My stomach drops.If this isn’t a dream, then what’s going on?
An almost creepy smile stretches across her face as she rests her hand on my leg. “You’re not. This is real.”
I swallow, unnerved by the person before me. “You look… healthy.”
“Yes. I’ve been restored. As have you.”
I glance down at my bare chest. A thin blanket covers everything below the waist.
“Where are my clothes?!” I tug the blanket higher to cover myself and pull a heavier one from the foot of the bed over my lap.
“Hush. I’m your mother. I’ve seen you bare countless times.”
“When I was a child!”
She makes atsksound before crossing the room to a wooden wardrobe, then tosses a pile of clothes onto the bed before moving to the window, her back to me. I scramble to pull on the pants and shirt.
The pants, made of supple leather, hug me tighter than I’m comfortable with. And the shirt—it’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Soft, smooth, and… shiny? Its cut completely ignores the rules of modesty, revealing all of my neck and a decent chunk of my chest.
Making it obvious that my father’s charm is gone.
“Where’s my necklace?”
Mother turns to face me, the dazzling green of her eyes blazing. “You don’t need it anymore.”
“You don’t get to decide that. It’s mine. It was my father’s.” I grimace as the knot twists painfully again.
It wasn’t?
No—that doesn’t matter. “You gave it to me. You had no right to take it.”
She cocks her head. “It was originally mine. A piece of the Land that I split with you, for our protection. Your father ‘would have wanted you to wear it’ only because he wouldn’t have wanted a half fae child.”
My mind goes blank.
“A what now?”
Mother sighs, then opens the drawer of the small bedside table, pulling out a dark, round object. “I do not enjoy repeating myself.” She holds it up in front of me.
It’s some kind of mirror, darker than most, but my reflection’s still clear. I swallow the lump in my throat, then snatch it from her, bringing it closer.
My eyes, no longer gray, reflect back at me in a vibrant blue that almost glows in the darkness. The tips of my ears point slightly, and I reach up to feel them.
Oh fuck.
It isn’t a trick.
But it has to be, right?
I bend one back and forth, then the other, too. A sharp sting shoots through me when I pinch it, making it throb. My heart pounds in my ears.
My fae ears.
Because I’m half fae.
“H-how did I not notice before?”
“The necklace. It kept the Fallen from noticing your fae features. Because of your father, that included yourself.”
