Page 5 of Silent Secrets

She leans back in her seat as she makes a face—obviously not happy with the fact that I pulled away. “I promise that I’m telling you this for a reason. It’s important.”

I shrug, saying nothing. She’s already told me to hold my questions, so I figure that it’s best that I remain silent until she’s finished. I gesture for her to continue once more.

“Fine,” Grace says with an eye roll. “Your mother was the Seelie queen and held the elements of earth and fire. You resulted from a questionable affair with the Unseelie king, who held the elements of water and air. You, a child born of all four elements, are technically against the law and, therefore, would have been killed upon discovery.”

“What the fuck?” I can’t hold my tongue any longer. “If that’s the case, then why the hell am I here?”

“You’re here because someone killed the entire Seelie and Unseelie courts, including your parents and your siblings. There is no one left to rule Sorlphi except you—a spoiled child who knows nothing of where she came from,” Grace bites out as her hands slam down onto the table.

I gape at her as her words sink in. Someone killed the family that I didn’t know I had? Why does that hurt so much? I grasp at my chest as the pain lances through me.

Grace’s face softens as tears fill my eyes. “I’m sorry, Hadley. I know that none of this is your fault. But with no ruler, Sorlphi is falling into chaos and you’re the only hope to bring peace to our people—none of whom even know you exist.”

That panic attack that I thought I fought my way through earlier? Yeah, it’s back in full force.

I gasp as I try to force breath into my lungs, my thoughts running away from me. This can’t be real. I must be dreaming, or having a nightmare seems more accurate. Fae aren’t real and my mom is the only family that I have.

Maybe I’m having a mental breakdown? Has my mom’s death finally become too much for me and my mind has snapped? I’ve heard of that happening before.

“Hadley!”

My head snaps up as I find Grace kneeling before me, hands on my face. “Breathe, Hadley. This isn’t a dream or a nightmare. This is happening and yes, it’s a lot, but I will help you through it.”

Is she a mind reader?

“No, dear girl, you’re saying it all out loud—or gasping it out loud.” Grace’s smile is sad. “Breathe with me. In for five, out for five.”

I don’t know how long I take to work through the panic attack with my eyes locked on Grace’s as I match my breathing to hers. But I do know she stays with me the whole time.

“Thank you,” I tell her as my eyes fall shut once the attack has passed. “I haven’t had an attack that bad since right after my mom—” Breaking off, I make a face. Can I still call her my mom? I never knew the woman who gave birth to me, but she’s dead now, too. Am I spitting on her memory by not calling her my mom?

“She raised you, Hadley. It’s okay for you to still call her mom. It’s what she was to you.” Grace stands slowly and makes her way back to her own chair. “Do you think you can continue now?”

I nod, tearing my thoughts away from my dead mom. When Grace announced that my birth family is also dead, any hope that I held onto for a family of my own falls away. Rage builds within me as I realize that just like my mom, someone took my birth family from me before I could even know them.

Why? How can one person be surrounded by so much death? What did I do in a past life to deserve this? Why can’t I ever just be happy?

“Were they caught?”

“What?”

I lean forward, eyes locking with Grace’s. “Did they catch whoever killed my family?”

Grace is silent for a moment before shaking her head. “We don’t know who killed them.”

“Then I will find out and kill them,” I say as if it’s simple—as if I have any idea how to catch a killer. But that doesn’t matter because I mean every word I say. The drunk driver that killed my mom was never caught and I wouldn’t let the murderer of my birth family go free as well. I couldn’t.

Even as the words escape my mouth, I know that this is an over the top reaction. Threatening to hunt down and kill the person, or people, responsible for the death of the family that I didn’t even know I had is… a bit much. I just still have so much anger over my mom’s death, and the fact that the driver got away with killing her. I’m not an angry person by nature, but I guess grief does funny things to us. Before I can even apologize, Grace is speaking once more.

“That’s a valiant goal, Hadley, but there are more important things for you to focus on. In two weeks, you’ll turn twenty-one and your magic will manifest for the first time.”

“I’m already twenty-one,” I cut her off, raising an eyebrow. Shouldn’t she know that?

Grace shakes her head. “No, you’re not. The mortal child whose place you took is twenty-one. You’re almost a month younger than her. The baby in the hospital pictures was her, not you.”

Sliding my hands into my hair, I let my eyes fall shut. Everything that I’ve believed is being turned on its head. I’m not even old enough to drink—or is there even a drinking age here? I don’t know, and honestly? There are more important things that I should focus on.

“So, what does that mean for me? My powers manifesting, I mean?”

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