“Not to worry,” Syrion said. I looked at him and smiled. He had the same cold demeanor he always had, but his coldness was a part of his personality. It was cool and understanding, not icy and condescending the way Kalian’s was. “We would never do such a thing.”
“Good,” I nodded. “So, what updates are there?”
Syrion sighed. “I don’t have much. I’ve been questioning some other ancient creatures. I can’t imagine how there could have been such a massive prophecy with such important information, and no one knew of it but Minerva, yet that seems to be the case. Everyone I’ve spoken to is shocked to learn of your existence and your power. I’m afraid this will be a dead end.”
“Really?” I felt my stomach drop and leaned on the edge of Syrion’s desk. I was so hopeful that someone else would know of it, someone I could ask questions. I still had so many.
“I apologize, darling,” Syrion nodded, placing his hand on mine. “We’ll have to look elsewhere.”
I simply nodded and remained silent. Daath leaned against the desk. “Well, luckily, I have a bit more information. Minerva must have missed that small snippet of his memory we saw, and that made for an excellent foothold for uncovering the rest of the memories relating to it. It seems that Minerva charged him with locating you.”
I froze. “Me?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “She’s known about this prophecy for ages. So, for ages, Oli’s been searching for you before you even existed.”
“How did he know what to look for?” Syrion leaned back in his chair, still holding tight to my hand.
“He mostly didn’t,” Daath chuckled. “The imbecile made a lot of false calls. But there used to be a small coven of witches outside the town limits of Seattle, and they began a flurry of activity about eighteen years ago, lots of spells that hadn’t been done in ages, and someone sent word to Oli. He went to visit them and learned they were preparing for a powerful young girl whose mother had contacted them in the hopes of learning what was going on with her child.”
My breath caught in my throat when he mentioned my mother. “What was happening? Why did she try to contact someone?”
Daath shook his head, and I felt my heart shatter. “He didn’t know. He only knew a mother was searching for answers and contacted the coven.”
“So, what happened?”
“The coven met with your family-”
“I remember that,” I said quickly. “Not well… but a little. I remember a field and people. They told my mom to bring me back when I was older…” Tears flooded my eyes as I spoke.
The black-haired King nodded. “That sounds right. Oli wasn’t there. He missed you, so he tortured the witches to get your name. The witches were all killed. It was during that event that he suffered the injuries that required Kalian’s rescue. Before he returned to the Queen, he went to your house to see you. That was the memory we saw.”
He continued. “Then the Seelie came to get him, and the next day, the Queen repressed all of these memories. He had no knowledge of these events, but he remembered the house and your mother. If he remembered that much, that’s probably why he felt guilty the day of the trial.”
I was silent for a long time. Finally, I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Well… what next?”
“Next,” Syrion began. “We find every other member of the council and find out what they knew. I doubt, out of the entire council, she only used one of them as an errand boy.”
“And what about Oli?” my throat felt impossibly dry.
“Until we get everything sorted out,” Daath stroked my hair as he spoke, “or until you decide what you want to do with him, he’ll live in the dungeon in the Castle. We haven’t gotten to use that in a few hundred centuries.” He chuckled. “No one needs to know he’s there.”
I nodded. That sounded fine to me. I knew if he was easy to get to, there was a chance I might just take revenge on my own, and I wasn’t sure that was the smartest decision quite yet.
“Very well,” I replied. “Do you have the names of the other council members?” Daath nodded. “Good… we can begin work on that tomorrow then.”
“I’ve drafted up letters requesting a private meeting with them each. We only need to send them,” the onyx-eyed man explained. I stared into his eyes as he spoke. There was so much kindness and love in there, even amongst the silly and cocky behavior. It was a warm contrast to the rude manner of Kalian.
“… Kalian?”
“What?” I flinched, realizing I’d zoned out while they were speaking to me.
Syrion blinked. “I said you were on Earth with Kalian, weren’t you?”
“Just now, yes,” I nodded, composing myself. “He was helping me to identify some fae magic and try to dispel it… it didn’t go very well.”
Daath frowned. “So, I suppose he’ll be helping you with that often?”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” he raised an eyebrow in a bit of a challenging manner. “Simply that he’s had many opportunities to spend time with you lately.”
I felt taken aback by the statement, not sure what they were getting at. “I suppose so. And?”
They were both quiet for a moment until Syrion spoke up. “Do we have reason to be concerned about this fae?”
I frowned, feeling a little cornered. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow. What do you think you have to be concerned about?”
The silver-haired brother sighed. “We’re not blind to the fact that the Seelie is attractive, as are you. Is there any reason that we should feel threatened?”
I felt like they’d each just slapped me in the face. “No?” I spoke with an incredulous expression.
“Very well-” Daath began, trying to brush this off, but I
