Aline nodded. “The day I found out I was pregnant, the coven had a huge celebration. We all went down to the sidhe and danced and ate and drank and howled at the moon. I believe you boys were there with your parents – although you’d all be too young to remember. Robert was in one of his savage moods that night, and he’d had a lot to drink, and he told this story about a fae woman who fathered a child through a binding. Everyone thought he was just repeating some fae legend he’d heard, but something about the tale unsettled me. It was a couple of months later I figured out he was really Daigh, and I realised the significance of the story.”
“What was the story, then?” Corbin leaned forward. This was his area of interest.
“Many centuries ago, a fae princess was gathering food in the forest on a cold winter’s day when she came upon a young woman huddled inside a hollow tree. The woman was travelling to visit her betrothed, who lived on the other side of the forest.She strayed from the path and become lost, and not knowing what to do, she’d taken shelter in the tree.
“As soon as the fae laid eyes upon this woman, she fell into madness, which is how Robert always described love. She desired to possess the woman. ‘I will lead you back to the safety of the path,’ the fae told the woman. ‘But in exchange, you must grant me a kiss.’ This particular fae princess was famed for her sensual beauty, and she knew the woman wouldn’t be able to resist her as soon as their lips touched.
“The girl was frightened. Night was falling, and carnivorous creatures stalked her scent. She agreed to the fae’s bargain. The fae princess took her hand and led her back to the safety of the path.
“‘I’ve kept my part of the bargain. I shall have my kiss,’ the fae demanded. Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw her lover in the distance, running along the path and calling out to her. She became terrified he would stumble upon her just as she kissed the fae princess, and know that she had betrayed him.
“Knowing fae folk have the ability to slip unnoticed into a person’s mind, she begged the fae to become one with her lover and so have her kiss as they reunited. ‘You will feel his lips against mine as though they were your own, and I will not lose him. Please?’
“Overcome with lust, the fae complied. She hid her body behind an ancient oak, and slipped herself inside the mind of the woman’s lover as he came around the corner and saw her standing on the path. He swept her up into his arms, and devoured her lips with his.
“Their kiss turned deeper as they explored their bodies in joyous reunion,” Aline grinned. “I believe at this point Robert gave a descriptive account of their wild copulating. He even had two of the coven members act out the scene. Oh yes, I remember! It was Andrew and Bree.”
“Bloody hell,” Corbin covered his ears. “Warn a person before you say stuff like that about his parents.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Please, keep going. I think we can use our imaginations for that bit.”
“I can’t,” Flynn piped up. “I have no imagination. Tell us more about Corbin’s parents’ wild copulating.”
“La la la, I’m not listening,” Corbin sang, his hands still plastered over his ears.
“It’s okay, Corbin, I won’t speak of it any more.” Aline grinned again. “Instead, I can tell Flynn about the time I found his Dad in the spa pool with three Californian yoga instructors.”
“Argh!” Flynn clamped his own hands over his ears.
“I think we should get back on track here,” Arthur said, although he was smiling. “Before we all find out stuff about our parents we’d rather not know.”
“Yes, of course. So the fae remained inside the man’s head while they made love, and she shared every sensual moment along with him, enjoying the woman’s body as though she herself were the lover. Inside the man’s head, she learned something else – the man and woman had powers of their own. He could manipulate water, so he had held off the snowstorm while he searched the forest for her, and she was an earth user, which is why she’d sought the comfort of the tree when she was lost.
“The magic of the two lovers sizzled under their skin. The fae felt the power rising and swirling within her as though it were her own magic – but that wasn’t possible, because her magic was back with her body, wasn’t it?
“As the man and woman basked in the afterglow of their lovemaking, the fae returned to her true from and slipped away into the forest. She returned to her people, but as her days passed in the forest, she noticed that her magic had diminished. She could no longer cast glamour or compell the minds ofothers. She was convinced the woman had tricked her somehow, so she travelled to the village where the woman and man now lived as husband and wife to get her power back.
“She discovered the woman had given birth to a child – a son – who carried power that had never been seen before. He commanded the magic of water, of earth, and of the fae world. The fae fell to her knees in reverence before the babe. Her heart opened, for she knew that he was her son.
“The husband saw her standing over his son, and he chased the fae princess back into the forest. She returned many times to try and see the son, but every time the husband chased her away, fearing she was an evil changeling come to steal him. She could not get close to the house again. As the son grew up, his father’s fear of the fae imprinted itself on him. He used his powers to become the most powerful witch in the land, and he led the covens together to build a new realm for the fae. There was a bloody battle, and he pushed all the fae into that realm, and shut the portal behind it. That was the last time the fae were allowed to roam the vast forests of earth, and the last time the fae princess laid eyes upon her son born of the binding. Separated from the source of her magic, she withered and died.”
“Well isn’t that a story of sunshine and rainbows?” Blake licked cream off his fingers.
“That’s why the fae forbid the binding,” Corbin nodded. “Because it gives a human power over them.”
“So that’s it, then. I’m a freak child of a binding.” I’d guessed as much back when we’d met Robert at the institution. But to hear it like this – told in a fairy tale instead of from a scientist at a genetics lab – well, that was just rubbing salt in the wound.
“You’re so special.” Aline reached for me. I tore myself away, and fell into Arthur’s arms. I relaxed into his embrace, seeking comfort in the familiarity of his touch.
And then I remembered the cuts on his wrist. Not even Arthur was strong enough for what we had to endure right now.
This is all too much.
I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting just a few moments respite from this woman who had birthed me. But we needed to know everything we could. “Robert and Daigh are both my father?”
“Yes. And if the story is to be believed, when you were conceived you took some of Diagh’s power. Perhaps enough that when the time of the ritual came he wasn’t strong enough to stop me from crippling his powers. He didn’t know you were alive until recently. Now that he knows, he believes it’s vital you’re by his side. Because if you remain out here…” she trailed off.
I alone have the power to stop the fae. I’ve got it. I just don’t want it to be true.
