As he said the words, perhaps he realized how they sounded--he'd only help free Gabriel if I agreed to talk. More likely it was the sudden surge of blood pressure turning my face an unhealthy shade of red that made him quickly retract with, "I will help either way, of course. But I'd like to discuss this as well."
"No," Gabriel said. "We don't need your help. Olivia?"
Patrick kept his gaze fixed on me. "As for the fevers, while I'm sure they concern you, Liv, they shouldn't. Am I correct that none have been as serious as that first one?" When I didn't reply, Patrick took that as agreement and continued, "Your body is learning to cope with them. As it must. They are a vital part of the process." A quick look at Gabriel. "The process of you coming into your powers, which benefits you as much as any of us. The visions are a protective mechanism, though they probably don't seem like it right now."
"What do they protect me against?"
"Us."
He waved me to the couch. I hesitated, but if Patrick had won me over with the promise of help with Gabriel's case, this is how he won Gabriel. He used us against each other, and I could rage at that, but deep down, part of me had to say, Well played, sir.
Gabriel headed into the living room and I followed.
Patrick continued. "The visions are hereditary memories, as you may have figured out. Think of it as a massive repository of knowledge from countless generations. My collection would be a mere shelf in your mental library. The problem is that there are too many books for one person to ever read. Too many memories for you to ever absorb. So you are thrown from one to the next, as you require them."
"You said they protect me from the Tylwyth Teg."
"Tylwyth Teg. Cwn Annwn. And every other type and subtype of fae out there, because there are many, and you are valuable to all of them. You can keep Cainsville alive. Or you can let it burn. There are many who would be overjoyed by either opti
on."
"How do the visions protect me?"
"By showing you truth. Without them, you're left relying on us for answers. Which we'll withhold until it suits us. Then we'll twist answers to our purposes and outright lie if that serves us better."
"What I saw, about the children . . ."
"A failure of completion. You are correct that it is one of the side effects of fae mingling with human. This form"--he gestured at himself--"is not our form. So procreation with humans can result in a body that is not entirely complete. Even when it happens, which is rare, the effect is usually not even noticeable. Shortened finger joints, missing wisdom teeth, one fewer rib than there ought to be. On occasion, though, it is more serious. In spina bifida, the spinal column fails to form completely, therefore fails to properly enclose the spinal cord. Which isn't to say that every child born with spina bifida has fae blood. But it is one of the most serious manifestations of the problem."
Manifestations of the problem. He said it so formally, so abstractly. A child is born unable to walk because a fae chose to impregnate a human woman. That child's condition is nothing more than a somewhat regrettable side effect. Like breeding cattle experimentally. Eventually, you're going to get one with a fifth leg, but the risk won't stop you from breeding them.
I hated their attitude. But did I hate them for it? No. They interbred to survive.
"We've confirmed Olivia had this condition," Gabriel said. "It has been verified beyond any doubt. But you knew nothing of it."
"We knew nothing of Liv," Patrick said. "Not until the Larsens were arrested. Then we realized that the girl was our Mallt-y-Dos. Which is why the elders facilitated her adoption. Hiding her until she was old enough to bring home to Cainsville."
"The leak," I said. "My identity. The Tylwyth Teg leaked--"
"Certainly not." Patrick looked affronted. He might hold himself separate from the others, but he was still one of them. "We would not orchestrate such a debacle. It was careless and thoughtless, and could as easily have driven you to Peru as to Cainsville. I'm sure the elders would point fingers at the Cwn Annwn, but if pressed, they would admit it was too clumsy and dangerous for them as well. I don't doubt that whoever leaked it wasn't entirely human, but it was not one of us. Back to your condition, though. We had no knowledge of that. You were a healthy, happy child when we found you, and we had no reason to think you'd ever been otherwise. If it's true, though, that this condition cannot be reversed by medical means, then you have almost certainly answered what was one of our biggest questions: why your parents did it."
"You knew they were guilty."
"We knew only what we read in the papers. We thought perhaps the mingling of blood, and the coming together of Tylwyth Teg and Cwn Annwn, produced . . . an unsatisfactory result."
Turned my parents into killers, he meant. That their darker fae natures had played off each other and stripped away their humanity.
"This is a more satisfactory answer." He caught my look and quickly added, without much conviction, "Though not as satisfactory as discovering they were innocent."
"It was not the Tylwyth Teg who offered the Larsens this deal, then," Gabriel said. "You are certain of that."
"I am. We don't have the power to reverse the condition, no more than we can alleviate the fevers better than modern medicine. At one time, that was different. Our knowledge of plants and herbal medicines helped. But these days, you can pick up something better on the shelf of any drugstore."
Gabriel seemed ready to pursue it, but I shook my head at him. What I'd seen in the visions confirmed they could not fix the children their blood had damaged.
"Who has healing powers?" I asked. "Or what does? Which fae?"
"None."