Page 111 of Kiss of Fire

“Let me show you.”

Aelfric placed his hands on either side of her head, covering her ears. The silver haze almost swamped her senses. She gazed at him, wondering how someone so magnificent could be bothered with a nonentity like her.

A burning pain shot through her ears. Gasping, she staggered back but the brief discomfort had already passed. She touched them gently. They’d changed.

The rounded edges had gone. Now they rose into graceful points, a shape that should have seemed alien to her yet somehow felt natural. And for the first time in her life, there was no itching or dryness. No irritation of any kind.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“Restored them. Do you want to see?”

She assumed he would give her a mirror but instead he waved his hand and a figure appeared. It was her, yet not her. Another Raya. A new, improved Raya.

The figure wore a violet dress, the same shade as Aelfric’s eyes. Her neck was adorned with priceless jewels. She was taller, fuller in the bust but slimmer at the waist. Her skin was perfect, no cuts or dirt. Her hair curled luxuriously to her waist, the copper strand catching the light. She looked like an elven.

Raya walked round the frozen figure. It didn’t move or breathe, and she understood this was merely a three-dimensional image. She leaned in to look at the ears.

They were pointed, just as her mother’s had been in the photograph.

She shook her head.

“This can’t be true. You’re saying someone put a spell on me to make me look human?”

“Kobold magic.”

“Magda? Magda changed my ears? But why?”

“Because they were both lying to you. She and your mother. Aelah has been concealing the truth from you your whole life.”

“No. She was protecting me. She said… she said you wanted to hurt me because you couldn’t forgive her for loving a human.”

That feral look again. He caught himself.

“There was no human. Aelah ran because she didn’t want me to know about her child. About you. She lied when she said I wanted to harm you. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“None of this makes sense.”

“Of course it makes sense. You just have to admit it. Deep down, you know the truth.”

It was suddenly hard to breathe. Raya turned to scrutinise her 3-D image again. It wasn’t just the ears. Her hair was the same shade as the Fae King’s. And she shared other similarities too. Her jaw, the curve of her cheek.

The truth started to scream at her consciousness but she needed to hear it from him.

“Tell me what you’re saying,” she asked thickly.

“You know what I’m saying. You do not have a human father.I’myour father.”

Forty Two

She couldn’t speak. It couldn’t be true. And yet she knew it was.

First she’d believed she was human. Then half-human. Now she wasn’t even that. Nothing about her past was true. A slow anger began to burn.

Magda had changed her appearance and Aelah had given her away. Her whole life, a lie.

Another thought struck her. Did Shade know?

No. He would never have asked her to pretend to be his betrothed if he’d known she was Aelfric’s daughter. He despised the elven king. And yet…

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