Page 124 of Hidden Kingdoms

“Naturally so.” His fingers twitched, and the black pipe appeared again; he held it out to me in offering, but I shook my head. Another twitch and it was gone.

“It would seem, from what the ergeia cognitio has shown me, that you are indeed an Anomaly. One of the most powerful I’ve yet had the pleasure of testing. As we are both aware, I know nothing of your parents, nor their magik. However, with levelslike this, should they have been even a fraction near you, it would more than likely be known,” he said bluntly.

“Your magik,” he continued, his head tilting slightly as he watched me. “Being here was your first experience with it?”

“No,” I breathed out, unwilling to hold back when it seemed I was on my way to some answers.

“You had control over your magik while in the mortal realm?”

Mortal realm?

“Yes, but it was nothing like what I feel now. Is that not normal?”

“It’s uncommon, but makes sense with the power level you are displaying, and the fact I can see there’s potential you haven’t even tapped into or aren’t able to. It’s also a reasonable conclusion that you are indeed Fae.”

“But I—” I began to protest.

“You don’t see how you can be Fae.”

“Can you read minds, too?”

“No, my dear, I’m just very old and very good at readingpeople.” Arden settled back in the soft armchair, leaning his elbows on the armrests and steepling his fingers together.

“I just don’t understand how.” My voice was quiet as the edges of exhaustion crept up on me once again.

“Your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, were Fae. That’s how.”

I blinked at him, not yet willing to feel the repercussion of his words. “Then why don’t I know anything about being Fae? How isthisnot my home?”

“There are a few ways I can think of in which it would be possible, and more than likely many other ways that even I don’t know of. For example, across our world, there are portals. Some are tiny pockets that provide a mere sliver of window into another realm, where others may be a door or even anentire field. Most are controlled by their respective kingdoms, however, there could be hundreds that we don’t know about, for our world is vast and wild with many untouched places. It wouldn’t be hard for a wandering Fae child to accidentally fall through with no idea how to come back.” His dark eyes surveyed me, perched on the hard leather chair.

“Perhaps you are a changeling,” he continued, “a Fae baby sent to the mortal realm and switched with a human one.”

“Why would someone do that?” I asked, horrified at the thought.

“Why do people do anything? I would like to know more about your parents.”

“I can’t give you much. I don’t really remember much about them except that they died in an accident.”

“I see, how old were you?”

“Seven.”

“You said you lived with your Nanna. Did she never tell you anything about them?”

I swallowed thickly. “I never asked.” Confusion was almost overwhelming me as I tried to find any memory of my parents, but there were none. If I were honest with myself, I only knew what they looked like because Nanna had given me a photo of them. Why did I never ask more questions? What type of person wouldn’t want to know about their parents?

“You have no reason to believe that they weren’t your real parents?”

“None.”

“Any other family, no brothers or sisters?”

“Just Nanna and her friend Briar.” A scuffle of wings came from high above, and a large, single, black feather floated down towards us, landing softly in Arden’s lap. He held it gently between his fingers, a small smile playing on his lips.

“I see.”

Was that to me or the feather?

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