He smiled with pride lighting up his beautiful eyes. “You are very smart, child. Not many would guess that.”
“I made myself understand as much as I could about the Fae after my par…um, my guardians were killed. I tried to find out anything I could that would help me get revenge,” I replied, watching his face, but no guilt marked his bronze skin; only acceptance.
“Well, eventually we agreed to his demands. He had given us five years before we had to hand you over; a show of how magnanimous he could be I suppose. Once we signed the agreement, he gave us Liam, and, as promised, the Horde did cease hostilities to the point that many thought the war had ended already. It was a time of peace and celebration for our people, bought at our family’s expense, the people rejoiced and sons stopped dying for what seemed to be a fruitless war.”
“We took you to the Harvest Festival that year, and you were the most beautiful child there. You were around four months of age at that time. You had beautiful curls that framed your chubby little cheeks. The Dark King sought an engagement to his son, and it would have been the perfect union , except for the fact that you already belonged to the Horde. I couldn’t bear explaining that to Kier, so I had to reject his suit outright.”
“I took Cadeyrn as my familiar that day.”
“I didn’t know that, but you were so small, so innocent, that it would have been impossible to know until you were older that you had. When we returned home, we knew we couldn’t hand you over. Not to a man who abused and killed those of the weaker sex. Your mother grew distant, and eventually I knew it was only a matter of time before she gave in and allowed Alazander to take her from us. We had just gotten Liam back, and the damage he’d endured had taken a toll on his mind. We couldn’t allow the same thing to happen to you. So we worked together, to hide you. I went into the human world and met with a Warlock who owed a life debt to my brother. I explained what would happen if our war was brought to their door.”
He shook his head. “I spun a tale so horrid with what could happen that they had no choice but to take you in, hiding you; not just from the Horde King, but the Guild as well. He was a good man and he and his wife were childless, so this debt became a blessing for them, or so they told me. He was very powerful in the Guild, so we knew you would be safe with them. We had you branded with the triquetra that would hide you in plain sight as a human. The triquetra was supposed to leave you with enough magic to pass as a Warlock’s child, and it would prevent you from going through Transition. The only thing that would break the spell was you returning to Faery, but we’d been ensured that you would never be inside of Faery, or exposed to the Fae. I’m guessing something happened to change it.” I smiled and nodded at his words; yeah, Ryder happened. He had come in to my life like a whirlwind, and set wheels into motion that shouldn’t have been.
“I painted the wards on the walls inside their house for the protection of the Unseelie as a whole as well as anyone seeking to harm, to help protect you, and when I left them, and I broke our bond, we’d thought never to see you again.”
I felt almost relieved to know at least half of the story. I wasn’t some bastard born from a one night stand. I hadn’t been rejected, and I’d actually been wanted. From a parent’s point of view, I could see where they had struggled with the choice. From a child’s point of view, I felt as if I’d been sacrificed. “I watched my guardians being killed by Faolán; it happened as that man Cailean said it did. After that, I put everything I had into getting revenge. My guardians gave their lives to protect me.”
“Faolán would not have done what Cailean says. He was sent to retrieve you, to be given to the Horde to end the war that had started back up soon after we had sent you to the humans. After a few months of you being inside the human world, we reported your death to the Horde King; in essence, that was what it was like when we cut ties with you. You were, in a sense, dead to us when I cut the bond. We took a young child that had recently passed to the Harvest Feast that year, and buried her small body in a grave that was marked as your own. We’d been foolish to think it would work against the Horde, but we were desperate. Somehow, he knew you hadn’t died, and he demanded we find you and bring you back, or give them Liam again, which we could never do. War started again soon after, and there’s only one way to end it now. I can’t let it become a full out war again. I’m sorry, my daughter.”
I swallowed and prepared to say I had understood his dilemma, but before I could answer him, someone sifted in behind me, and a silver torque was placed around my neck and locked in place.