AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Suddenly, it clicks.
Nine’s fate is tied to a mortal who wasn’t, right? A halfling. And Gillespie told me that I’m the first female halfling he’s met in his three hundred years…
I glare up at him. “Nine. I’ve got a question for you. How long did you know that I was going to be yours?”
The room quiets. I don’t think anyone expected me to just put it out there like that.
They should’ve known better by now.
“I was sure the moment I found you in the asylum. You were on the cusp of turning twenty-one and… it was so obvious to me. Once you were twenty-one for sure, once the fae side of you came out, there was no denying it. The life debt to your sire, the Seelie blood in your veins… the way I was drawn to you. In trying to shield you from the Shadow Prophecy, I realized that mine had finally come to pass.”
Ignoring the part about the Shadow Prophecy, I have to admit that that… actually explains a lot. I remember being a little weirded out—and, okay, a little flattered—at the way he seemed to gobble me up with his gaze that first night in my room in Black Pine. He couldn’t stop watching me.
And then, after our trip to Faerie, right after my fae ears appeared… everything was different. Everything changed.
His touch was so much more powerful than it had been before. And I started to accept that the feelings toward Nine I always had were way more complicated than I thought.
Still.
“That’s not what I asked, Nine,” I tell him, steel in my voice.
I’m not going to let this go.
He knows it, too.
On a sigh, he admits, “I suspected it from the moment the gossips in Faerie whispered that Aislinn’s human mate was with child.”
Suspected it… What a fae way to put it. I learned that from Nine, too. The fae will never speak in absolutes unless there’s no way around it.
But I need him to be absolute.
“Nine…” I say in warning, two seconds away from losing it.
“But I knew—some part of me just knew—from the very first touch.”
Okay, then. I got my answer, didn’t I?
“When I was an infant,” I say flatly.
“Yes.”
“Is… is that why you watched over me my whole life? Because of your prophecy?”
Nine can’t lie. Once again, I bet he wishes he could.
He nods slowly. “The debt compelled me… but, yes, I would’ve done it anyway once I recognized who you were. You weren’t my ffrindau then, but if you survived Melisandre long enough, one day you might be.”
Might. Not is. Not was.
Might.
Welp. I guess that settles that.
So, yeah. I think I’m gonna need some time to deal with all of this. But since running out of the apartment again isn’t an option, I struggle to find some way to change the subject.
He can tell. Sometimes it seems like Nine knows me better than anyone does. I don’t know how I feel about that, either.
“I didn’t want to bring this up. You have bigger concerns than me, but Aislinn insisted. And he’s… he’s right. This is his home. His family. I should respect that. He thought you needed to know the truth of my past. Now you know.”
