Page 61 of Lightning Strikes

Chapter 22

Angela

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This is impossible. I don’t believe it… I can’t.

My parents despised the fae. Nothing adds up… My necklace, my life… This baby. That blast of power and everyone kneeling to me. These strange shimmering things protruding from my back… I noticed how the king and queens ears are pointed… while Cal and his healer friend keep theirs covered with their hair. I slowly drag my fingers around my ear and cry again when I feel that they’re pointed.

I’m a fucking elf.

I have to be on drugs… Maybe the healer drugged me before we got into the car… Or whatever Margaret pumped into my veins is making my brain bleed.

After the fiasco on the front porch, the king and queen, no idea what their names are, dragged me to the throne room and showed me the portrait of my mother, gloriously painted above the gold throne…

Her hair is a gorgeous light lavender, her eyes swirl with a rainbow of colors… But everything else? It’s her. Her face. Her body. Her name…

I just want to know why? Why did they leave, hide, and run? Why condition me to hate the fae and hide me? Tell me so many lies? None of it makes a lick of sense, and I’m so damn sick of so much deception and all of the secrecy. I flick my eyes around the sitting room and watch as the queen rushes out of the room to feed me apparently.

The king and Cal are talking amongst each other in the corner of the room, I turn my gaze to all of the gorgeous artwork that adorns the walls… The walls are a pale pink, the furniture is all soft, in various shades of gray, the tables are all a polished white marble… and the floor to ceiling windows overlook the glorious palace grounds. The blue rolling hills, the damn purple trees, and the pale pink sky that is beginning to brighten with the sun.

Well at least that’s the same. There’s a sun here.

“Your Highness? Would you like a glass of water?”

I glance over my shoulder and blink at the shaking guard and nod my head. “That would be great, thank you.”

I turn back around and stare out the windows. I feel like I’ve been doing that a lot lately… Staring. Thinking.

Being fucking confused.

The guard returns with a glass of the cold, crisp water and I sip it as I look over to Cal and his father. He looks like the perfect mix of his parents. His father is tall and broad, maybe an inch taller than his son. He has short, light brown hair, bright green eyes, and tanned skin.

The queen has long, light auburn hair, dark green eyes, and fair skin.

Why am I the only one with odd colored hair? I pull the necklace from the pocket of my dress and stare down at it as I smooth the gem with my finger. I close my eyes as I wrap it in my fist and shake my head. My parents weren’t the most loving towards me, but they were still decent. They loved me. Took care of me. Protected me.

All I have on a loop in my mind are them disappearing without a trace… Could they have just opened a portal and left me? How did Cal move me from the Earth realm to Faerie?

I glare at the prince in question and he looks over his shoulder and frowns back at me. He grips his father’s shoulder before turning and sauntering up to me, sitting down on the chair to my left. “So…” He murmurs and I continue my glare. He shrinks back in his seat and fists his hands on his lap. “I’m sorry… I wasn’t thinking when I removed you from the Earth realm… There isn’t any magic there, it’s… more like a vacuum? I guess it was second nature to pull you here and help you… I thought you were dying. I didn’t know about your healing power… or any of this.”

I nod and look away. “You’re… a high fae? What were you doing in Prescott?”

He sighs and chews on his bottom lip. “Well, guess I don’t need permission to tell you anything… Um… I have contacts all over the Earth realm. I was asked to check out hot spots around Prescott to see if I could pick up what was going on. Disappearances were happening all over the world, but something different was pulsing there.

“We met three weeks into my trip, and I didn’t find anything. So after I finished out my month of leave, I took care of my car and opened a portal back home.”

I blink at him and nod. “Who do you think is behind all of the disappearances? Is it a high fae?”

He snorts and shakes his head. “No. There’s nothing a high fae would need a lower fae for. We have our own magic. A lot of it… No. It has to be demons.”

I chuckle. “Sure. What do you really think it is?” I look up to his green eyes and he furrows his brows.

“Demons. I wasn’t joking. They’ve been trying to take over all of the realms for millennia. The angels and high fae push them back.”

I blow out a slow breath and finish my water. Setting the glass on the marble table, I rub my fingertips into my temples and lean back into the couch and close my eyes. “What do the demons want with the fae?”

He shrugs and fixes his hair with his fingers. “Probably want to eat them? We don’t know. The angels and demons stick to their own realms, and we stick to ours and Earth… Unless the demons try to take over the realms again, that is. The angels are their opposite and they fight, fucking constantly. We stay back and protect the humans on Earth… We aren’t ‘friends’ with either of the other realms.”

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