“Because only Fae are stupid and arrogant enough to steal from dragons.”
I brushed my hair from my face. This was totally out of my element. I couldn’t best a dragon with Roark passed out. On top of that, my weapon was in the backpack currently on my shoulders. “Look, I sincerely apologize for trying to steal. Trust me when I say that’s not how I roll, but we’re desperate.”
“I’ve heard that once before in the last month,” he said, eyes narrowing. “We upped security when that Fae stole from us.”
Freaking Conan.
“There’s a lead to free magic,” I said.
He stilled and his eyes flickered, pupils expanding diagonally in a reptilian manner. “He said that, too. Lies.”
Lucian stepped closer, and my shoulders tensed. I got to my feet, not liking how he was trying to intimidate me. “No, not lies. They refused to tell him anything because they wanted to talk to the Fae Queen.”
“And that’s you?” Rita scoffed. Lucian began laughing. My lips pursed. Assholes.
“I’m serious,” I snapped. “How did magic being bound affect you? Is it like the werewolves where you can’t turn? How about reaching maturity and settling into immortality?” I looked at Rita and connected her humanity to half-breeds like me. “She looks in her twenties and she doesn’t have that dragon aura you give off. That means she hasn’t reached maturity. She obviously has dragon blood—you look alike. But she will live a human life and procreate more humans with dragon blood, but ultimately, she will die a human death—unless magic is unbound.”
They stilled, and I realized I’d hit the nail on the head. I wondered how many family members Lucian had lost in these last two hundred and fifty years since magic had been gone. His jaw feathered.
Roark groaned from the floor, and relief shot through me. I dropped to my knees beside him and pulled out that damn feather.
“Wait—” Rita started as Roark shot up with a hiss. A dagger manifested in each hand. I gripped Roark’s arm as Lucien spoke.
“Say I give you what you want.” He paused and glared at Roark. “What if you’re not successful? What can you offer me to sweeten my part in this?”
My eyes went to the ceiling. “They’re literally your dragon claw clippings.”
Rita cocked a hip. “And they fetch millions of dollars in the Unnatural market. Not only that, but, duh, he can’t turn dragon. How much do you think he has?”
“What do you want?” Roark interrupted our squabbling.
“I want access to Faerie.”
Roark tensed beside me. “No.”
“Why not?” I said, eyebrows furrowed. “Deal. If we’re not successful, I will personally bring you over to Faerie.”
Roark gave me a look, but I ignored him. Rita pulled out her phone and her fingers flew over the screen. Lucian grinned, but it was more like baring his teeth.
“Why did you need me to bring this?” A girl that resembled Rita rounded the hallway, waving a vial around. Her large, round glasses took up half her face. She froze at the entrance, her eyes roving over me and Roark. “Um, hi,” she said and scurried to her uncle, tripping as she went. “Here, Uncle Lucian,” she said, pressing the thing into his hand.
“Took you long enough,” Rita muttered.
“Do you have to be such a di—”
“Girls,” Lucian snapped, and I pressed my lips together to stop my laughing. He stepped toward me, but Roark got in front of me and held out his hand. His eyebrows went up. “I forgot how possessive Unnaturals can be.” He chuckled and tossed the vial.
After catching it deftly, Roark shuffled me back toward the window.
“Bye, it was nice meeting you,” I said over Roark’s shoulder as he shoved me out.
Rita snorted, but the other girl waved back with a confused smile. Roark swooped me up and sped away from the mansion, fingers gripping me tightly. He finally came to a stop when we were a mile out.
“I have legs, you know,” I said dryly. He grunted in answer. “I can’t believe I got to meet an actual dragon.” Roark just shook his head. “What’s your problem?”
“You shouldn’t have offered him that deal.”
“What’s wrong with it? It’s not like there isn’t tons of space in Faerie,” I snapped. “Anyway, I have a good feeling about the goblins. We’re not going to fail.”
He rolled his shoulders and went quiet. “Good job in there. You handled yourself well.”
I preened under his compliment. “I’ve been wondering something. I didn’t connect the dots with the other species until now. How are they able to have children?”
“From what I’ve observed, animal type Unnaturals that didn’t mature into their immortality were able to have children, passing on the Unnatural gene. It’s the same with your kind. That’s why you exist.” It was as I thought. This world got more complicated by the second.
I guessed that was some type of consolation for those who hadn’t matured. They’d at least been able to have a human life.
“So, if we don’t manage to do this, Teagan will live a human life?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the other Fae that hadn’t reached immortality when magic was first bound?”
“They all decided to relocate to your world.”
“But don’t you have some abilities even before you reach maturity?”
“Like I mentioned to you, some do, but what they have access to is not controllable and is too minuscule to do anything with. That’s unimportant, regardless. It can only happened to a child with both Fae parents—like Teagan. If magic isn’t freed and he lives out his life until his death, he will not be able to have children. This is opposite to animal Unnaturals that never reached maturity and lived out their lives until their human deaths. They have been able to pass on the Unnatural gene. I theorize it’s the human blood that’s muddled the animal Unnaturals and half-breeds that allow this.”
I processed that and absorbed the magnitude of how many peoples’ lives would change
