Page 43 of Their Trials

What. The. Fuck . Everyone just sat there, stunned into silence at the bomb that Jude had just dropped on us. No one moved as that information sank in, my own mind whirling as I gaped at the elderly man before us. Slowly, my brain started making connections.

Afraid to hope but needing him to confirm, I asked, “Does that mean...” My words got lodged in my throat, unable to voice my question. If I said it out loud and I was wrong, I’d be devastated, but hope swelled inside me despite my attempts to stay grounded.

I'd never had anyone other than my mom, who had barely been around. I'd been alone for so long. To be so close to a family, I couldn't bear the thought of it being ripped away from me if I was wrong. Jude simply nodded at me, tears springing up into both our eyes. “Yes,” he whispered to my unspoken question. “You are my granddaughter.”

I laughed through a sob as he stood, walking over to me in my chair, giving me a bear hug. I cried into his shirt with joy and sadness. Joy that we’d managed to find each other, but sadness over the fact that we’d missed out on so much time together.

He rested his cheek on the crown of my head, his hand shaking as he ran it down my hair, and we clung to each other. No one breathed as we processed this information. Slowly, my tears dried, and my thoughts settled. I pulled away to take a long, hard look at him, searching his features for any resemblance to mine, and saddened when I didn't find any.

As if reading my mind, he smiled at me sadly. “I don't expect that you'll see much similarity between us since your glamor is still holding strong. I imagine that when it's finally gone, we'll be able to see which features you got from him. While Jonathan took after his mother more than he ever did me, I see so much of his personality in you. You both are so strong and steadfast in pursuit of righting the worlds' wrongs.”

“For a moment I'd forgotten that the face I'd known all my life isn't real,” I admitted to him, basking in his affection.

“Let's sit,” he said, gesturing to the couch. “These old bones aren't what they used to be.” Smiling at me, he moved to take a seat. I followed closely, the guys completely forgotten in this moment.

“We'll give you guys a moment,” Arryn said, drawing me back to the fact that we weren’t alone. He stood from the table and ushered the others to their rooms.

Once they'd left, I turned to stare at Jude again in complete disbelief. “So, what made you realize that only my dad could have cast this spell on me?” I asked, needing more answers from him. If I could download all the information he possessed, I would do so in a heartbeat. There were so many questions and things I wanted to talk with him about.

He stared at me as well, smiling proudly at me. “I finally found the spell in one of my old tomes in my personal library, which I assume is how Jonathan got a hold of it in the first place. I'd completely forgotten about it until you started asking questions. I knew I remembered seeing it but couldn't recall exactly where I had. Finally, a couple of nights ago, I was having trouble sleeping. Memories of my family were keeping me awake, so I went in search of a distraction. That's when I stumbled across the tome.”

“So, do you have any idea how to remove the glamor or unlock my magic completely?” I asked, hoping he knew this too.

His face fell as he answered. “Unfortunately, I'll have to research more before I can be certain that it won't harm you in the process. I've only just found you. I don't want to lose you again. I had started the other night but was called away by the start of the trials.”

“Okay. I'm sure if anyone can find out the answer, it'll be you,” I told him proudly. I couldn't have asked for a better grandfather. At that thought, I leaned back in shock again, still not quite believing it to be true.

“I'll get on that as soon as I possibly can. I know how important it is that we get this removed. The Queen has been pressuring me about getting it done soon.”

“Who knows, maybe you won't need to find the answer. I managed to crack the cage around my magic in the maze, and now I can sense a trickle of magic that doesn't belong to any of the guys,” I told him.

“How did you manage that?” he said, concern wrinkling his brow as he leaned in closer to me.

“When I was healing Baer. I was tapped out magically, or so I’d thought. All I could think of was pushing more magic into him, needing to make sure he didn't die. I guess I pushed so hard that it cracked the cage.” I rubbed my chest at the reminder of the pain.

He frowned at that information, not saying anything. “Baer thinks that when I did, I connected us somehow. Something more than the consort bond.”

“How very odd,” he muttered to himself, the scholar coming out now that he was presented with this new development. “I'll certainly keep looking for information on all of this,” he assured me, patting my knee.

I smiled at him, so happy and at peace. “Can you tell me more about him?” I asked softly, unsure about whether he would shut down like my mother always had or not. I wanted to know about the man who should have watched me grow up, but I was afraid of what I would find. Sometimes in life, we discovered things that could change us forever. Things that could never be taken back.

His eyes grew distant as he smiled softly, clearly looking back on fond memories. “Jonathan was always standing up for the underdog, much like I've witnessed from you in the short time I've had the pleasure to know you.” He chuckled to himself softly. “This one time, when he was just a youngling, he came across some boys in our village that were torturing a sprite. Being the forthright boy he was, he marched right over to them and told them to stop. Obviously, being much older and larger than he was, they laughed at him and continued to try to pull the wings from the poor creature.

“Not one to be easily swayed, he didn't give up. Having grown up at my knee, where he'd only ever known me as a Priest, he knew exactly how to teach those boys a lesson.

“He went out and gathered shadow root, grounding it up and sprinkled it into some bushes nearby. Having prepared the area, he went back to the boys, running up to them. Out of breath, he begged them to help him catch the Cat Sith that he'd just come across in those very same bushes. He knew that they wouldn't be able to resist the challenge or the bragging rights of having caught a Cat Sith, nasty little buggers. Sure enough, they all raced off at the chance to snag themselves a more worthy prize, leaving the sprite behind, forgotten in their new quest.

“Jonathan managed to hide the sprite in his jacket because, by this point, the poor creature's wings had been poorly mangled by the other boys’ ministrations before he chased after them.

“Not thinking twice, the boys dove into the bushes in search of their new prey, each of them up to their necks searching everywhere for it. Each time one of them would stop to question Jonathan further, he would point, swearing he just saw it again.

“After about thirty minutes, the boys gave up their search, going home empty handed. That evening, I had three mamas and their sons at my door, asking me to cure the rash that had arisen out of nowhere.” He paused, laughing at the memory with pride sparkling in his eyes.

“Now, I knew what those boys had been doing, having seen the sprite, and helped Jonathan nurse the creature myself. I simply claimed that their afflictions were not easily curable. You see, shadow root is mostly harmless. It can be quite useful when brewed into a tea, but when its oils come into contact with the skin, even when ground into a powder, it causes an awful rash that itches to the high heavens.”

I laughed along with him at the idea of my father’s antics. “For two weeks, those boys were scratching, the powder that Jonathan had left managing to get into contact with nearly every inch of their skin. I chastised them for rushing off into the bushes in order to harm a Cat Sith as we were tasked with the care of all of Avalonia's creatures as High Fae.

“They tried to deny the incident, but the evidence was written all over their skin. After our meeting, their mamas made sure to keep them well in line, horrified that their boys would act in such a way.”

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