Page 17 of Twilight Echoes
“Sure.”
“What did you and my father discuss while I was gone last night?”
Darrell closed his eyes, dropping his head back. “Imprinting. Fairy dust. Mating. Fated Moons. The whole ball of wax.”
She bit the inside of her mouth. “Why did my dad ask me to leave? It’s not like he hadn’t already told me.”
“If I said I didn’t know, would you believe me?”
She let out a curt laugh. “Tell me why. And don’t lie to me.”
He didn’t get a chance to answer as her father, Jackson, and Trask strolled in.
She freed her hand. Her bond with him grew. There was no denying it. Every second they came closer to this insane procedure, the more she wanted to stand up and fight for him. And she knew what that meant.
Acceptance.
Mating.
Fated Moons.
All shit she was slowly accepting.
Yet still didn’t want right now.
Darrell sat up, running his hands up and down his jeans.
“This is Jackson. He’s married to my daughter Amanda.” Her father carried a small vial in his right hand. “And this is Trask. Technically, he’s Toldar, but he hates being called that.”
“Only because when people hear that name, they get the wrong impression of me and think of my spirit mother. Not my human one,” Trask said. “Of course, they are then reminded of what the watchers told everyone about my mother and her death, so there is that.”
“Please excuse my ignorance,” Darrell said. “While I’ve followed along with the rest of the paranormal world regarding what happened with the Fergusons, I have no idea what that means.”
“The woman who gave birth to me was human. But I am not,” Trask said. “At the time I was conceived, my mother had been possessed by Tara Moonglimmer.”
“Oh. I’ve heard of her and was told she’s been destroyed.” Darrell placed his hand on Avery’s back.
And once again, the room filled with more dust.
Trask chuckled. “She has been. But the world, including many paranormal creatures, don’t understand that I was created out of pure fairy magic. Not evil, like Tara, who wasn’t even a whole entity. For her, my sole purpose was so she could steal my magic to become her true self. Without my powers, she couldn’t exist without a host. Her first attempt after my mother was my mate. It failed because my mate is awesome.” Trask puffed out his chest and smiled, waving his hand through the fairy dust. “Avery, you’re a healer.”
“I am,” she said. “Did my father tell you that?”
“No. I can feel it in your dust.” He gathered it up in a ball and tossed it right into the center of Darrell’s chest. “Your fairy side is much more powerful than your witch side.”
Darrell gasped as the dust ball disappeared into his body.
“But we’re going to have to teach you to conserve it because it knows he’s hurting and while you’re fighting your connection, it’s pointless and needs to stop.” Trask waggled his finger. “Your dust and its magic are still developing and because he and his pack are suffering so badly, it could suck you dry.”
Darrell jumped a few feet away. “I wouldn’t want that to happen.”
“I can use some of my fairy powers to prolong things and help her dust settle down,” Trask said. “But it’s in her nature to heal. And to protect, defend, and honor you. Not much we can do about that.”
“I asked Jackson here because of what you’re about to go through; he experienced something similar last year,” her dad said.
“When I became pack leader, I was given some details, but I’m not sure I was given full access. Do you mind if I ask what the whole story was?” Darrell asked. “And how it’s similar to what’s about to happen to me?”
“To make a very long story short, Alfred’s sister cast a couple of spells on me to keep me from mating with Amanda. We had to banish them, and it’s quite painful,” Jackson said, sitting in the wingback chair. “And then my lovely mate put her father’s magic in my hands, and I almost died. Let’s hope Avery here doesn’t have to do that to you and that the two moons hang in the sky soon.”
