“She—she called me Caden when we were alone. I prefer Sean.”
“You were born Caden Seán Sidera.” As he spoke the words, Sean’s brain translated the last just it had with the wordAshanta.
Sidera. The archer.
“Why wouldn’t Mom want me here?”
Kywyn pressed fingers to his closed eyes and sighed. “There is so much you don’t know. Blaire arrived only hours ago, telling us where to find you. I should have prepared what to say, but I didn’t dare hope.”
Wait. Aunt Blaire had led them to him? He’d left her home in a fit of pique, and she’d come here?
Autumn, a pleased smile curving her mouth, patted Kywyn’s knee. “Why don’t you start with who he is, and we’ll go from there.”
“Right.” Kywyn took a deep breath. “You are my son, the only heir in the line of Lhynion Sidera, the man who began the Exorcism.”
Uhh.
So many words he didn’t know.
Autumn chuckled. “Baby steps, Ky.” She turned toward Sean. “Let me try. So… A long time ago, a man named Lhynion Sidera began a campaign against those creatures with the purple eyes. We call it the Exorcism. Long story short, they possess humans and feed on their emotional energy, and we kill them so they won’t do that.”
Right.
Emotional vampires. The purple eyes were emotional vampires.
“They’re creatures from another realm called Indigo,” she continued. “It lies along the same ley line as us, so we both use Viterra—sorry, the mortals’ realm—as a power source. It’s a delicate ecosystem, our worlds together, and the Indies have invaded that territory. They steal more than their share of the energy and leave us with very little. Lhynion Sidera organized the Exorcism as a crusade against the Indies to correct the balance. We”—she motioned to each of them—“are part mortal, part immortal. We blend in to fight there, and we’ve been at war with Indigo for centuries.”
So what happened in that club was some sort of battle? Sean might have asked more, but he snagged on the previous words. “We’re…partimmortal?”
Autumn’s mouth opened, but she paused. “Well?—”
Another bell at the door interrupted her, and Blaire poked her head in.
Sean and Cole stood, but Cole rushed toward her. “Mom?”
With a muttered “Thank the Mother,” Blaire launched into the room and threw her arms around him. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?”
Sean approached more slowly, uncertain after their rift earlier, but she disentangled herself from Cole and grabbed Sean by the wrist to pull him in. Her embrace was warm and smelled, as ever, of lavender and jasmine.
“What were you thinking?” she hissed. “Your mother taught you better than this. Running off and not telling me where.”
“Aunt Blaire,” Sean said, smothered against the crook of her neck. “You don’t get to be mad about that. This is way more than I’d imagined.”
She backed away just enough to take his face into her hands. Her dark eyes peered into his, apologetic. “I made your mother a promise to hide you, but you disappeared to one of the most dangerous places in Viterra, and I had no option but to seek their”—she nodded her head toward Kywyn—“help. Your mother never wanted this for you.”
“It wasn’t her choice,” said a voice behind Sean. A bitter voice. Bel’s voice. “Fate comes for us all whether we want it or not.”
Blaire’s gaze flicked in Isobel’s direction, the faint lines beside her mouth pulling tight. She released Sean and dipped her head in deference toward Bel, touching two fingers to her temple. “So it would seem, Lady Isobel.”
“Blaire,” Kywyn said, “have a seat. I was just trying to explain everything.”
She sighed heavily but settled between Sean and Cole on the sofa. “I suppose he’s here. There’s no avoiding it now.”
“Indeed,” Kywyn said. “Where were we?”
“You were telling me I’m part immortal.”
A crooked smile tugged at Kywyn’s mouth. “Right. Yes. Humans call us the fair folk. Fae. Or elves?”
