Page 84 of Knowing Trust

Hair. He’d wrapped up a tuft of his hair. I quickly showed Lageos as I put back the papers, and I knew he saw it.

The question is how did we use it… Or did we bother? Would it really change anything if what my “uncle” said was true?

No, he’d still tried to kill me. He was part of trying to let demons into Faerie. He’d killed the Queen of the Light Realm. There was nothing but a sword to the neck for him.

I blew out a harsh breath. And now I had to deal with having an Uncle Mario. Seriously, was my life a video game now instead of a too-dark Disney script?

Fuck everything.

It was easy to have every fairy student accounted for and even my detail, but we weren’t sure who else was there. Maybe some of the students invited friends like I did. We were allowed one guest and we just had to sign them in. Plus, extra security was always at Artemis, so the grounds had to be swept.

Someone checked the security logs and I was the only fairy who brought a guest, but we were still on edge as the healers started waking people. Luckily, no one seemed suspect, but my dogs wanted to stay while Edelman took back over and went on with the fun.

I wasn’t staying now that I had a mess and hopefully he would excuse me.

Or not. Whatever.

Almost immediately, I was being interviewed by Essie, the news anchor on the new Faerie media network. I hadn’t even met her yet, but so far the buzz was good about her being fair and she was who Leigh had wanted.

And I had no say now that my hands were out of everything.

“Your Highness, let’s skip the dancing and jump right in because you’re a busy woman,” she started. “People will already have heard or seen clips of what you said from the livestream, but you were talking with an adversary in a contentious situation. Most would say anything to get out of that or to throw their opponent off balance.”

“Thank you for understanding that, but I didn’t lie. I also want to not dance around this even if I still won’t tell everything. However, while I won’t defend my grandmother, if what this man accused is true, there are a few things Faerie needs to know.”

“Not other supes?” she checked.

“No, this isn’t for outsiders,” I confirmed. “First, the corruption of the ancients was worse than people know. We’re not letting out the list to beat the dead horse or—it’s over. The corrupt ones are gone. But people need to understand how bad it is because I have evidence that Ancient Simimar raped one of my ancestors after killing her mate.

“He was actively trying to take over the monarchy for generations. He mocked my mother that I was the way he would do that and she was an idiot for basically handing it all over to him. He firmly believed that her mating a non-fairy and having a child that wasn’t a pure fairy was what he needed to make his dream happen.”

“That is disturbing on so many levels,” she whispered. “And this proof?”

“From my mother’s journal which she learned from her mother’s. That Ancient Simimar was powerful enough to put magic on that queen so she couldn’t tell about what happened.” I gave the quick recap of what I knew, nodding when she couldn’t hide her disgust. “So again, if this is what really happened, I’m not defending my grandma. I’m not.”

“You’re simply pointing out that there’s always more going on than we understand and you’re not convicting a woman who cannot speak for herself,” she surmised. Nodding when I did. “You are really as fair as you seem. That’s impressive.”

“I try to be,” I sighed. “I have enough bad qualities, and apparently now I’m going to be a huge pain in the butt when I have my periods, so I should at least try my best to practice what I preach.” I smiled at her when she snickered. “Look, I didn’t know my mom or my grandma. But again, for fairies, I think it was pretty common knowledge they didn’t get along well.

“So I don’t blame her for not reading her dead mother’s journals. She did push hard to investigate her mom’s death. She thought it was more than an accident but was shut down left and right. She was also queen and had too much to handle and a lot of corruption no one seemed to know about or were willing to ignore.”

“My mother passed when young and I’m very old,” Essie said calmly. “I would have trouble reading her journals and feel like I was prying all of these years later. I think most of us could understand that feeling.”

I blinked at her. “You were the right person for this job. I understand why Leigh had only you as the candidate and wouldn’t consider anyone else. You’re easier to talk to than therapists I’ve sat with and make this easier when I’m always too on edge to discuss personal matters.”

Her eyes flashed shock but she dipped her head. “Thank you, Your Highness. My resume will probably get out soon, especially after this interview, but long ago I was a royal healer.” She smiled when I couldn’t hide my shock. “Yes, so my magic is deeply tied into comfort and healing, but I couldn’t stomach the pain and losing people.

“I switched to journalism and trying to give the truth to our world so we could stop with the lies and rumors that drove us apart. So as much as I try to be neutral, I accepted this position because the fight you push for is the one that’s always been mine.” She took in a slow breath. “That fairies think for themselves instead of being swayed by others.”

“It’s a good fight to have,” I praised.

Then I went over what I knew and even showed her the parts of my mother’s journal, making it clear that they were only to use the photos I’d taken with the excerpts. She could see the full proof to verify, but I wasn’t just going to let cameras catch extra anything given it was the journal of the Queen of the Light Realm.

No fucking way.

She and everyone in the studio seemed very accepting of that, shocked even.

“I have nothing to hide. I delayed telling everyone because we didn’t know what was going on for sure. I didn’t even know how to unlock the journal. And I know how it sounds—it is crazy. It’s all crazy. I don’t even know what to believe.”

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