Page 111 of Deadwood
“So, what? You’d rather lie down and let him?” he asked, as if he wasn’t the one to step in when I had almost been pulverized. Well, at least that’s what I assumed would have happened if Bowen hadn’t shown up.
“I’m the king’s?—”
He stepped forward, interrupting me. “I don’t give a fuck about your king.”
The anger in his tone shocked me, leaving me standing there with no response. In seconds, he was in front of me. “You want to know something, Auria? Just ask.”
My mouth dropped open. Was heserious? “You’re acting like you’d just simply answer my questions now.”
He held his hands out. “Ask away.”
“How do I know you won’t twist some wicked answer for your own benefit?”
“You truly think I’m so cruel,” he surmised.
“Fine!” I huffed air out of my nose. “What clouds your mind, then?”
He looked rather bored as he said, “Aside from knowing the nauseating feeling that overcomes you when you don’t use your powers?”
I nearly froze in place. “How do you know about that?”
“We both have powers, don’t we? Using them can become somewhat of an addiction, and your father has you riding that high so thoroughly that your body loathes being cut off from it.”
My head shook of its own accord. “My magic comes from me. I control it.”
He chuckled, the sound full of breath and pity. “You’ve never been taught how to control it—those urges that hit you when you haven’t fed it, I know all too well. Magic is alive, Auria, and sometimes it bites.”
Suddenly, the forgotten book and half-empty vial made sense. He knew my magic—my own self—better than I did. I felt like a fool. So my next question came calculated.
“Why did Siara say my father is the reason for a lot of people’s suffering?”
For a moment, he looked almost taken aback, like that was the last thing he expected me to ask. I wanted to say,Don’t worry, I have a list, but settled on taking it one question at a time.
“He’s the reason we have to stay in hiding,” he started.
I blinked, then shook my head as I tried to comprehend his answer. “Fae?”
Bowen nodded, crossing his arms. A topic he was defensive of, then.
“How? That’s not possible. My father doesn’t have that much power. Or any, for that matter.” My eyes trailed to the ground in thought.
“Anything is possible, Princess. You just have to open your eyes to it.”
“He’s just one man.”
“One man, with enough power to wipe out an entire civilization.”
My father was feared by fae because ofhismagic? “But fae are more powerful than humans.” I looked up at him. “Aren’t they?”
He leaned a bit closer, his eyes brighter than the sky itself. “Humans don’t have powers, Auria. So yes, that is correct.”
The entire world slammed into me at once, and I flung a hand out to the tree to steady myself. “What did you just say?”
“Lander was telling you the truth when he told you humans don’t have powers.”
“But I?—”
“Youare a unique case.”
