then I assumed he would have reminded me to keep him out of the conversation.
Since he hadn’t, I was going with the old adage that it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
“Well, about a year ago, I had a visitor in my dreams, except it wasn’t really a dream. My subconscious was transported to another world, and I learned everything I know from an owl.”
Nobody moved, and I wondered if I really was crazy. Crap. Maybe I should have played dumb and pretended I had no idea what the book was. Maybe I had just been imagining their nerves and nothing I thought was impossibly real was true.
“Did this owl have a name?” Mom asked.
“Umm, maybe?” I wasn’t giving more info until they showed some sort of emotion. I needed to know with absolute certainty that I hadn’t imagined the entire last year of my life.
Mom’s hands pressed against her thighs as she composed herself. “Kaliah, it’s very important you tell us everything you know. Not everything about your birth was as normal as we would have liked. So, whatever information you have, we need to know about it, too. It could mean the difference between life and death.”
Okay, so they didn’t think I was nuts. I’d just scared them half to death. Super.
Word vomit descended as I told them everything I knew. From meeting Stryx, the small part of Arvayta I’d explored, the history I’d learned, to the training I’d been challenged to complete. When I was done, a weight lifted from my chest and I felt like my true self for the first time in much too long.
I hated keeping secrets from them, regardless of how many they had kept from me. We’d all been trying to follow the same rules, and being able to let it all out was more cleansing than I realized it would be.
Jordan laughed as her body relaxed. “Of course. Only you, Kali.”
“What does that mean?” I glanced between her and my parents.
“Well, Stryx is from a remote part of the Otherworld, one that is strictly for bonded animals. They’re more human-like, as you’ve obviously learned, and are there to help guide their bonded ones through whatever troubles may be coming their way. The only thing is, they haven’t been around since the Dark War, and it’s cause for concern that Stryx is back now,” Mom said.
My eyes pinched together as confusion ran through me, because Stryx made it seem like my parents were well aware of whatever issues we might be facing. They had even admitted my birth wasn’t normal, so Stryx appearing shouldn’t be such a big surprise, in my opinion.
“What did you mean when you said my birth wasn’t normal? Why was I raised here instead of Arvayta? Stryx wouldn’t tell me much about anything that would have an impact on my immediate future other than my need for training.”
Mom and Dad shared a look, but they weren’t the ones to answer me.
Jordan leaned in closer to me. “Well, for one, you were prophesied to go all Carrie on Arvayta if you were born in the usual ritual as the rest of us.” The smirk on her face told me she was enjoying this little shock factor much more than a best friend should, but that was also why I called her my Satan best friend. Her mind didn’t work like everyone else’s.
“Jordan, that’s enough,” Dad reprimanded, and she slinked back into her seat. “What she means to say is we were told that if you weren’t born away from Arvayta that things could be very bad for our worlds. Though, a lot has changed since we learned of this, and we had hopes certain outcomes had been prevented by choices we’d made, beginning with what happened after the war that ended the hierarchy of our world.”
Ugh. That reminded me. My parents were supposed to be royalty, which meant I was as well. My body shuddered at the thought. I wasn’t one who enjoyed being in the spotlight. That was more Jordan’s calling, and I was happy to let her have that role whenever possible.
“As you seem to already know, your ancestors were lost to the Dark War, along with all of the pure Fae we are descended from. Thankfully, those mixed with Arvaytan and fae blood did not perish, or else Arvayta would have completely crumbled,” Dad continued.
“What was the Dark War? Stryx just told me many of our people died and that was when the council