would know what I am. I close my eyes, pushing down my power even as every part of me wants to fight.
“I give up!” I say, placing my hands in the air and gritting my teeth.
“It’s a draw. Fae magic is banned, and I did not allow the usage of it,” Finn replies to me. I open my eyes to see Seb and Finn staring each other down, the tension thick in the air.
“Am I interrupting?” Seth’s voice fills the silent air. I turn to see him standing near a very scared looking Poppy and a curious Ryker.
“Why are you here, Seth?” Finn answers, turning away from Seb. Seb walks off into the trees, punching one as he passes it. My moody, angry and fucked up prince.
“To borrow one of your students. Daesyn, to be exact,” Seth smoothly replies. Everyone looks between Seth and me as I climb to my feet. Finn and Ryker, in particular, stare me down as I walk to Seth.
“I didn’t say you could leave, Miss Riverlite,” Finn coldly barks at my back.
“You didn’t say Seb could either, but here we are.” I spin around, walking backwards for a second as I reply. A tic in Finn’s jaw pulses, but eventually he nods and turns his gaze from me.
“Claude and Ryker, you are both up next,” Finn shouts as I get to Seth’s side. He places his hand on my shoulder and uses his magic to make us disappear in flames and reappear right outside a burnt-out house on an empty road. There isn’t much left of the house, just a broken gate and a burnt skeleton of a building in the middle of trees. There isn’t much property to see that nature hasn’t tried to take back.
“Where are we?” I question Seth.
“Your father’s home. The house your family owned for generations,” he gently tells me. I turn away from his red eyes to the ruined house, my eyes going wide, a strange feeling entering my chest. I’ve wanted to see this place for so many years. To know where I was born. To think, I came into this world in this very house, if my mum’s stories were true. “Four years after the family was murdered and all thought to be dead”—he pauses and gives me a slightly amused expression as I’m clearly not so dead—“a fire burnt the house down. The land is untouched, but it does belong to you now.”
“Why did you bring me to see this?” I question. It hurts to look at this house, to know what I could have had if my family wasn’t murdered. If I hadn’t lost everything.
“You never told me much about your father’s side, only about your mother and uncle,” he replies, looking at the house. “I wanted to search for you, to find answers.”
“Unless you know who killed them, there isn’t much to find,” I coarsely reply.
“After bribing some of the other houses down this long road, I’ve found out Kriffin Heartlocke was very close to the queen. It was even said she wanted them to marry. He chose another, a girl that came out of nowhere and had no family, bar a brother who she apparently left. She claimed she was from Earth, but everyone suspected she was far more than human,” Seth tells me, moving close to the gate and placing his hand on the metal. I can’t touch it, and even being here feels wrong somehow. “The girl never left the house, and Kriffin stayed with her. In the last year of their lives, the Heartlocke family were scarcely seen.”
“We both know the girl wasn’t human. She was Unseelie fae,” I mutter.
“There is nothing wrong with being Unseelie fae like this city and the queen here believes. Not everything that is dark is wrong, and not everything that is light is right,” he replies to me. “I believe you came here for a reason, Syn, and that reason has to do with what is in your blood.”
“I came here to escape my fate on Earth. Nothing more,” I reply, turning my eyes on him as he moves around me, making me step back. “Talking of Earth, I’m surprised you haven’t gone back yet.”
“You keep expecting that I will run,” he counters, stepping closer to me. I step back again until my back hits the metal gate, and Seth boxes me in with his body, gripping the gate bars near my head with his hands. I’m overwhelmed by how good he smells, citrus