Page 17 of A Kingdom of Monsters

“The Fae don’t get sick.”

Bael came to an abrupt halt, his posture going rigid. I looked up, startled, and saw that we were mere steps away from a familiar door. It seemed that Ambrose’s rebels had been busy repairing the castle, and had managed to reattach the door to Scion’s tower bedroom. Whether Bael realized the room had been repaired, or was just returning there out of habit, I wasn’t sure, but I was glad to be back on familiar ground.

“What did you say?” Bael asked sharply.

I sighed, and shook my head to clear it of some of the cobwebs. “Let‘s go inside. I have a lot to tell you.”

My bath had nearly turnedcold by the time I finished relaying Bael with all that my mother had revealed. He sat besidethe tub, his back leaning against the wall, watching me. It was a familiar position, reminding me all too clearly of one of the first conversations we’d ever shared. This time, though, I did the majority of the talking, and Bael sat in rapt attention.

“I knew you weren’t human,” he said finally. “Magical blood always wins out, and believe me little monster, you’ve been practically leaking magic from your pores since the day I met you.”

“You did,” I conceded. “You weren’t entirely correct, though. I’m still half human.”

“That’s irrelevant,” Bael said immediately, waving my words away.

I frowned. “I think it’s extremely relevant.”

“Why?” he cocked his head to the side, looking wary. “Do you dislike the idea of being Fae?”

I bit my lip and trailed my fingers over the surface of the lukewarm water, thinking. “I don’t know,” I said finally. “I suppose not, but I still feel human.”

“How would you know what that feels like?” he asked, pragmatically. “If you feel the same as you always have, and you’ve always been Fae?—”

“Half,” I corrected.

“Whatever. If you’ve always felt the same, how would you know that’s your human side you’re recognizing.”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “The only thing I know for sure right now is that if I’d learned this a year ago, I would have been horrified.”

He laughed humorlessly. “I think that might be an understatement.”

I winced, thinking of how angry and hateful my mother had been when we spoke. I wanted to think she hadn’t always been like that, but a large part of me knew that she had. She’d been blindly hateful her entire life, and had taught me to be the same.

“It’s confusing,” I mused, trying to find words to describe all the complicated feelings swirling inside my head. “I think my mother was right to hate those who treated her the way they did, and to fear the court. We both know humans weren’t treated all that well here.”

“True,” he reasoned. “Fairies like my Uncle Penvalle did horrific things to anyone weaker than them, but that sort of thing isn’t universal. I’ve personally never cut out a servant's tongue, or whatever other horrible things you’ve accused me of.”

I glanced at him. “You’ve killed humans, though.”

He cocked his head at me. “Yes, and so have you. You’ve also killed Fae, and Unseelie, and quite a few monsters, all the while believing you were entirely human.”

I nodded, but my response got stuck somewhere between my throat and my mouth, and I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Fortunately, Bael carried on, saving me the necessity of holding the conversation.

“I think you should stop focusing on which parts of you are human or Fae, and start thinking about what you might be able to do now that you know what your full potential is. You have Source magic, which is far beyond anything Scion, or I, or any other faerie can do.”

“Yes, but what does that mean?” I practically whined. “I don’t understand anything about how to control it, and so far, it’s done nothing for me except nearly kill me time and time again.”

“We can find a way to help you control it,” Bael said confidently. “Now that we know what your powers are, I’m sure there’s someone who knows what to do. Hell, we have journals in the library going back all the way to the time of Aisling. We’ll find something.”

“I suppose,” I muttered, peevishly.

Bael looked at me sideways, and raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong, little monster? You’ve just discovered that you have more magic than probably anyone else alive, and you don’t seem the least bit excited.”

I sighed, and pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. I leaned my head forward against my knee, so I could only just see Bael through the sheet of my wet hair. “It’s stupid,” I muttered, “But I can’t stop thinking about what my mother said about how I always attracted power.”

“What do you mean?”

“She said, from the time I was small, that nothing with magic could stay away from me. And that makes sense, I remember how Underfae always followed me, how I could never manage to blend in with the other servants. My entire life, everyone was afraid to be around me because invariably we’d attract the attention of faeries.”

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