Of Dreams and Sorcery (Royal Fae Guardians #1) - Heather Renee Page 0,16
perks the rest of us don’t.”
“You call this a perk?” I glowered at her while gesturing again to my ears.
“Yep. Just be thankful you don’t have wings like the original fae did. Then, you’d really stand out in a crowd.”
Ugh, she was not helping. Time for a different topic.
“So, Stryx says we live for a long time, like centuries. How old are you, really?” I asked.
She grimaced. “I am not old, so don’t ever say that again. I’m seventy-one years young.”
“Got it, Satan. What about you and Dad?” I asked Mom when she finally took a seat.
“We’re just over three hundred years young.” She winked at Jordan. “You kind of stop keeping track after a while.” She shrugged while my jaw pretty much hit the floor.
Cheese and rice, my parents were seriously old, but they didn’t look a day over forty. Deciding not to overthink that little fact, I focused on the positive: at least I had good genes.
“So, where do I find Stryx? I’d like to go see him tomorrow,” I said, but Jordan and Mom shared a look I didn’t like. “What? I realize I’ve been here for like five minutes, but I’ve also known about this place for a year. You can take off the kid gloves and tell me whatever it is that has everyone acting so weird.”
I hadn’t meant to snap, but what I was asking didn’t seem like something that should have secrets behind it. It was frustrating to continue being so understanding when it seemed like they were still not telling me everything.
“Honey, we’re not trying to keep anything from you because we don’t think you can handle it. It’s more of a shock to all of us. Nothing about your situation is normal by any means, and while we knew this ahead of time, it doesn’t make it any easier,” Mom answered. I knew she was right. Though, once the floodgates opened, I had a hard time stopping the words.
“I get it, but not telling me things and preparing me for whatever is coming doesn’t help me, either,” I responded.
Mom sighed, seeing my point. “So, we don’t know where Stryx is. None of us have ever met him. We’ve only ever heard about him and his kind.” She seemed concerned with this tidbit, but I wasn’t.
“Well, wherever he is, I’m sure he’ll show up soon. He promised he’d be here. What do you know about him?”
All I really knew about Stryx was that he was a talking animal, crazy old, and didn’t really like people. Oh, and he was like an encyclopedia of information when it came to all things within Arvayta and the Otherworld, which held the rest of the beings I believed at one point to be fictional.
“He’s from a place in the far reaches of the Otherworld called Dásos where other animals like him live. They used to interact more with the fae, given the original leaders created them, but as the pure fae began to die, the bonds broke and were never reformed, because direct heirs started to be diluted of their fae lineage. Until you, that is,” Mom said as she slid a plate of food in front of me.
“So, they abandoned the other fae descendants just because they weren’t fae enough?” The anger at that knowledge was evident in my voice. I thought I knew Stryx well enough, but that wasn’t okay. “Did they even help in the Dark War?”
Dad stood and joined us. “They did, and a lot of them perished because of their selflessness. You see, the creatures from Dásos are powerful beings, but they are nothing without their other halves, meaning if they have no equal to balance their magic with, then they cannot control it. Stryx and his people did not abandon us because they didn’t care, but because they simply weren’t capable without risking their own lives.”
Well, I felt like a jerk for my previous comments.
“I don’t understand why someone has to be predominantly fae to have a bond with the animals. From the sounds of it, the people around here are pretty powerful,” I said.
“Unfortunately, magic is still an unknown, even after centuries of living with it. For every being, it is different, but maybe one day things will change and we can once again come together.” Dad grinned, then leaned over me to steal some of the potatoes on my plate.
Mom took a seat next to Jordan. “Speaking of power, you put off quite the show when you were