Page 96 of Heir of Ashes

“Madoc glamored himself as a lesser Seelie to lure her into a trap. He was very powerful, and no one in his land could disguise themselves as perfectly as he could. He was also the least hideous—his only differences being his bluish skin and a beast-like tattoo with sharp talons and yellow eyes on his bicep that manifested at his will. All this he concealed with glamour, which Verenastra did not see through. However, he was too shocked by her beauty, too fascinated to cause her any harm when he had the chance. He wanted to know more about her, and the more he learned, the more intriguing she became in his eyes.

“Madoc found himself meeting her in secret for a long time. Verenastra wanted him to meet her family, having dreams that they would one day be mated, but he continually refused. His glamour was excellent, but he was sure Titania would see through it. So Verenastra tricked him into meeting her mother.

“Titania saw through his disguise and exposed his true self to her daughter. Enraged, she helped her mother banish him, binding him to an eternity of loneliness and suffering beneath a frozen lake. But as time passed, the princess discovered she was carrying his child. By then, she questioned whether he deserved such a fate. After all, she was partly responsible. She had ventured far into his land without any invitation.

“After the child was born, Queen Titania couldn’t bear to look at her, so she confined the infant to a distant tower of her castle, far from her eyes and ears. But once the child grew old enough to roam the castle, Queen Titania could no longer tolerate it. She wanted to kill the abomination, but Verenastra couldn’t allow her child to be slaughtered. So, she took the child and fled, finding herself standing by the lake where shehad helped imprison her lover. She plunged into the icy depths and broke his curse, setting him free. But Madoc, consumed by bitterness and rage, sought only vengeance on the one who had condemned him. When Verenastra realized there would be no reasoning or reconciliation, she took her child and fled the Sidhe land altogether.”

I had a flashback to when Dr. Dean ordered heavy dumbbells strapped around my ankles to test if I could breathe underwater. It occurred to me that he might have known a great deal about my origins. Someone had been feeding him information, and he had been testing his theories on me. It was shocking to realize that all the experiments done on me could have been based on suspicion rather than random cruelty.

“For years and years,” Elizabeth continued, “she and her child, Oonagh, who had inherited her mother’s beauty and her father’s bestial form as an alternative, roamed other worlds, avoiding Sidhe hunters and travelers. Dhiultadh—that’s what they called her and her child. Rejected, because no one wanted to claim them.

“While Madoc had been bound in the lake, Maive, Titania’s dark sister, had assumed control of the Unseelie Court. Her mate’s son, Finvarra, was exiled from the Sidhe land after her mate passed, so he couldn’t challenge her for the throne.

“In time, Oonagh met Finvarra, and they fell in love and set out on their own. Her mother, Verenastra, later mated with Elvilachious, the leader of the Tristan Star. In the Sidhe land, Queen Titania and Queen Maive decided these unions were affronts to their power and ordered their warriors to execute the offenders.

“Oonagh and Finvarra fled in different directions from her mother and her mate, who later started a new bloodline. Climate, culture, and the progression of time affected the Rejected as much as the absence of the forbidden land did.They adopted more characteristics of the lands they frequented and lost more of their Seelie and Unseelie traits. One significant change was the difficulty of conceiving children. It reached the point where, for every thousand Rejected born, there was only one Seelie or Unseelie child.

“As years turned into decades and decades into centuries, the numbers of the Rejected grew, and they no longer feared the Sidhe. They began retaliating, and the losses on both sides were nearly equal. Queen Titania and Queen Maive, weary of losing their irreplaceable warriors, called for a truce, and accord was struck: the Rejected and the Sidhe wouldn’t attack each other without provocation. Any Sidhe who broke this rule would face the wrath of their queen. The same went for the Rejected.

“However, many in the Seelie and Unseelie courts still refuse the accord and, to this day, if they can do so without being discovered, would kill one of us. Others will trick us into bargains and take away what we hold most dear.”

Elizabeth’s eyes grew distant, and I wondered if she was thinking about my father. I certainly was. I thought about my bargain with Lee and realized my monumental mistake. I recognized now how lacking my terms were, but there was nothing I could do after the bargain had already been struck.

“You’re telling me there are two kinds of Rejected?”

“There are two Dhiultadh clans, yes. The Seelie Dhiultadh, descendants of Verenastra and Elvilachious, and the Unseelie Dhiultadh, descendants of Oonagh and Finvarra.” I raised my eyebrows when she fell silent. She gave me a faint smile. “We’re descendants of Oonagh and Finvarra. Your father, in fact, was their great-great-grandson. He lived a long time resisting human women, which is why the knowledge of the bargain shocked us.”

“Do you know what he bargained for?”

“No. No one does. But he bargained with Oberon, Queen Titania’s consort, so it must have been something big. No one even knew about your mother and the pregnancy until Oberon called forth the High Council.” She shrugged, her discomfort evident. This topic seemed to trouble her a great deal. Maybe she truly cared about my father. “But Oberon found out and demanded his due, which your father refused. It was only then, when Oberon needed witnesses to carry on the punishment, that we discovered the bargain.”

I sipped my cold tea, noting the resentment in Elizabeth’s eyes. I could tell she blamed me for what happened to my father.

“Lee told me my father accused Oberon of stealing my mother’s essence. He claimed she hadn’t been human when he met her.”

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. “Is that true?”

“That’s what Lee said my father’s reasoning had been. That and the fact that my mother was his mate.”

Shocked, Elizabeth straightened. “What are you saying?”

“Only what Lee told me. She also mentioned that if my mother was his mate, she couldn’t tell, and that Oberon denied sending this particular human to my father. No Sidhe, Seelie or Unseelie, can tamper with a preternatural’s essence. Lee called it a dark deed.”

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, contemplating my words. Then she inhaled and shrugged. “Lee wouldn’t have lied to you. A Sidhe cannot—actually lacks the capability to—tap into someone else’s essence. It’s what makes every individual unique. To take that away, or even to tap into it, requires dark magic. A sorcerer of dark power would be needed for that. A Sidhe is capable of many things, but black magic is not among them.” She took a contemplative sip of her tea and shook her head. “No, sorcerers are the black sheep of the preternatural world.They are not welcome among any other, much less among Sidhe royalty.”

“Lee mentioned something along those lines.”

“Oberon could have sought retribution based on those accusations alone. I don’t know what got into Fosch during his last years. He wasn’t acting like himself. It’s surprising Oberon didn’t bring that up in front of the High Council—just one more point to hold against us.” She sipped her tea, a flicker of grief in her eyes.

I left her to her thoughts for a moment and finished the last two cookies on the plate, manners be damned.

“The alternative form, the one Oonagh got from her father, is that of a six-legged bear-like creature?”

“Yes. How did you know?” I could see the wheels turning in her head, wondering if I could shift into one.

I shuddered inwardly. God forbid. But that meant Vincent was also a descendant of Oonagh and Finvarra. “I saw one a few nights ago.”

Her look became skeptical. “It must have been Vincent. Only he would be foolish enough to parade around among humans like that.” The derision in her voice was unmistakable.

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