Page 62 of Forbidden Magic
“How did you manage to convince them to let us out of school early?” I ask.
“You only had two days to go before break, and everyone needed a bit of time to digest the news of your…outburst.”
The gears click in my head. “I was suspended, wasn’t I?”
“Not officially.” Ever the politician, Dad says the words with a lopsided grin.
I take out my frustrations on a piece of buttered bread.
Christmas is obviously not celebrated by everyone at the Academy, but since most supernaturals live amongst humans, it’s one of the recognized Holidays. The other ones being the Fae’s Solstice in June and the Shifters’ bi-annual beast week.
Dad shoots me a peculiar look over his pot. “Why did you take your necklace off, Munchkin?”
“Someone stole it from me.” The furrow of his gray brows and the worried curl of his lips accelerate my heart. “Is that why I could summon infernal magic?”
Dad serves himself a glass of port and pours one for me, too.
I arch a brow. “That serious, huh?”
“Jules… The time has come. I need to tell you something, and you’ve got to listen carefully until the end.”
I nod, my heart fluttering in my chest.
“Munchkin… Your mother wasn’t human.”
The words split open my heart, my brain, my fucking identity. The note from Cole comes to mind, and how convinced I was that he was playing a trick on me. Despite my absent mother, I didn’t even second guess it. I was sure he was playing me for a fool. Clearly, I’m worse than a fool. I’m a fraud.
There’s chaos in the silence that follows, and Dad has never looked so sad—or so guilty—in his entire life.
“Err—No, you always said—” Denying it seems like a necessity.
“I lied, honey. To protect you.”
I swallow against the roil in my stomach, my throat painfully tight, my legs numb. “Why?”
The corners of his mouth curl down. “It’s complicated.”
Each tear rolling down my cheeks costs me more than the last. “Is she alive? Did you lie about that too?”
“No. I would never… She wasn’t from this realm. Everything I told you about her was true, apart from who she was.”
I scoff, blood draining from my face. “I can’t be half-Fae. That’s not—”
Dad grimaces like my hypothesis tastes worse than a foul lemon. “No. She was from the underworld.”
“I— But— No— Are you saying my mother was ademon?” The unspeakable words grate my throat.
“She was a Fury.”
Fury. As in vengeance demon. As inmurderer.I’ve heard the stories, the crimes these creatures commit on their quest for violence and retribution.
My mouth hangs open on a silent wail. No. I must be asleep or drugged. This is all a terrible mistake.
Dad wraps both his hands around mine. “No one can know. Not ever. You wouldn’t be safe. You’d have to quit school and live a life in the shadows. I thought I’d bound the magic you inherited from her for good, but something has set it loose. Your necklace was an additional precaution. Did something happen to you at school? Something that could have awakened your mother’s heritage?”
I almost kissed a Fae Prince. What about that, Dad?
But I don’t mention Cole at all. Or the runes, or the fact that he knows I’m not human. Instead, I say, “Those bitches stole my necklace, and Duel class was the first time I really pushed my magic since then.” I clear my throat, my heart beating loudly at my temples, my palm sweaty as hell.
