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Aaibhe took Frankie’s chin and asked, “How much do you remember about your father?”
She shrugged. “He was good and kind and … why?”
“Did your mother ever speak of anyone else?”
“No.” Then Frankie eyed her strangely and said, “Once I saw something—
someone—he was half-hidden from view, and it bothered me, for m’mum seemed … well, he seemed important to her.” She drew in air and said, “I saw her in the barn. She was talking with a Fae … there was no mistake about it. He was a Fae—not a Royal, but he was a Seelie Fae. I was angry with her, because she was breaking her own rule. She said never to look at them, and there she was with one—holding his hand like they were friends. I heard her tell him to please leave me be.”
“I see, Frankie,” the queen said and then slowly added, “I am going to shock you now, my dear one.” She paused then once again asked, “Are you sure you are ready for this?”
“I don’t know what it is ye be about to tell me, my Queen, but I do think truth is always the right way.” She shook her head. “Ye see me as young, and mayhap I be young in years, but … I’m not blind.”
“Young people today know a great deal in the human world, but not in the time you lived,” the queen said, still uncertain how to proceed.
“I know.” She smiled brightly. “Nuad showed me American TV, and that was quite fun, but I saw that everyone is very different in manners and behavior to m’own time. I do like the way they dress—so free.”
Aaibhe hugged her and then lifted her chin. “Well, then, where do I start?”
“I don’t need the talk about the birds and bees as m’mum used to call it. I lived on a farm.”
Aaibhe laughed. “So you did.”
“That Fae I saw her with … it has something to do with him, doesn’t it?”
Aaibhe paused and said gently, “Yes, it does, because your mother knew him before she met and married your father.”
Frankie digested this. “So they were old friends, m’mum and this Fae? She warned me off the Fae … and yet, she was friends with one?”
“These things occur,” said the queen softly.
Frankie giggled. “Aye, they do—look at me, a Fios in Faery!”
The queen smiled. “You are now eleven years old … so young to have to deal with this.” She looked at Morgan, whose look of love stroked and encouraged her forward.
“I’ll be twelve in a couple of days,” Frankie objected.
Aaibhe touched her face. “You still have quite a bit of growing up to do, and so you shall.”
“My Queen.” Frankie lowered her lashes. “Please … tell me the truth about m’self. I need to know everything, and I know there is more. It is something about me being a Fios, isn’t it?”
The queen made her decision and dove right in. “Very well, then, child. The truth is, you are more than Fios, which you are because of your mother’s bloodline.” She paused, and her voice caressed Frankie when she continued. “And you are Fae, on your father’s side.”
“No, that can’t be right—m’da was no Fae,” she said on a frown.
“The man you called your ‘da’ was, for all purposes, your father. He loved you and raised you, and you loved him, but he wasn’t the one who gave you life.”
Frankie got up and walked away from the queen; when she turned her eyes were narrowed with her thoughts. “So, then, ye be telling me I am half Fae?”
“Yes, I am telling you that, though a little part of you knew something … always suspected there was more inside you. Your Fae genes have remained dormant during your childhood, as there was no one to call on your powers and train you, but you have felt ‘different’ during your training time with Nuad, haven’t you?”
“Aye, I jest thought it was m’Fios growing.” She pulled herself up and returned to sit with the queen. “Kindly tell me who m’Fae father is then?”
“There is time for that. I need you to remember that you have been snatched out of your time period. You were living in the 1800s … you would have grown to maturity and at some point realized you were immortal. At maturity, your Fae genes would have expanded and taught you who you really were …”
“But now I know who I am, and I want to know who he was,” Frankie said calmly.
“Our job now, Nuad’s job, is to unite the Fios with the Fae in you and bring out your strengths to make you powerful for the immediate future, because the universe is about to be plunged into the deadliest of all times.”
