Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,54

from completely failing.”

Neldor nodded. “There are times they glimmer and humans will start to notice that. That is a risk to all supes, so while I agree that monster and his faction needs to be dealt with, the politics are complicated given he and Alec wiped out two full lines of dragon royals.”

“Oh, not all of them,” Iolas chuckled darkly, focusing on Mr. Diaz. “You managed to save one from Australia that is not old enough to rule.”

He didn’t even deny. “Yes. They believe she is dead. She was not at the castle at the time, but with friends and they smuggled her to us. The same is true with the Guis. They are hiding two of the African royals. We hoped to see the day your people came back and we could ask for help to set this injustice right.”

“We’ll help,” I purred, smirking when I felt the firm agreement of the other fairies.

Maybe I was more like them than I thought. Nice.

“But my crystals would give us the way to get in the door when we need to. We cannot out ourselves yet.” I sighed and thought back to Mr. Vogel’s question. “Right now, I could do five every other day. Probably every day, but I’m learning from my mistakes and every other day with rest is safer.”

“Yes, try to be safe now and again,” Mrs. Vogel drawled. “You rushing into danger all the time has aged some of us drastically.”

That wasn’t unfair and I acknowledged it. “I could see raising the level happening fast. Twenty a day could be less than a month away. That’s a lot of food.”

“And a lot of money you’d be spending feeding them all,” Hudson grumbled.

“I’m not worried about that. Those estates were given to me and I’ve grown their portfolios…” I trailed off as something big hit me.

“Yes, your wealth is vast,” Iolas said gently. “Ridiculously vast in human terms. Not just in Faerie, but here too as Queen Meira was smart and always diversified as well.”

“I have vast funds here as well that I can contribute the moment I can access them,” Neldor added. “That would send up warning flags and—”

“Yeah, no, of course,” I whispered, scrubbing my hand over my forehead. “I never thought you’d stiff me, Neldor. It’s just… That part of this never hit me. I’ve lived all my life wondering about my family—if I had a family and now… It’s a lot.”

People gave me a few moments, but then Mrs. Diaz spoke up. “I think the answer lies within the problem you’re fighting as well. Rescue hobgoblins from some of the worst in Africa or Australia and they can help you feed the masses in the hotels. You undoubtedly have some type of fairy magic that could hide all the power there and keep the number under wraps.”

Relief filled me when the others confirmed that. It had been a worry of mine. Validly. The Underground was way more than people reported or knew, and there was a whole supe black market most didn’t know about or believe. I had been around the top tier that had it all.

That was not the majority of supes and a number had left the fold to find other ways to live. A lot of them, from what I was learning.

“Good, then we can have humans deliver provisions to the hotel and start there while—”

“Hotels,” Claudia corrected. “There are two.”

I nodded. “I know. We’ll start with one. Why spread ourselves thin and set up two at once? That’s a lot of compounding headaches.”

She shot a glance at Cluym before the others sitting on my left. “It will be needed.”

I swallowed a sigh as her meaning sank in. “This division has to fucking end or it will end us.”

“Yes, of course, but you cannot move mountains overnight, nor can you heal centuries of warring and hurt as fast as you want,” Mr. Vogel warned. “You risk blowing the lid off what you’re doing otherwise.”

I knew he was right but it hurt my heart. I didn’t realize I was rubbing my chest until the other fairies gave me funny looks. “It seems so wrong to me. I grew up human. This is segregation to me. We’re separating light from dark, almost black from white, into different hotels. It’s so wrong to me. We’re all fairies.”

“You have always had that view among all of us, which has been one of your strongest assets, child,” Geiger said gently, gesturing to all the supes there. “It’s