Page 111 of The Cursed Fae

My chest started heaving in and out too fast. Cold swept across my cheeks and forehead. At first, I thought my mother was back with a cool cloth, but it was Missy.

“Look at me,” she said in a gentle tone.

I met her big brown gaze.

Missy pursed her lips, a terrifyingly irritated expression on her face as she looked me dead in the eye. “It. Could. Be. Worse.”

My mouth dropped open. I was hyperventilating, and she had the nerve to tell me that? Nope. Not at all. In this moment, nothing was more grim than losing all trust in my family. What was wrong with Missy?

I giggled, which quickly devolving into manic laughter that brought tears for so many reasons. I slapped my hands over my mouth to muffle the sound.

“You can’t always play the dead card,” I said once the hysterical giggling stopped.

“Why not? It doesn’t expire,” she shot back with a straight face.

“Okay. Touché.” I sighed and lowered my voice. “It’s bad, Missy.”

She joined me on the bed, her cool presence oddly comfortable. Her expression turned sympathetic, her tone soft.

“Wanna tell me?”

I did. I really did. But first, I needed to sit with all of it for a little longer. To process this either truly life-altering bombshell, or totally delusional theory.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Missy blinked, clearly surprised. “Sure.”

“Do you know anything about why my mom ran away from Arcane Landing when she was pregnant with me? Like, have you heard any rumors?”

If she’d been expecting it, I probably wouldn’t have seen the truth in her ghostly face.

“Tell me,” I demanded.

“Only the same stuff you’ve heard around campus.” She sounded defensive. I felt the same way. I glared at Missy until she sighed and plunged forward. “That your mother got knocked up by a human, which obviously isn’t even true.”

I stared at her. “What do you mean ‘obviously?’”

She rolled her eyes. “You are clearly a Sable, you know? The resemblance is uncanny. The spirit sight is a trademark of your family.” She wrinkled her nose. “But your magic’s chaotic as hell. I can sense it when you call to me. It’s not like Gemini magic. Your father must be a fae. Why are you suddenly so interested?”

Honestly, I didn’t have a response. Did it really matter? I supposed it depended whether he believed eternals should die before they rose. Was he one of the people my mother had run from?

I scooted off the bed, wiping away tears before they fell. My overnight bag lay crumpled on the floor, and I started shoving things back inside.

“Do you know anything about the Gemini alpha’s daughter?” I asked, without turning to face her. “Is her name Zosia?”

“Um, I think it’s Zara. Yeah. Zara Snyder. This summer, people were very interested in her future husband. The Gemini Fae worried the pack would marry her to a Leo Fae.”

“That happened,” I said, sniffling a little. “Laz told me. Zara saw the eternal wolf in the woods, the one that killed the other alpha’s son, right?”

“Zara fought him that night at Arcane Pier. I heard Tina and Ewan talking about it,” she added sheepishly.

Ewan and my roommate? That seemed like an odd friendship, though they’d both had that haunted look in their eyes after the evening at the pier. Was it trauma bonding? Or did they go to the fights there together?

It was too much to speculate over.

Heavy footsteps raced from the first floor to my bedroom. My mother and great-grandmother stood at the top of the stairs, both staring at me packing my bag.

“You’ve heard the news,” Mom said, breathing a relieved sigh.

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