Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,5

spite me or maybe to get you from your family, she’s getting so twisted up. She is not a woman who deals well with losing. Especially to someone like me.”

He spun me around so he could see my face, glancing between us. “What about you?” His eyes went wide as he saw something in both of our auras. “Disgusting. Vale is—”

“Nothing,” Campbell spat. “A street rat who probably stole that money she has or faked whatever paperwork for her inheritance. Edelman sensed her power and—”

“You’re going to take this memory from her, right?” I checked with Craftsman, smiling when he snorted. For the first time, I felt my ego stir since I’d learned the truth of my lineage. Here this prim and proper bitch of “good breeding” was seriously looking down her nose at me—nothing new—but it irked me because I’d thought she was a better match for Craftsman for the same reason.

She gasped. “Julian, you would never.”

“Of course I would,” Craftsman snapped. “I love her, and you’re an obsessive twat who loves my last damn name. I’ve always known that.”

Tears filled her eyes and she glanced away. “My feelings for you were real.”

“That’s true,” I confessed. “She truly felt something real for you.” They both gave me a shocked look but I wasn’t done. “She fully planned on changing just about everything that made you who you were so you’d be a suitable mate for her and she loved your last name just as much, planned on you getting a better position among your family like she would want, but her feelings for you were real.”

And that was why she was such a bitch.

“The truth was always right in front of you, Campbell. If your head wasn’t so in the sand, you could have figured it out,” I taunted. “White did.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “You’re a witch.”

“I’m not.” I took off my charms and set them down on his desk as I went over to her. I didn’t write a rune and threw up a barrier, locking the door as well. “Is that the magic of a witch?” I studied her as she still ignored what was in front of her. “Why was I so curious about the magic of Faerie? Why—just why stay undeclared when it would be so much easier to just fucking tell? I have the protection of the royals and now the head wolf elder. Why not tell?

“What could possibly be worse than saying I was a witch and your elders trying for me harder than they already are? What would have all the councils come at me worse than they are?” Still she blinked at me. “The fae dogs listen to me. They protect me. The hobgoblins love me like no other, no matter the excuses we give. I cannot stand to let them be hurt and kept captive. It’s all right there.”

Her eyes went bug wide. “No. No, you’re taunting me.”

I smiled at her. “Yeah, but I’m not lying. You can see enough of my aura to understand that, right? I took off the charm and I stopped using the fairy rune to mute my aura.” I chuckled when she went pale. “When they found me and I held the species crystal, it turned red and then shattered. That’s the big secret, Campbell. You want the real kicker? You want to know why you’re no one here?”

“You’re no one,” she whispered, her voice shaky.

“I’m not, and others know this,” I purred. “Vale is the last name used in this world for the light fairy royal bloodline. I’m Queen Meira’s daughter, smuggled out of Faerie during the war to save that world and all fairies, so I’d say I’m very much not no one, you stupid bitch.”

And just because Craftsman was going to take the memory anyways, I punched her again.

2

“The memories are gone, but I cannot change her feelings,” he explained when it was done. “She won’t like you, but won’t know why or—”

I snorted, giving him an amused look when he seemed confused. “She hasn’t liked me for months now, Doc. “She was miffed even over the summer that I let Pillay into the cool kids club because of certain projects and with the crystals and seminars. I told her she could help out, but Pillay wasn’t part of it all, and it wasn’t a club, but a war we were fighting.

“She talked to White, but even then she wouldn’t—some people prefer their ignorance. She didn’t want to hear that