Page 85 of Into The Green

"How do you get so high in rank if you were half human? How did your parents hide that from your... subjects?"

"You haven't seen the Dark Court. When you have, you'll see there are all kinds of secrets that can be hidden in its depths."

"Who was human? Your mother or your father?"

"My mother. She was a human slave."

I closed my eyes a little, exhaling hard, trying not to conjure up any godawful images. "I'm assuming she wasn't married to your father."

"Hardly," Cass scoffed as if the very idea was disgusting. "My mother never conceived. My father got... inventive in his quest for an heir. He tried all kinds of fae out," he went on and I knew, I just knew none of those fae he 'tried' had been willing. "No one conceived but the human. She was killed to protect the secret and I was raised as full-blood."

"Why do you talk like a human then?"

"My step-mother took me out of The Green to punish my father for his incessant affairs when I was five or so. We stayed out until I was maybe ten before we got dragged back. She was sent to the camps. I was welcomed home with flair."

"What about... powers?" I asked, shaking my head.

"I have some from my father's side. They get hindered by the human half and when I was an adult, I started some experiments to try to offset that."

I swallowed hard. "What kind of experiments?"

"Blood magic. I drained fae with strong powers and injected myself to see if any of it would stick."

"Did it?" I asked, trying not to sound as horrified as I felt.

"Most of it, yes. But not in the same strength."

"No wonder the fae are getting weaker. You take the strongest and kill them." I paused when his eyes went to me, hard, cold, but so familiar. "Tell me, Dad, were you planning on draining me too? Was that what was going to happen to me as a baby?"

"Don't be ridiculous." I almost sighed in relief before he went on. "You can't drain a baby. Their powers aren't fully manifest."

Oh, Jesus Christ.

"So that's why you're bringing me back now. My powers are fully manifested and you can drain me."

"I haven't seen a power like yours ever. Your mother was strong, but even she paled."

"My mother?" I repeated.

"Dany," he said, smiling almost a little wistfully. "At the time, she was princess. Heir to the Light throne."

"At the time," I repeated. "Did you kill her too?"

"Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance."

"You wanted to?" I asked, not willing to believe he was so fully evil.

"She stole you from me. If there was a fate deserving of death, that was it. But the Light court intervened before I could deal the fatal blow."

"Why would a Light princess get involved with a Dark king?"

"I was a prince at the time. She was young, naive, and foolishly obsessed with humans. She liked the stories I had to tell her. She thought humans were sweet. Though, only someone who never lived in the human realm would think humans are anything but base, violent, selfish creatures."

"Right," I snorted. "Because you are so evolved, giving, and passive."

"Your mother's fascination was her undoing. I bedded her. I got you. All under the nose of the Light court. Idiots, the lot of them."

"Did she take me because she knew you would kill me eventually?"