I reached for Zeph, his heat having left mine when he went to grab his phone. His hand caught my wrist, drawing my palm to his and linking our fingers. “What is it?” he asked softly.
“What if my parents weren’t Earth Fae at all, but Quandary Bloods who rewired the earth source to accept their magic?” I asked him, my heart beating erratically in my chest. “What if they weren’t sympathizers at all, but actual Quandary Bloods hiding from the eradication? They were old, Zeph. So, so old.”
My mind kept working through the puzzle, the pieces falling into place.
“I was their only heir. An heir they left with a single mother and her very powerful son. Sol. Maybe they chose his family because they knew his bloodline was the rightful connection to the source, and that’s why…” I met Zeph’s gaze. “That’s why he’s connected to it now.”
It was incredibly rare for an elemental source to allow a new entity to tap into the power when it already had a powerful conduit.
“I’d thought the earth source welcomed Sol because of his mating to Claire.” She had access to all five elements. It made perfect sense. “But what if it had nothing to do with her, and it was the source realigning itself with the appropriate monarch?”
My entire life had been a lie.
My parents were never Earth Fae.
“I’m a Quandary Blood.” Yet that statement didn’t feel quite right, and my link to my elemental power screamed at the wrongness of that claim, confusing me even more.
“I don’t know who I am anymore.” My eyes didn’t well with tears. My heart didn’t break. My mind just kept whirring with theories and possibilities.
But at the end of it all, I knew one thing for sure—I despised the Midnight Fae Council and their Elders.
“They killed my parents,” I whispered. “They killed my parents.” And they’d gotten away with it.
They’ll pay, I vowed, uncertain of whom I spoke to.
They will, a dark voice whispered back.
Just for a moment, I swore it belonged to my figment.
But that wasn’t possible.
He only existed in my head.
Chapter Thirty-One
Kols
“She’s asleep again,” Zeph said over the line, his voice tired. “Shit, Kols. What the fuck just happened?”
I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “A lot. A fucking lot. Hold on.”
I cast a myriad of spells around my room to ensure there were no listening devices. After learning what I had today, I no longer trusted anyone, including my own damn family. Because clearly they were holding out on me. At least my father and grandfather were, anyway.
When I finished my spells, I picked up the phone again. “Are we sure this line is secure?”
“Please,” Zeph muttered. “The cuffs work, right?”
“Yeah. Fortunately.” Because if anyone sensed my ties to Aflora, I’d be royally fucked, and not in a good way. Since the same guy who’d made the band around my wrist also enchanted our phones, I could safely assume our conversation would be private.
I collapsed on my bed and told Zeph about the meeting, ending with the bit about her parents. “That’d been where I was when she woke herself up.”
Zeph had fallen silent, probably from shock. Which, yeah, I’d felt the same when I heard it all in the Council Chambers.
“I think it’s safe to say she didn’t take the news well,” Zeph muttered.
“Thanks for stating the obvious,” I drawled, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. “She’s going to hate me, Zeph.”
“She’s not,” he replied. “She knows it wasn’t you.”