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To learn I never would because I wasn’t a Graykey was—wait.
“If only Graykeys can go to Earth, then how the hell could Melaina claim to have gone through the portal? She isn’t a blood-born Graykey.”
She’d been born to House Severin, if my research was correct. Taiki hadn’t been a blood-born Graykey either.
Quilla exhaled an irritated breath, not a fan of my distracting questions. “It works for Graykeys or their chosen partner,” she finally explained, not even glancing my way. “We recite a special chant that binds a mate to us for life. The mate doesn’t suffer from bloodlust in a reaping as we do, but they do get caught up in the curse right along with us in that the couple always ends up having three children together—unless one of them dies first—and they are compelled to designate their progeny with names that start with a certain letter, plus they are able to move through the transference portal to Earth after that.” She shrugged dismissively. “It’s why there’s never any illegitimate Graykey children. The curse prevents you from reproducing unless you bind a mate to you.”
“Interesting.” My eyebrows rose. So that meant she hadn’t needed to close her womb. All along, she could’ve just refused to claim a mate. That told me she still held on to the hope of finding a life partner for herself. Somewhere in her, she did believe in love and did want a happily ever after to share with someone. Encouraged by that, I grinned. “I had no idea Graykeys had their own mating ritual too. Just like us High Clifters, huh?”
“Except your mating marks are stupid.”
I shrugged, still too pleased by the revelation that she would like to claim a mate someday to be bothered by the dig, and I murmured, “Debatable.” Then I shifted forward an inch, feeling drawn to her. “So once you finally claim me back as yours, I’ll be able to travel through the portal too?”
Hot damn. I was back in the game. The mere idea of possibly getting to travel to Earth and experience it one day, even for a little bit, thrilled me to no end.
“Except that’s never going to happen,” Quilla announced.
Never say never, I wanted to warn her. But I was too busy thinking.
“Wait.” I shook my head and frowned. “I know someone who went there—to Earth—and came back again. And she wasn’t a Graykey.”
“Impossible. Either she lied and really didn’t go,” Quilla said with such conviction that I frowned, not sure what to believe. “Or she lied about who she really was.”
My stomach dropped with dread over that possibility. Nanny Wynter had always avoided me, probably because she knew I had wanted to question her about her trip to Earth. What if she’d been a Graykey in hiding all this time?
Except, no, she’d lived in Donnelly for years. And she’d passed a purity test. Could a Graykey pass a purity test?
“She disappeared and was gone for six full moon cycles,” I argued, “only to return out of nowhere, claiming she’d been to an alternate dimension. Just where do you suggest she went then, if not Earth? To Mars?”
Quilla lifted shocked eyes my way. Then she frowned. “It’s very disturbing to me that you even know what Mars is. Or Earth. No one is supposed to know any of that.”
I shrugged and countered, “Except people who’ve actually been there.” When she sharpened her frown, I added an elusive, “Or descendants of people who were born there.”
She snorted. “Except we’re all descendants of people who were born on Earth.”
I blinked, not expecting to hear that. Sitting up straighter, I said, “What?”
Smirking when she realized she knew something I didn’t, she said, “Here’s a little bit of Graykey family trivia for you, High Clifter—a history told down the line through our generations. The original nineteen who came here and settled into the Outer Realms were all from Earth, or as my family has always called it: the old world.”
“The old world,” I murmured in amazement, never having heard Earth referred to as that term before. Incredible. I loved learning new history. Eager for more, I said, “How did the original nineteen get here, then? Who were they? Why did they leave Earth?”
“It needs a key,” she realized suddenly, her eyes growing big with excitement as she gaped at the book.
My pulse jumped with anxiety. But I made myself appear calm as I lifted one eyebrow. “Does it?”
She stood, studying me intently, more intently than she’d ever looked at me before. My cock thickened painfully, ready for her to touch me just as thoroughly as she was looking at me.
“Where’s the key?” she said softly.
“Search me,” I answered. Then I lifted my hands from my lap and opened them as far as the shackles would allow. “Se
riously, feel free to search me. All over.”
“My foot is going to search you right in the nuts if you keep talking like that.”
I winced, hoping she didn’t mean that literally, then shot back, “Honestly, if you want to get that up close and personal with my family jewels, empress, all you have to do is ask. I’ll gladly let you search them with your foot, hand, toes, mouth—whichever body part you prefer.”
“That’s it.” She stalked toward me. “The next words out of your mouth better be the location of that key, or I’m wringing your neck.”
