Page 74 of Wicked Deeds

“Is there a way of testing her to see if she has both kinds of magic? Are they so different?” Cerridwen had told me I could learn the Fae way of doing magic, because I hadn’t been taught to think like a witch since I was thirteen. But I could do witch things in the realm and some of the Fae things outside of it. It was just harder without the inherent magic in the realm.

“Witches can see the magic and we can change its energy, but we expend energy to do so. Fae, for lack of a better explanation, are connected to that energy. And they can make it do what they want. A witch can burn their power out. I doubt a Fae can.”

I still wasn’t sure I understood the difference and trying was making my head ache. “Doesn’t that mean the Fae side would dominate? So she should just be a more powerful witch?”

“Perhaps. Regardless of how she does magic, the issue is more whether she can control it. Within the realm, she may not have used her power much, so we have no idea how well she’s trained. Or how that would translate to her control out here. If she can’t control her magic, she’s vulnerable. And out here, she doesn’t have someone like Lady Morgain protecting her. The Cestis can’t be everywhere.”

Vulnerable. She meant to demons. Though, being in the realm hadn’t been entirely without risk. Gwen should have been safe in Morgain’s court, but Usuriel had still somehow managed to reach her. Not that he was as bad as a demon. Maybe.

Damn. Usuriel. I should tell Cassandra about him. Ugh. I rubbed my temples and Cassandra bent down and picked another sprig of mint.

“Sniff this if you have a headache.”

I doubted mint was going to fix things, but I took it anyway. The smell was calming, if nothing else. Though right now I would have preferred it in a mojito.

“If Jack is your father, I think it would be best to assume Gwen inherited his talents as well as her mother’s,” Cassandra said. “And if she has a leaning toward game design, she could have inherited his skills for technology as well.”

Ugh. “Do you think that’s why I can do what I do?” Jack had made his fortune in early holographic and VR tech. I’d read articles about him describing his talent for making connections and innovations in the early stages as ‘uncanny’. Much like my own skill for solving bugs no one else could.

“There’s no way of knowing, really. Don’t doubt yourself. You are not your parents, and you know that.”

I did, but it felt hard to remember when faced with a whole other level of who they were. Double ugh. I didn’t want anything from Jack. Let alone the talent I’d built my life around. “Let’s hope Gwen takes more after her mother,” I muttered.

“I would prefer that she took after the woman who raised her. Who seems to have been kind and dutiful at least.” Cassandra’s hand drifted over the tops of more plants, the green scent of them filling the air.

“Ignoring the part where she was doing it for money and working for a criminal.”

Cassandra picked another sprig. Rosemary this time. “I doubt she knew who Jack was, even if it was dubious to agree to pretend to be Gwen’s aunt. Still, a mercenary-minded human is a known quantity. As is Jack, to a degree. We don’t know what kind of Fae her mother is. This would be easier if we did.”

“Perhaps. But the only people who know that are Jack and her mother, and her mother has so far stayed away.” I paused, considering. “Do you think Cerridwen would be more interested in helping Gwen find out who her mother is if she knows about the witch thing?”

Cassandra’s face hardened. “I think I would prefer not to tell any of the Fae about this yet.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, we already know some of their factions are suspicious of you, because you’ve encountered a demon. If we tell them Gwen’s a tanai with witch magic, that she’s likely very powerful, they’re going to primarily see her also as a tempting target for a demon.”

Was that how Cassandra saw her? “Why? She can learn to protect herself.”

“It takes time,” Cassandra said, “and it could be complicated by her heritage.”

“All that means you should tell Cerridwen,” I pointed out.

“I will. But I need to pick my moment. And we don’t want them trying to use this to claim she should return to the realm.”

“Could they do that? I thought because she’s human she has rights.”

“She has rights as a witch, yes. She has rights as tanai, but there are provisions in the contract about threats to the realm, and you already know they view demons as a threat.”

“But there is no demon.”

“There are afrit. And someone was in Ajax’s house,” Cassandra said. “Just because we haven’t found out who it was, or why they were there, doesn’t mean there isn’t any connection to whatever Ajax’s plan was. And then there’s Jack to consider. If he was keeping tabs on Gwen and lost track of her when she went into the realm, well, now he knows she’s back.”

“You think he’ll come after her?”

“I don’t know. He must have had his reasons for having a baby with a Fae in the first place, not to mention keeping the child. The Fae don’t have children easily, and it would have taken some convincing to get Gwen’s mother to agree to give up a child.”

“Not so hard when that child is tanai, perhaps,” I said, my mind still chewing on the fact that Cassandra was worried about demonkind. The threat of a headache was turning into a full-blown one at the thought. I’d been training to fight demonkind, but part of me had never thought I’d have to do it again. At least, not anything bigger than an afrit. I shivered despite the warmth of the sun beating down on us. Then forced my mind back to Gwen. “The Fae don’t view tanai the same way as they would a full Fae.” That much I knew from Pinky. The Fae, well, certain families, viewed tanai as slightly better than humans perhaps, but still in the category of possessions to be told what to do, rather than living, thinking beings with a right to control their own lives.

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