Which made her wonder if her mother knew? “Do you think any of my other siblings are able to shift?”
“It’s possible.”
How would she know?
But if Ferox had been able to shift, he wouldn’t have hesitated. His arrogance was such that he would have braggedabout it to everyone and used it to intimidate and bully others. Her eldest brother was a royal ass.
As for the others...
They weren’t that different and her mother had never treated them the way she did Gisela.
Which meant this was her birth defect alone and why she’d always believed the ability had come from her father. But neither Dash nor his sister, to her knowledge, could shift.
What was her family history? She’d never been that curious before. Now…
She wanted to understand who she was. Where she’d come from. What her powers were.
“When did you first shift?” she asked him.
“I don’t remember. But normally our children begin when they’re four or five. What about you?”
How could she forget? She’d been five and had sneezed. One moment she’d been a unicorn and in the next, human.
Her governess had screamed and run off to tell her mother—who had told others she was Gisela’s guardian.
That had turned out to be a mistake as her mother’s first act had been to kill the woman for witnessing her transition. Meara’s next move had been to imprison Gisela until she’d learned to control her shifting.
To this day, she was traumatized by her mother’s hostility and hatred. She’d always assumed her mother had reacted that way out of fear of others learning Meara had slept with a shifter and birthed his child.
But if this came from her mother’s side of the family, it made even more sense. The centaur nobles could use it as a reason to overthrow their queen. While they were currently quelled by Meara’s wrath, they might find courage to rise up against her if they realized she wasn’t fully one of them.
Centaurs were terribly paranoid and they hated anyone who wasn’t a pure blood. It was why Thassalia kept to themselves and rarely allowed others to live there. Or even visit. Why it’d been such a shock when Meara had allowed the hostages of other kingdoms to live in her lands.
And why the centaur nobles had been fine when Meara had used those hostages as public entertainment.
While centaurs didn’t like others, they did like watching them suffer.
She’d never understood why. She couldn’t stand seeing others in pain. But apparently, she was an anomaly. Other creatures thought pain was highly entertaining. Meara had made a fortune off the bleeding backs of those like Ronan and Xaydin.
And her.
Truthfully, she’d never understood why her mother had allowed her to live. It wasn’t like Meara to leave anything undone or any witnesses.
Was it because she was her only daughter? Or because Meara couldn’t torture Cratus, so she tortured his child in his place? Nothing in regards to her life made sense. It never had.
“Xaydin told me that you had questions about being a shifter.”
She nodded. “Many. I know very little about that part of my abilities.” Because her mother had forbidden her from using them unless it was while she was killing someone Meara wanted dead. Then…her mother was more than happy to give her all the leniency she needed.
Just don’t fail me.Her mother’s mantra.
“How do we spot others of our kind?”
Ronan shrugged. “You really can’t. Not until they do something to betray themselves.”
“If we take the form of someone else, do we get information about the person we…subsume?”
“No. Those who impersonate usually spend a few days following their target around. Either in the body of something small such as a fly or other insect. Once they believe they can pretend to be their target, they take them over.”
