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I hope so. I did it on purpose.
The only thing he does is shake his head. “Not like me, Riley. He was Seelie. A Light Fae. Like—”
“Like Rys,” I supply. Why am I not surprised? “So that makes me…”
“Half-Seelie, half-human. It’s not common, but it’s not unheard of, either. Their mating should have created a halfling. Someone who could resist iron and tell a lie, but who was particularly vulnerable to being touched by a fae.”
I think of the iron nail nestled in between my boobs. Except for the weight, it doesn’t bother me at all. Then there’s the way I’m lying to Nine right now. He believes that I’ve been bunking here alone because Carolina’s always gone before night falls. He’s got a point. No fae can do that.
But I’ve also got these weirdo gifts.
I run his solemn words through my head again.
...should have created a halfling...
“I’m not just a halfling, am I?”
Nine shakes his head. “A Light Fae, whether full-blooded or half, will always shy away from the shadows. Even as an infant, you were drawn to the darkness. The first time you shade-walked, Aislinn knew tha
t you were different. And he knew, should Melisandre discover your secrets, she’d destroy you.”
“Ash-lynn,” I murmur. “I remember… you mentioned him before.”
“Aislinn,” Nine repeats, correcting the way I said the name. “Your father.”
A fae who fell in love with a human. Who married a human, and had a child with a human. Who gave up Faerie for a human—
If he could, and it’s possible, then that means—
I push that thought far, far away. I can’t. I just… I can’t.
14
“What about you?” I say hurriedly, forging on with the conversation because the alternative is getting stuck in my own thoughts—and my own fantasies. “I’ve never been afraid of you.” A horrible thought pops in my head. “Are you charming me right now?”
“No.”
Doesn’t matter that he can’t lie. Once the suspicion hits me, it’s not so easy to shake it. It would make sense. How could I go from wanting nothing to do with him while I was still in Black Pine to, well, confessing my feelings for him in such a short period of time?
Carolina says it’s the touch. Maybe she’s right—or maybe it’s something else entirely.
Please let it be something else.
“How do you know?” I demand. “You’re fae. Maybe you’re doing it and it’s not on purpose. It’s just who you are.”
“Riley. No.”
“But—”
“My glamour has never worked on you. I tried when you were a child. You were too young to understand my kind. I wanted to appear as a friendly creature, knowing a mortal child would never accept one of the Unseelie. Imagine my surprise when you saw me for exactly who I am.” He lets out a huff. Like always with Nine, I can’t tell if he’s pleased with me or annoyed. “You called me the Shadow Man. It was as good a name as any, as well as an apt choice. But, trust me, the form I tried to present looks nothing like the darkness that I am.”
I was so little when he first followed me to the Thornes. I always thought he called himself the Shadow Man. When I recently learned that he was fae, I thought he had tricked me.
But I was the one who gave him the name?
Even worse, if this is Nine’s true appearance, I’m screwed.
He was right. Even as a kid, I had never really been all that afraid of the dark. An unwanted touch, definitely, but the dark? Nope. I guess, if I had to fall for a fae, at least it’s a Dark Fae.
