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I looked at Reth, not wanting to watch the strange faerie anymore. He set my teeth on edge, something about him making me instantly wary, tired. There was something there, something that tickled at the back of my mind. Please, don't let it be recognition. Reth looked disgusted as Lin cracked open another can of Coke and chugged it.
"Melinthros," Reth said, his voice ringing powerfully through the box.
The faerie snapped his eyes up, finally looking at us. "Watch it, pretty boy. I've got a nasty headache and if you go throwing around my name, things are liable to get ugly real quick around here. "
Since when did faeries call each other "pretty boy"?
Lin turned back to the race. "No!" he shouted, throwing his now empty can against the glass. Then, a wicked smile cutting across his smooth features, he whispered something under his breath and flicked a hand toward the pack of cars zipping by. The car in front flipped onto its side, sliding as bits of it flew off and sparks trailed the ground. The cars behind smashed into it and each other, unable to avoid the wreck. One bright yellow car slammed into another and flipped over the top of it, crushing the roof before spinning off into a wall.
The entire thing took less than ten seconds, and then the track was a mess of smoke and colorful pieces of what used to be cars. An announcer buzzing in the background let off a long string of swearwords, declaring it the worst crash in the course's history.
Lin sat back, a pleased smile on his face. "I love this sport. " He grabbed another Coke from the floor and drained it, wiping his mouth before he looked at Reth. "What are you doing here again?"
"I've brought your daughter. " Reth's voice was devoid of emotion as it destroyed my life. I couldn't breathe, couldn't process this, couldn't tell whether the room was spinning or I was. Reth's grip on my shoulder tightened, steering me to one of the chairs. I sat heavily, staring at the floor.
I wasn't part faerie.
I couldn't be! It didn't make any sense.
Oh, bleep, when had anything in my life ever made sense?
"That's not her. " Lin frowned, holding his hand near the ground. "She's about yea high, doesn't talk much, cries a lot. Bound to be around here somewhere. " He looked over the top of one of the chairs as though three-year-old me would be there, playing.
Reth's golden eyes darkened. "Yes, that was an accurate description, fourteen years ago when you lost her. "
"I didn't lose her. " Lin straightened indignantly. "She's-" He paused, scratching his head. Then he looked at me, squinting. "Well, fancy that. You're right. Pale, tragic little thing, isn't she? Still, here she is and she is here. Go take her to the queen or whatever it is she was for. I forget. Ooh, they're clearing the track!"
He stared, transfixed, as what was left of the cars were leveraged off the track while paramedics carried out several people on stretchers.
I looked up at Reth, my lips trembling. I didn't know which was worse-that my father was a faerie, or that he spent the last fourteen years oblivious to the fact that I was missing. Reth's mouth was pursed, his full lips smashed into a single disapproving line.
He picked up a can, holding it with the tips of his fingers as though it were contaminated. IPCA had discovered, at great loss, the only thing from our world that affected faeries was carbonation; it was like hard liquor. Which made my father a faerie alcoholic. Of course. Brilliant. Reth set the can gingerly back down. "This is why I avoided court business. Mixing our fates with humans' never ends well. It's disgraceful. This is what comes of forcing a faerie to live outside our Realms. We'veall become tainted by the nonsense and decay of this world. "
"Reth. " I whispered so that my voice wouldn't crack. The tears were already out, but I didn't want to lose it. Not here. Not in front of that thing that was my father. "Please. I don't understand any of this. "
Brushing off the seat, he sat in the chair next to me. "I'd hoped he could explain, but once again it falls to me. " Reth fixed his depthless eyes on mine and took my hand in his. There were none of the forced flames from before, just reassuring pressure, like he was trying to anchor me. "I suppose the idea for you started about twenty years ago. "
He traced a finger tenderly down my cheek. "It was a very bad idea from the start. "
Chapter Thirty-Seven
What He Said
My queen claimed it was our responsibility to accept that we'd created our own prison in the Faerie Realms. The Dark Queen, however, had other ideas. After numerous mistakes, each more disastrous than the last, most of the fey felt making an Empty One, someone who could create and control gates, was impossible. We would be relegated to the Faerie Realms and this sad dirt heap forever. Some asked my queen to help, but she refused, her irrational affection for human life influencing her. I always felt that surely she could at least do better than vampires. "
"Vampires?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "Vampires were one of the Dark Queen's early mistakes. She thought if she could kill the humans first and re-create them with her magic, they would become Empty Ones and take in souls. Instead they took life but no soul. Very distasteful, really. "
"Wait-you guys made vampires?" It was their fault Arianna was cursed like that?
"Please don't interrupt, my love. Our magic became further and further diluted as this world tainted us, which was why we weren't watching for the Dark Queen to succeed. When my queen heard of Vivian, a true Empty One, she knew she had to make one, too, or risk the Dark Queen opening a gate and shutting the rest of us here forever. And so, unbeknownst to any others, she selected a faerie from her court"-he looked derisively over at Lin, engrossed in the race-"and assigned him to create an Empty One. "
"Create?" I whispered. I didn't want to know.
"It's not easy for faeries to spend extended amounts of time in this mortal realm. Eventually it wears us down, pulls at the threads connecting us to eternity. We become thin shadows of what we are meant to be. " Lin's fuzzy glamour made sense now-even his faerie features seemed strained. "But in order to do what he needed, he was forced to stay here. Finding a willing mortal woman was no challenge, of course. "
"My mom?" I had a mom. A human mom.
