He looked accusingly between Jon and Cliff.
“That was my doing as much as theirs,” I snapped with more venom than intended—shielding the boys, yes, but the sting of guilt made me pitifully defensive. Then again, my family could have been dead or captured if we had all reunited in Aelthorin as intended.
Father nodded as though this didn’t really come as a surprise to him.
“You were tracking us across the fucking country,” Cliff huffed bitterly. There were few things more shameful than a hunter becoming the hunted, especially without detection for months.
“You didn’t make it easy, if that’s any consolation,” my father said with the barest hint of a smile. “But when I finally tracked you to this area, the hotel caught my attention, of course. From there, I didn’t know what to believe—were the hunters selling my daughter out to the highest bidders, or was there a nobler purpose for you being here? All the same, I knew I needed to get inside. With the right glamour and the right conversations, I was able to discern that amongst all the collectors in the event, fairies were specially reserved for Eros.”
His attention lingered on Jon and Cliff.
“I caught glimpses of you both and still couldn’t be sure of your intentions.” He nodded at Jon, begrudgingly impressed. “Youare a perceptive one. Nearly saw straight through my glamour.”
“That was you?” Jon said. “I couldn’t remember your face after.”
“My magic tends to have that effect—quite useful when I’m trying to avoid tails. I couldn’t risk a confrontation without drawing unwanted attention. I knew that sooner or later, this Eros would come into play. So I took on the guise of one of his soldiers. When Sylvia was captured, there were no easy decisions to be made. The hope was to wait until we arrived at our destination, to free any captives from there before myidentity could be detected. But then that man—Rhett…” He spat the name like a curse.
Rhett’s sadistic urges were the last thing I wanted to think about, let alone to relive it in front of everyone. When I went rigid, Hazel nestled even more firmly against my side. I stroked her hair and steadied myself.
“You saved Sylv,” Cliff murmured.
Father eyed him uncertainly. “You gave me the opening I needed. I’ll admit, it was a relief to know that you had not betrayed her trust.”
“We wouldn’t have survived without you,” I said to Father. The words should have been shaking with gratitude and tears, but instead, they spilled out hollowly. A simple matter of fact. “Now, please. Tell me what happened to you.” With the way Hazel straightened, prepared to hang on every word, I realized even she didn’t know all the details. I turned to Mother, stinging with betrayal. “Why did you lie to us?”
Mother covered her mouth with a hand and avoided my stare, but Father met me head-on, wearing a look of unfathomable pain and love.
“I must start withwhy,” he said softly. “Please, try to understand. Even before you were born, I was growing unsettled by how closed off the world was to our kind. The villages I would lodge in while traveling were beginning to run low on resources. Territories were shrinking due to human influence. Glamour boundaries were becoming tighter. The wards were always meant to keep everyone safe, yes, but there was a time when there were miles upon miles of safe wilderness beyond it, untouched by humanity. Several villages were truly confined to nothing beyond the barriers.”
His sentiments were nothing new. After all, he had been the first to instill these observations in me.
“You always said we were living like little more than prisoners,” I murmured. “So you decided to become a human. To leave us?”
Father’s eyes widened. “No. Some things went according to plan, and others didn’t. But please believe me when I say that I never intended to leave you.”
“Whatdidyou intend, then?”
“You recall the legends I told you about using gem magic to shapeshift?”
I nodded, biting my tongue to keep from blurting that lately, those legends wereallI thought about.
“They are more than simple legends and fanciful tales,” Father said. “Processes and incantations were scattered to the winds over many centuries, made even more difficult to acquire as our communities became more isolated. But I knew such magic existed. If it were possible to temporarily shift into the form of a beast, why couldn’t the same be true for a human form?”
The sudden fervor lighting up his eyes was all too familiar, making my spine lock up uncertainly. I had always looked upon the memories of his zeal as a simple thirst for power, but perhaps I had been mistaken. I knew firsthand how exhilarating the rush of a gem’s power was, but I also knew how that paired with the immeasurable hope that it could give you everything you wanted.
“Success would mean freedom,” I said quietly. “Safer access to resources. Perhaps even being able to stop humans from taking more of the lands surrounding the village.”
“Yes,” Father said with a buoyant tremble to his voice as though he always knew I’d understand.
But I dropped my gaze and held Hazel tighter. “The Council found out what you were doing?”
He sighed. “I kept the main goal of my studies a secret, of course. I allowed them access to my other projects to keepthem satisfied that I was still under their control. But they were suspicious all the same, and I… As I’m sure you can recall, I was particularly vocal about the tightening boundaries.”
Mother scoffed. “Vocalis one thing. I can scarcely remember a council gathering that didn’t end with half the chamber walls covered in frost.”
“I never attacked anyone, if you’ll recall, darling,” Father said with a wince. “Any magical instability was pure collateral damage from working with gems. All the same, the council grew worried that I intended to jeopardize the safety of Elysia with my travels and high-powered magic. They had no proof, of course, but they grew paranoid of, well,everything. Most of all, they feared that I would grow too powerful to be stopped if I did decide to do something they didn’t agree with. With that, they outlawed gem magic—both its scavenging and its use.”
“But you didn’t stop,” I said.
