Page 86 of Into The Green

"Yes. How, I still have no idea. You should have been drawn back here. Especially being a child of both Courts. It should have been overwhelming."

An image flashed across my mind, of the pixies, of the invisible necklace they stole from me that had seemed to completely confound Jasper.

"Magic," I said with a shrug. "She had someone spell a necklace. I never even knew it was there until pixies pulled it off me. It must have kept me away from the woods with some kind of fear of being mauled."

Cass sighed, running a hand through his hair. "That would explain it. It will be fun to hunt down whatever witch would act against the laws. Children can't be taken from their fathers."

"What did you do to my mother?" I asked, trying not to feel guilty at the idea that someone would suffer for protecting me from him.

"She was... questioned extensively."

"She was tortured," I corrected. "Let's not mince words. Subtlety doesn't suit you."

"Fine. You want crass, I will give you crass. I stripped her and hung her by her wrists in a dungeon for twelve weeks. She was never let down. She was beat. She was burned. She was spelled. Eventually, she cracked. Her brain, mind you, not her will. She impressed me in the end. I never had her pegged for stubborn. Trusting and a bit simple, but not stubborn."

"You made her crazy and then her parents came and saved her."

"That about covers it."

"Thank God I got more of her than you in me," I mumbled, looking out the window.

"Really?" Cass asked, drawing my attention as he rolled up his sleeve. "This is your mother?" he asked, making me feel nauseated. "And that auctioneer in the market? Face it, daughter, you have a hell of a lot more of me in you than your mother."

I had the gut feeling that he was right and I didn't like what that said about me.

"What? That's all?" he asked after I was silent for several minutes, just looking out the window.

I looked over at him, considering everything I had been through the past several months, the truths I had been forced to confront about the world, my friends, and myself. No, that wasn't all. It didn't even begin to scratch the surface. But what more could be said?

"Maybe I'm not good. But at least I have a capacity to love and be selfless and giving. Maybe my powers bring out something nasty, something of you in me, but I'm nothing like you. Not really."

"What, because you love some empath and made friends with a matchmaker and a nymph, you think you're better than me."

"Not torturing people makes me better than you. Not enslaving fauns as pack mules makes me better than you."

"They would enslave you as well, you know..."

"Oh, I'm fully aware of that. The one out..." I clamped my mouth shut hard, realizing my mistake.

"Had a close call, did you? And how did you feel when you realized you were this close," he said, pinching his fingers together, "to becoming a sex slave until you were too worn out to be any fun anymore?" At my flinch, he sneered. "What? You wanted crass, didn't you? Do you have any idea what a faun cock looks like, Celestine?"

"Shut up," I said, shaking my head, knowing he was just trying to get a rise out of me. "So what now, Dad? Take me to your big castle and show me all the things that could have been? I mean, in theory. In reality, I would have grown up in the dungeons."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I didn't have you long enough to make that decision."

"Don't you think it would be better for your... subjects to have me around? Being the only heir and whatnot."

"Who said you're the only heir?" he asked, surprising me.

"I have a brother or sister?"

"I think I am done answering your questions for now," he declared in such a way that I knew not to press.

That just left me with nothing to do but sit and let my brain race around the possibilities of a sibling. Just because he or she grew up in the Dark Court didn't necessarily mean he or she was as evil as Cass. I mean, look at Jasper and Jade. True, they got out young, but Amy was still there. And there was good in her, I just knew it. So maybe there was hope they weren't completely evil.

The coach slowed then pulled to a stop. Before I could even look out the window, my wrist was snagged and I was dragged out onto a stone pathway. Well, no, not a pathway. It was a courtyard, like that you'd see in movie recreations of medieval times. Complete with the freaking castle. No lie, it was a long, sprawling, gray stone castle. Fae milled about, all stopping and looking over, most bowing their heads at Cass.

I looked over at the fauns, bodies sweaty, lash marks on their backs. And while I knew I could have easily been a mindless sex slave to one of them, the guilt was enough to make me choke back bile. Suddenly, Cass was reaching underneath the driver's feet, grabbing something that caught the small amount of sun that was visible in the Dark realm. I noticed way too late what it was.