“I don’t understand.” The duke stroked his short beard and stared at me as if he was trying to piece together a very irritating puzzle. “Even if you were ordinary, just a human, I would be able to ascertain that, but your mind is a mystery, a complete blank. Even when I met you, I felt no magic. Usually a fully trained mage like myself is able to sense the magical essence of another person, mage or fae. I sensed nothing, and I can’t get into your mind.”
“So what does this mean?” My eyes narrowed. “If I have no magic, I can’t be Azaren and Elayna’s daughter?”
“Not necessarily.” The duke paused to think. “Normally I would have dismissed you by now, but there is something about you that I can’t put my finger on. You did speak to the pegasus with your mind, did you not?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“That is strange. For a pegasus to talk to you, you have to be High Fae. But if you have no fae magic that Penelope could sense, how did you do it?”
I shrugged. I had absolutely no idea how I had done it myself.
“The pegasi are an ancient race of magical beings,” the duke elaborated, “and they possess the old magic of the High Fae. It is very rare for a pegasus to make such a mistake. That is why I am not really sure how to proceed with you.”
I was disappointed; having magic was one of the best things about this place. But on the other hand, if Morgana knew that I wasn’t a threat to her, she might leave me alone. Where would I go now? If the duke did not believe me, I would be shoved out into a world where I had no idea how to survive on my own.
The duke leaned back, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. He folded his hands together and stared at me. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable with the way he was looking at me. I wasn’t sure what to expect now, and I fidgeted in my chair. I nervously started fiddling with the gold medallion that rested round my neck, as I always did when I felt uneasy.
The duke suddenly sprang up from his chair. “What is that?”
“What?” I looked around. Everything looked the same to me.
He came over to me and pulled out my necklace, turning it over in his fingers. “This.”
The duke looked at it with his mouth open. It was a small gold disc with strange etchings on it, which I could never figure out, but the duke obviously knew what it said, because he was reading it.
“Hey!” I snatched it back. “It’s mine! It’s the only thing I had with me when I was found as a child.”
“I don’t believe it.” He fell back into his chair. “I can’t believe they actually found it.” His words made no sense. “This is impossible—it doesn’t exist, and neither should you.”
Not exist! What was he talking about? I needed some answers and soon.
The duke leaned forward in his chair and looked at me more closely, his bushy white eyebrows joining together as he scrunched his forehead. “There is a reason I could not sense your magic, and I finally know what it is.”
“You mean you believe me?”
“Yes, Aurora, I do believe you,” said the duke, using my name for the first time. “That medallion you wear around your neck is no ordinary piece of jewelry. It is a very powerful magical artifact that was thought to be lost long ago and has faded into the realms of legend. Your father or mother must have found it somehow and put it on you.”
“Why?” I asked, my eyes wide. What the hell was I wearing around my neck? “Why would they do that?”
“They did it to protect you, of course, Aurora.” The duke’s voice was calmer once the shock seemed to wear off. “When a mage and a fae marry and have children, the child is born with either trait, mage powers or fae magic.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know that. Mrs. Plumpleberry told me.”
“What she didn’t tell you is that, on extremely rare occasions, the child born takes on both the parents’ magical powers.”
I gasped. “But is that even possible?”
“From the beginning of this world, there have been only six known fae-mages in Avalonia. You, my dear, are the seventh.”
I gaped at him. “What is a fae-mage?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” he said, shaking his head. “So unless I am sorely mistaken, not only do you have mage powers within you, which are exceptionally strong, I may add, but because of your bloodline, you also have fae magic. And not any ordinary fae powers, but old magic, since your mother was one of the High Fae.”
“But you just said you couldn’t sense anything. You said that I have no magic.”
The duke’s eyes narrowed. “I was wrong. The reason neither Penelope nor I could sense your powers is because you are wearing the Amulet of Auraken.”
“The what?” I looked down at the small gold medallion that I had worn around my neck for as long as I could remember. Was he serious? First he didn’t believe me, now he thought I was some legendary fae-mage.
“I will explain everything you need to know, but we have one more thing to do before we begin,” said the duke. “Take off your amulet for a moment, although not for long, because it’s what keeps Morgana from finding you with magic.”
“Are you sure?” I asked skeptically. “And what if I take it off and Morgana finds me here?”
“It doesn’t work that fast. You have to have it off for a certain amount of time for Morgana to find you, and even then she has to be looking at exactly that moment.”
I hesitated. I had never taken the amulet off before; somehow I never felt the need to. I even kept it on
