Page 16 of Silent Secrets

“You ready?”

I nod, not bothering to speak as he leads me away from the war room and Marcos. Neither of us speaks, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable—which, in turn, makes me uncomfortable. I’m so far out of my comfort zone with everything when it comes to the Fae and Sorlphi, but it seems worse with these men.

I’ve never felt such an instant connection to anyone before and I can’t say that I care for it. I would understand if it were just an attraction, because they’re fucking hot—but it feels like something is tugging me toward them. It makes little sense to me and things that make little sense have no place in my life.

Kai comes to a stop outside a door, opening it and gesturing for me to proceed him into the room. “The East Drawing Room.”

I take the time to look around the room, seeing as this is the first time I’ve seen a drawing room. Before this crazy adventure of mine, I’d only read about them in books, because who had drawing rooms nowadays?

Apparently Fae royalty… aka me.

I’m surprised to find that the room holds little more than a table surrounded by four chairs and a few armchairs centered around the fireplace. I can’t help but wonder why it’s called a drawing room.

“They used to be called withdrawing rooms,” Kai says, surprising me enough to jump and also making me realize I must have spoken my musing aloud—again. “Later they shortened the name, but they were for entertaining visitors, generally after a meal. So they would withdraw to the room.”

“Oh.” That’s not a very interesting explanation at all. But not much history is interesting—at least not to me.

“I thought that we’d sit at the table, if that’s fine with you.”

Kai stands beside the table, shifting from one foot to another as if he’s uncomfortable. Taking pity on him, I nod and sit in one of the chairs. Kai sighs, his relief apparent as he sits across from me.

“I know that you’ve had to learn a lot today,” he begins, “but with everything that we must cover, there’s still a lot we have to go over today.”

“I understand, Kai. I know nothing, and we have a limited amount of time.” Opening my notebook to a blank page, I focus my attention on him. “So tell me about the realms.”

In the two-hour block I have with Kai, he covers a lot of information, but I can tell it’s just an overview. I learn that besides the Fae and mortal realms, there are seven others, each with their own type of supernaturals. I have to keep reminding myself that the mortal realm is called L’Airid. It’s going to take some time to get used to the fact that there are multiple realms.

There’s Draiocht, which is the home to many types of animal shifters. Kai says that if an animal exists, there is a shifter who holds that form—either currently or in the past. While there isn’t as much traveling between realms since the assassination of the last Fae Queen, they discovered that all marine shifters seemed to just disappear from Draiocht one day. He even explained that there are shifters for creatures that I believed to have been myths—unicorns, phoenixes, griffins, and even dragons. To say that this information blows my mind is putting it lightly.

Cruthanna is the home to magic users who wield many types of magic, except for elemental magic. Apparently, it’s their magic that Grace had used to transport us to Sorlphi and to show me her memories. Only some Fae know how to wield the magic from Cruthanna. It isn’t an innate ability like elemental magic is, and requires years of study.

It also turns out that vampires are real, and they live in Bohlrum. There are also mortals, magic users, shifters, and other creatures that call that realm home, but it is the home realm for vampires. I make a note to never visit that realm. I don’t think I want someone feeding on my blood. Thanks, but no thanks.

Tor’ka is a realm of angels and demons—though Kai explained they might not be exactly what I’m used to from the mortal realm, as L’Airid’s beliefs of Christianity, God, and the devil aren’t actually correct. There’s even a realm filled with monsters—things of nightmares is how Kai explains it, called Mheann.

The last two realms are Phostia and Fi’are. Phostia’s inhabitants are a lot like mortals, though they tend to live slightly longer, and they have mental abilities: telekinesis, telepathy, and others that I can barely wrap my head around. Fi’are, meanwhile, is an actual omegaverse with alphas, betas, and omegas—like in the books I’ve read. I’m honestly excited to learn more about that realm to see how much authors get right and how much they get wrong.

Finally, Kai sits back and asks if I need help to find the Queen’s Gardens. I suck my lip into my mouth as I consider his offer. I don’t want to put him out, seeing as he’d already walked me here with no one asking him to. But, on the other hand, I’m curious about him after what Marcos had said earlier. If he walks me to the gardens, then maybe I can learn a little more about him?

“I would love you to show me where it is, if you don’t have somewhere else you need to be.”

“If I did, I wouldn’t have offered.”

I frown as I watch him stand up. Based on his tone, I’d say he was just stating a fact, but the word choice feels like sarcasm. Or at least words I’d say if I were being a smartass. Deciding that it doesn’t matter, I let him lead me from the room.

“You said that you just got back from Shita? Where is that? Or, I guess the question should be, what is that?”

Kai glances down at me for a moment before turning his attention forward once more. For a moment, I think he won’t answer me, but then he speaks.

“Marcos didn’t cover that?”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t even know the name of the city we’re in or… anything about this world, honestly.”

“Sorlphi is comprised of five continents. The largest is Natsu, which is the one that we’re on now, and the name of the city is Cion City. It’s the major city on Natsu, but there are a handful of other larger cities and a lot of smaller villages. The other four continents are slightly smaller and house each minor court. They each only have one major city named after the court that it houses. Shita is the Autumn court’s continent.”

“And the others?”

“The Spring court’s continent is Vesna, Summer’s continent is Haust, and the Winter continent is Lito. The court that each continent houses affects the weather, so Shita is Autumn year round, and so on. Natsu is the only place in Sorlphi where you can experience all four seasons.”

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