Moon lets out a bitter laugh.
"I haven’t touched drugs since the day I gave myself to Luca. Our Bond healed what was broken in me, Summer. And my visions only stabilized and grew stronger. I see things now more clearly than I ever did, even back when Anzo had me on enhancers."
For a moment we just stare at each other while Lux wails in his crib. Moon walks over, lifts him gently, and whispers,
"When you were born, you weren’t even human, Summer. Do you know that?"
I stay silent. I’veshovedthat thought away for years. Does he really have to torture me with it now?
"I remember standing over your crib and not believing what I was seeing. What… was lying there. Our parents told me you were just very different. An alien. They thought they’d have to hide you your whole life. But when you were three or four, they discovered you were a shapeshifter…"
He looks at me over his son’s head. Lux is slowly calming down.
"One day you just shifted into a human form, staring at yourself in the mirror, after… staring at us. Like you realized you weresupposedto look like us. But you didn’t want to keep it. You kept going back to your original form. So our parents basically… brainwashed you, forced you to hold that human shape. They made you scared, terrified of ever revealing yourself. Programmed you with this mental block."
The silence is crushing.
Then I notice a drop of red hitting the floor under my hand. I’ve clenched my fists so tight my nails have broken the skin.
"You see, when people talk about shapeshifters, they assume the base form ishuman. In your case, it’s the opposite. What stands in front of me now is your artificial form. It isn’t you. You’ve trained yourself so well to hold it that it’s become instinct, part of your daily life. But your real form, the one youwere born with, only slips out when you trust someone enough. Because of the fear ingrained in you."
I can’t take this. I can’t.
All I’ve ever wanted is fuckingnormalcy. I’ve fought for it,beggedFate for it. And yet here it is again, shoved in my face. The truth is that I never was and never will be like everyone else. I’m cursed.
"Stop. Just stop," I whisper, my legs trembling so badly I have to brace myself against the window ledge. My stomach twists with pain.
We’re both quiet for a while.
I look down at my hand gripping the ledge. For a split second, I let it shift into what it really is beneath this false shell.
Then I shut my eyes tight, pull it back, and turn away.
"The problem is alien DNA accumulates. Not always, not one hundred percent of the time, but very often. Over the past year I’ve spent countless hours tracking the paths of your future, Summer. I felt guilty for everything that happened in the fortress." He takes a deep breath, glances at his hands, and twists the ring on his finger. It looks like an engagement ring.
"And every single path I saw led to the same thing. The children you’d have with Snow wouldn’t survive in our world. They’d be born with gills, forced to live underwater like our ancestors. And not close to the shore, not like mermaids. In the deep, under crushing pressure. They’d be alone, cut off from partners, from normal development. Overwhelmed by power that would consume them until it destroyed them, and others along with them. A lot of others, Summer! That’s a dark, terrible path. They don’t belong to this world. They’d be, in truth… the original aliens."
"Stop. Please stop…" I beg, trembling as if a live current is coursing through my body.
"Snow’s the same, you know. The only difference is that he was born in human form, which you could call a chrysalis, or a form of an ‘egg’. His true form started breaking through it when he was a teenager. Sometimes he’d wake up at night not recognizing his own body. He’s had to fight hard to keep his human form. He still does, every day. But it breaks through at night…"
"Stop, Moon. Please. I don’t want to hear anymore…"
But he doesn’t stop.
"The difference between you and Snow is that as an omega, you only have a limited number of eggs. Snow produces sperm in the millions. His odds of fathering a human child are extremely low, but not zero. He knew Theo was his one and only chance, that Theo carried one egg with low alien DNA. Everything in him resisted, but he also knew it would give you a chance at parenthood too, by proxy. That if those children were born, they’d be your family."
"Moon… I—" A sob rips from my chest.
"They’ll both be sorcerers, you know? They have about the same percentage of alien DNA as Snow and you do. Thanks to that, they’ll be able to hold their human form with proper training and help. You’ll have so much in common with them, Summer. You can teach them how to live in this world safely, as someone extraordinary. This is your chance at a family."
"Mercy…" I plead, my voice cracking.
But he shows none.
"As strange as it sounds, Snow didn’t do this to hurt you. He’d never do that. He did it to give you a family, kids who would have powers similar to yours, and it was the only way possible. He knew you’d be heartbroken at first, hating him, but then… he hoped for your understanding."
I’m too agitated to keep listening to this.
