Page 22 of A Hint of Delirium

Her mother grabbed her arm and pulled Vi behind her, blocking her from my view. She turned and glared at me. “I won’t let you take her. You’ll have to kill me first!”

“Ma?” Vi muttered, confused and clearly frightened.

“I’m not here to take your daughter,” I said, trying to put her at ease. I could tell she was shaken by the trembling hands that clenched her daughter’s arm. “If that’s what you’re worried about, you can rest assured that I won’t be taking her from you.”

“That’s what you all say,” she seethed, “but I know your kind and how you twist your words.” She glanced at Vi over her shoulder, her eyes wide and scared. “Vi, you can’t believe anything he says.”

Vi’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced at me, perplexed. She already didn’t trust me, and with her mother’s warning, her trust plummeted further.

“What about you?” I countered. “You’ve had Vi thinking she was crazy all her life, when all along, you knew she wasn’t. What does that make you?” I tilted my head, baiting her.

“I—”

“Cat got your tongue?” I smirked. “By my calculations, that makesyoua liar. See, the seelie can’t lie. We might be able to distort the truth, but we can’t lie … unlike humans.”

Vi ripped out of her mother’s grasp and stood between us. She jammed her hands on her hips and fixed us both with a dark glower. “What the hell is happening here? Somebody better tell me what’s going on!”

“What’s happening,” I began, “is that you’ve just caught your mother in a very nasty lie, Vi.” I maintained my steely gaze on her mother. “So much for you being crazy.”

“Mom?” Vi turned to face her mother, looking stricken.

Reluctantly, her mother ripped her gaze away from me, losing the battle of wills. “This is more complicated than it appears, Violet,” her mother tried to clarify. “I’ll explain it all once he leaves, but—”

“No. Explain itnow,” Vi demanded.

Her mother gritted her teeth and ran a shaky hand through her dark hair. She sighed and hung her head. “When I was very young and foolish … I got involved with someone I shouldn’t have.”

“With a fae,” I finished for her, testing my theory.

She glared at me but nodded.

My eyes widened slightly as the pieces started to come together. I looked down at Vi’s ankle. “She’s a halfling,” I murmured in shock.

Her mother gripped Vi’s wrist tightly to the point of making Vi wince. “You cannot take her! This world is all she knows!”

I furrowed my brows. “But this isn’t the world in which she belongs,” I chided. “You stole her from us.”

Her mother shook her head repeatedly. “You don’t understand,” she muttered. “She can never go to your world. She can never leave here.”

“Why?” I asked.

Her mother looked pained, unsure. “I … I can’t tell you.”

Frustrated, a growl rumbled through my chest. “Damnit, woman, make some sense!” I yelled.

At the anger in my words, her shoulders tightened and she tugged Vi behind her once again, afraid I’d hurt them. I realized I needed to calm down. It wouldn’t help if they were scared of me.

“What’s a halfling?” Vi asked, her voice so small I barely heard it.

I sighed. “A halfling is someone who is half human, half fae. That’s why you wear the anklet.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. “You saw her anklet?”

I nodded.

“You can never take it off her!” she exclaimed, turning to face Vi. “Promise me, Vi, please never take it off!” she cried.

Confused, Vi frowned but nodded in agreement. “Of course, Ma, I promised I wouldn’t.”

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