Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,111

kick his ass and he pretends like nothing ever happened, like that night I froze him in the pool after he…” I smirked at Neldor over my shoulder. “Oh, you’d be in huge trouble if I snitched on that.”

Neldor went pale as he glanced at Taeral and a few of the other Dark Guardians.

I laughed as I went through the portal and didn’t stop for several minutes after we were all in my kitchen. Damn, it was funny. He’d honestly deserve my snitching, but I wanted us all to work together and get along, not more bullshit.

“Just the four of us for now,” I said to the group. “Help yourselves to food, or you can take the ATVs to load up from the greenhouses to take back to the hotels if you want.”

One of the Light Guardians took the hint, nodding. “I know where everything is. Thank you, Princess.”

“Always.” I smiled at them and then led the three men towards the secret rooms I’d added to the Townsend estate.

“Conall Townsend was a great man,” Taeral muttered. “It was a great loss for Faerie when his bloodline was wiped out. They were a clan of goodness and the best of your kind.”

I stopped our procession and spun on him, jabbing my finger in his chest and staring daggers at him. “Our kind. We are all fairies. Change your fucking vocabulary. You are a leader as a captain of the Dark Guardians, and it is unacceptable for you to be so fucking racist!”

“Princess, he’s not—” Iolas tried to defend.

But I wasn’t having any of it. “No, it is, Iolas. We are all fairies. We might be different races, but we’re not different species. It’s not our kind versus their kind. It’s not human versus fairy.” I gestured between them. “You have blond fucking hair and he has brown. Brown eyes versus blue. Oh my fucking gods. It’s life altering differences. Crazy differences. You’re even the same fucking height and build.”

I rolled my eyes and stormed off when they simply stared at me. I was not the weird one there. For real.

“You’re right,” Taeral muttered as they caught up to me. “I apologize. The way we were all raised, its not meant to be racist or a slight but…”

“The difference between wolf and bear shifters,” Iolas offered.

“Yes, like that,” Taeral agreed. “They’re shifters, but simply different.”

I sighed. Heavily. “I sorta get it, but not really. They turn into a wolf or bear. You guys have different fucking hair color and eyes. I mean, really. Yes, I understand you have different natural magic tendencies or whatever, but so do witches and warlocks, and they’re not separate races. Izzy’s not an aura witch because she’s got a knack for auras and someone else, a potion species. Get over it.”

“We can try. Today was a good start,” Taeral replied.

I let it go because he was right and earlier was a good start. I didn’t want to ruin that, but sometimes people were so busy looking at the differences and only seeing the few before them, they missed the glaring list of all the similarities. Which really mattered in the end?

“This is clearly not to be shared with everyone,” I instructed as we reached the area.

“I didn’t even know about it and I’ve been living here,” Neldor grumbled.

“I trust Taeral,” I threw right back as I unlocked the biometrics. “And apparently, he’ll smack you back if you go too far over the line since you won’t listen to me for shit.”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond—not that he would have a valid defense—and headed right for the book I wanted to show them. I brought it over and opened it up, pointing out the passage and handing it to Iolas first.

“What I think that’s about is how fairies put up the first glamours over the huge area of the dragon royal castles. That’s what it sounds like. Instructions how to recreate that sort of massive barrier and ward that has glamours and all kinds of goodies included.”

Iolas scanned a couple of pages. “Yes, it looks to be exactly that.” He handed the book to Taeral. “I’ve heard stories about it and studied it somewhat in school. It took massive amounts of power to build the original glamours. You should absolutely study and learn from these writings, but another time when you have less to currently focus on, Princess.”

“She clearly thinks they’re applicable now, Iolas,” Taeral muttered as he studied the pages. “She is a woman