. We will never know for sure.”
I cleared my throat. “What of this brother god, Ichor?”
Jar sighed. “Not having the heart to kill her own brother, Faerie allowed him to flee after she killed the last of his creations but not before bitter Ichor delivered a final crushing blow. In his wake he left a terrible, awful curse. One meant to cruelly torture his sister in the most festering of ways.”
My brows arched and I growled. “He made us sterile.”
Jar nodded. “Yes, your majesty. Blood is life, as much as Faerie has the power to nourish life and Shea has the power to take it, Ichor has the power to gift it.”
I snarled. “He took life from us in the only way he could without the blood fae to manipulate.”
“Yes and there has not been a faeling conceived since that day. Those born after the blood wars were already in the womb of their mothers. Until now.” He added.
Eshe spoke with a shaky voice. “The faeling. What does it mean then? Has the curse been lifted?” The fragile hope in her eyes was almost painful to see. Like most of us, Eshe longed for a child of her own.
“The faeling is…unique. She was warded with the power of the Sanguine…it was literally altering her life essence…turning her into something she was not born to be.”
I growled. “What the fuck does that mean? If she is not water fae then what is she?”
Jarquinn shook his head. “I have no way of knowing yet. Her healing sleep will reveal much but not until she wakes, which won't be for some time now. What I do know is that with the wards lifted, she will become what she was meant to be at birth.”
“It doesn’t matter what she is. What does matter is that those blood wraiths wanted her in The Under and I will kill anyone who attempts to take her from me.” Remnant snarled and the hairs on my arms stood up at the lethal tone of her voice while the mate in me purred with admiration of her protective nature.
I leveled Jar with a stern look. “If the wraiths were after her in The Under then that means she is vital to Deirdre’s plans.” He nodded and I shifted my gaze to Tyr. “The faeling is under full protection of the crown and this city. We must be even more heavily prepared for any attacks that may come.”
“Acknowledged, sire.”Tyr growled, then tilted to Remnant snarling. “I will make sure not a fucking thing gets near her, beauty.”
Penina tossed the apple she had finished an hour ago onto the table and Eshe sent her a disgusted look.
“To sum this fucking mess up. Our memories were erased about a war between gods that caused us to be cursed with infertility. In the meantime, Faerie is still missing, our lands are dying, blood wraiths are extending past the deadlands, and Deirdre is alive and well—likely to appear in just a few weeks from a gateway that'sbeen closed for one hundred years, and this faeling is the key to unlocking our future.” She rolled her tongue along her teeth, a strange light lit in her eyes. “Did I miss anything?”
I watched the expressions on my family's faces and knew it would stay ingrained in my memory forever.
Penina's held conviction, Tyr’s eyes glittered with the prospect of battle, Jarquinn looked on solemnly at his son who gave him a reassuring nod, Eshe’s lips thinned with stubborn resolve, and a shadow storm was brewing around Remnant—the darkness shifting in her emerald eyes along with the shadows cloaking her.
