incantation. “Protect me now from any snare, away from danger, within your care.”
The red agate shook on the table before it let out a burst of red magic. My eyes widened as I watched the magic twist and bend in the air, circling around me before it created a red band around my wrist, which dissipated in the air. As the visual ended, a strong feeling of safeguarding settled over my form.
Emma’s jaw was hanging open. “Ethan… what the fuck?”
I was similarly surprised. I’d expected the spell to blow me back on my ass, but that hadn’t happened. The magic had worked. I’d cast an Unseelie spell. Which could only mean one thing.
I was Unseelie. I knew for certain my father’s line was completely Seelie, down to the most ancient of our ancestors… which meant my Unseelie blood had to come from my mother’s line, which would be shared with her sister. So if I was Unseelie, Elijah had to be, too.
The Unseelie were supposed to be rare— their kind was wiped out. But if Elijah, Gabby, Emma and I all had Unseelie blood, they couldn’t be completely extinct. A pocket of dark fae had to be hiding somewhere, here in Malovia.
I ran a hand through my hair. “Maybe this is why the leshane had an easy time possessing me. He knew there was something dark in me all along.”
“You can’t think like that,” Emma said in frustration. “The Unseelie fae are no better or worse than Seelie fae. It’s just a different path.”
I was still dumbfounded, so I fell onto one of the armchairs. I felt cold— at my shivering, Emma knelt down by the fireplace, and turned it on so warmth filled the room.
“This is impossible,” I breathed. “If the people of Malovia knew the royal family had Unseelie traces in their blood, they’d be calling for our heads.”
“Just another secret we have to keep.” Emma took the seat across from me and pulled her legs up on it. “Now that we know the truth, what are we going to do about it?”
I stared into the flames. “I’m not sure. Eli having Unseelie blood makes things even more difficult.”
“But he’s not the one we have to worry about,” Emma pointed out. “I’m stronger with Unseelie magic than you will ever be, and Gabby is stronger than Elijah. We’re sorceresses. It’s how things work.”
“But now Eli has access to magic that we didn’t believe him capable of harnessing before,” I growled. “As an Unseelie, he has more resources.”
“So do you! You’re on equal ground,” Emma said. “This is a good thing. We can fight fire with fire.”
“We can’t if I’m not willing to stoop to his level.” I put a hand over my eyes.
Emma allowed me a moment of silence before her questions began eating away at me. “What happened to you and Eli?” she asked. “I’ve gone through all the old news articles about you two. You used to be super close. Now you’re such bitter enemies.”
I brushed my hair back. “As is typical in these situations, one person changed. The other didn’t. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” Emma’s gaze was curious.
I took a breath. I hadn’t spoken about such things in years, but now it finally seemed the time to deal with what had risen to the surface. “Elijah and I had been closer than brothers. We told each other everything. There wasn’t a moment of our childhood we spent apart from one another. Wherever I went, so did he. And it was like that for a long time. Until our teen years, I suppose.”
“You said one of you changed.”
“Maybe that’s unfair. Both of us did.” My teeth ground as I recounted the story. “Lord Zlodia and Lady Korva always had… backwards views. Politics don’t matter much when you’re a child, but when you get older, they become important. Elijah always used to be so benevolent, so carefree. It’s hard to believe now, but he was never a monster. He helped people. In fact, up until a few years ago… I used to think he was the kindest shifter I ever met.”
I took the red agate from the table, and rolled it in my hand. “I think his parents brainwashed him. They had all kinds of horrible views about the supremacy of fae kind over other supernatural races, and the prevalence of the ruling class over the common people. I questioned it, because my father came from simple means as a commoner himself, but Elijah ate it up