Page 3 of The Secret Keeper's Daughter

Whatever powers or abilities he has, I have access to as well. I can use those when I’m out on my own protecting myself.

He’ll need to teach me. That is, if he’ll accept his halfling daughter. The fact that he’s never reached out tells me everything I need to know. Unless he stayed away to protect me. No. That’s not a good enough excuse to abandon me.

I’m just as much on my own as I thought. Only now more so. The fact that I’m halfling will only mark me as everyone’s enemy. Soon, all people—human and fae alike—will look at me like Gunnar is glaring at me now.

“Mother?” I squeeze her hands.

She closes her eyes, and she goes limp.

“Mother!”

No response.

I rest my head on her stomach and wail.

Someone pulls me away from her, and I fight them. It’s no use. My stepfather and brothers are bigger and stronger than me.

Gunnar squeezes my arm so tightly that I gasp. His nostrils flare as he stares me down. “Pack your things.”

“But—”

“I already have your future husband on his way.”

Blood drains from my head. “You what?”

“You heard. Go pack your things. I can’t wait for that dowry to be mine.”

I stare at him, dumbfounded. My mother just died moments ago, and he’s marrying me off?

He shoves me. “Get to it!”

The room fills with my nine siblings and other relatives who have been called here for Mother’s end.

I won’t be here to mourn her with them. It doesn’t matter that I’m her firstborn, that she fled to this place to keep mesafe. Now I must leave and figure everything out on my own—before a rich, old man arrives to stake his claim on me.

The thought sends a shudder through me. Gunnar wouldn’t care to pick someone kind or compatible with me. He would choose the richest man looking for a wife here in Skoro, and that means only one man. Vog is more than twice my age, is missing teeth, smells bad, and is even crueler than my stepfather. His wife recently died under mysterious circumstances, and there are whispers he had a hand in it.

I have to escape before he arrives, without anyone seeing me go.

Then, in order to survive, I’ll have to figure out who my father is and hope he’ll be willing to help a halfling he never wanted. If he’d accepted me, Mother would’ve stayed with him. But a fae/human couple raising a halfling?

That would never happen.

Fae rule over and oppress humans. They don’t fall in love, and they certainly don’t take care of each other.

I have to pick a side and hide the other half of my identity. Depending on what type of fae I am, I’m either part of the ruling class or the outcasts—the bloodsuckers or shifters who live in and rule the woods. Whether high or lowly, fae terrorize humans. We’re at the bottom of the social chain, lower than the ruthless murderers of the night.

Halflings are even lower than humans.

My father could belong to either class. Either he’s an aristocrat who refused to acknowledge his halfling heir, or he’s a forest dweller who wanted to kill his halfling offspring. Eitherway, it’s no surprise that Mother ended up on her own. No fae would want me, and I was a baby only a mother could love.

Now I’m a grown woman nobody wants. A despised halfling. I can’t live among humans or fae. Except Mother said to find my father. Might he accept me? Is there a chance? If there is, I need to take it. Even though I don’t know where to begin.

At least I don’t have to live on this farm anymore. Although Gunnar and Vog will surely be after me once they realize I’ve run away. And I’ll be in worse danger if they figure out I’m a halfling. They won’t just kill me—they’ll torture me. Make me wish I was dead.

Maybe I’ll be able to figure out my fae powers on my own and use those against them.

Probably not. From what I’ve heard, most fae spend years honing their powers. As fae are stronger than humans, I’ll probably be safer among them. How can I blend in and find my place amongst their kind? Perhaps my father and his relatives will accept me.

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