Oh gods. This tastes like ass, I thought as I chugged the bitter drink. It seared my throat like alcohol and left me coughing after. It was a small price to pay. The pain in my shoulder that’d been making my head spin was now fading. The blood on my arm was nothing more than leftovers from the battle now that the gash in my skin had knit itself back together.
“Nifty,” I said, exhausted.
Still in nothing more than an oversized shirt and an overwhelming amount of blood, I leaned against the counter and pressed my forehead to the cool surface. The damn ferret skittered between my feet and looked up at me from the floor. I groaned and moved so that the counter obscured my vision.
“You barely survived that encounter, Cerridwen. You need help.”
“Stop calling me Cerridwen! Only my mom uses my full name. Call me Cerri or just stop using my name altogether.” I groaned as the healing potion worked at the glass cuts along my back.
This shirt was going to be ruined after all this.
“Your mother?” the ferret asked, perplexed. “Your mother has been dead for…ah! You mean the human woman. I forgot that your parents hid you like a changeling baby. They took the human woman’s child and replaced it with their own: you.”
I swallowed hard, the truth going down like a fat brick. A part of me knew. I’d suspected that I wasn’t really their child, but they were still my parents. Jasper and Molly James raised me. I called them Dad and Mom. They…they were the only parents I knew.
But I was never like them. Dad was a big wolf shifter. He had thick black fur that was speckled with grey now that he was older. I always thought that my wolf would be a tawny version of his. But when Ness and Connor had their first shift, I was left empty handed. I was a confused thirteen-year-old stuck on the outside of her own family.
Now it all made sense. No matter how badly I wanted to throw this truth back up, I knew it would never leave my system.
“Shut up,” I told the ferret.
I stood and turned to take in my apartment. It was a mess. The chill night air swept in and grazed my bare skin. Those windows would have to be boarded up again. I’d snagged this converted warehouse for its view of the lake and the city beyond, but the damn windows were a safety threat, it seemed.
Since I wasn’t going to get back to sleep any time soon, I shoved my feet into a pair of bunny slippers and set about sweeping up the glass. It was a good opportunity to practice my arcana, too. I would have to put these floors back.
The ferret scrambled in front of me, stopping me so fast that I had to shove my golden curls back out of my face after they all came flying forward. I glared down at the little furry menace at my feet.
“You need help.” He stood on his hind legs and put his little hands on his non-existent hips. “There is a man waiting for you. He pledged his service to your parents. He waits for you to return and ask for his help in overthrowing the usurper Beryl. If you ask, this man will protect you.”
I didn’t want some old fart crouched in my apartment at all times. Especially if he was going to nag me to do something I didn’t want to do. If he worked for the fae, he was going to be a damn stickler for vows and deals.
All of this meant nothing to me. It wasn’t like Lakesedge was suffering from a power imbalance. That had been fixed when Ness and Ryder removed Alvin from the head of the local shifter pack. Now that Ryder was the Alpha, Lakesedge was experiencing a moment of peace.
“If I do what you want, I’ll destroy everything my friends worked for.” I couldn’t be the one to upset the peace in Lakesedge.
My friends would never forgive me.
I looked to where the assassin had been before his body turned to dust. Beryl wanted me dead. I didn’t even have to ask who had sent the assassin after me. I already knew. She’d made it very clear when we last met that she wanted me gone.
Beryl knew that I was a threat to her throne. I didn’t want it, but my blood scared her.
“Who am I?” I whispered under my breath.
Dawnlight.That’s what the assassin had called me. It was a family name that I didn’t recognize, though I knew little about fae families.
Maybe it seemed like I’d accepted this new truth a little too easily, but I’d grown up with a suspicion that I wasn’t who everyone told me I had to be. The James family name was mine through love, but not through blood. I’d always known that, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it.
This new name…I didn’t want it. I wanted nothing to do with it. Maybe some answers would help settle my restless soul, but it wouldn’t give me anything else. I could already see the trouble that came with it.
I could have asked the fae ferret creature what it knew, but I wasn’t ready. I…wanted to bury my head in the sand a little while longer.
Fool that I was, I’d already spoken out loud. So, of course, the ferret had an answer ready for me.
“You are Cerridwen Dawnlight, the last surviving member of the Dawnlight royal family, head of the Seelie Court. Your parents were king and queen of a beautiful court here in this new world.” He bobbed his head in a proud nod.
I groaned. That was more than I wanted, but all the pieces fit together neatly.
There was glass to be swept up. Once I took care of that, then maybe I would think about this information. Maybe…