Kywyn’s gaze dropped to the ground.
“Why did you let me grow up completely unaware of who I am?”
“It wasn’t my choice. I wanted so badly to come for you. The Council wouldn’t let me.”
Sean sank against a tree, waiting for more information, but none came. Eventually his heart slowed, and he sighed. “My mother set me up for failure.”
Kywyn’s eyebrows drew together. “She was a slave to fear.”
The thought of his mother tightened a well-worn band around Sean’s soul. “I’m going to need more than that.”
“We were young when we met.” Kywyn exhaled a slow breath. “Probably younger than you are now. She tried to fight it. She wanted no part of my destiny. The stories scared her, and she didn’t want to bond with someone she might lose. I told her I wasn’t the one, that I was just a steward in the line. Once she finally believed me, that’s when she began to fear for our future child.”
“Why?” Sean asked.
“We don’t reproduce easily. Most of us are graced with only one child, if any at all. Lana knew if she chose me to father her only child, she risked that child becoming Lhynion’s heir. She was so scared of it that she left.”
“She…left?”
“Yes. Long before you were born. She left me. She tried to bear the child she wanted by someone else.”
Sean’s eyebrows shot up. “Seems a little dramatic.”
Kywyn chuckled. “It wasn’t a good time for me. Or for her. But she was desperate.”
“So what happened?”
“She came back. I loved her. She loved me. We’re pixies. She tried to stay away, but eventually she gave up.”
Sean opened his mouth to ask why being a pixie had anything to do with that, but Kywyn continued before he could. “Autumn came first. She’s a decade older than you. When she was born, we knew. Her hair was just like Rhiannon’s, and her skin burned with happiness the way Rhiannon’s was rumored to,” he said. “Lana panicked, and I was terrified to lose her again. I told her we could still have time. We’re all separated by so many years. Except by then, Isobel’s mother was already expecting.”
“Where is her mother?”
“She passed. An accident—a fall.”
“And her father?”
Kywyn glanced to the side, then the treetops. “I don’t know who he is. Isobel’s mother was…” He moved his hand in circles, searching.
“Promiscuous?”
He nodded. “Once Lana realized Ketzia—sorry, Isobel’s mother—was pregnant, she…” He shook his head. “I’m not sure who had the more dramatic reaction, Lana or David’s mother.”
“What did David’s mom do?”
“Elenya fled to the mortal world. She tried to hide. I think she attempted to sterilize herself.”
Sean blinked, scrutinizing the details of his father’s face. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Rather than bear Galadaine’s progeny, she wanted to end the line of Manae completely.”
A disbelieving huff escaped Sean as he attempted to fathom beingthatscared of his own unborn child.
“But the Luster always finds a way. She bore her child in secret, gave him to Xandra to raise in the mortal world where he couldn’t be found, and left.”
Queasiness squeezed at Sean’s gut. “Do any of you have any idea what kind of life he lived there? His father turned him into a—a murderer.”
Kywyn laid a troubled gaze on him. “I’m not sure the man he was left with was his actual father, and I’m certain Elenya compelled David to stay. She has Morgan’s magic just like the rest of their line.”
