Page 3 of The Stone Survival
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Melanie…I’m pretty sure she’s dead.”
The look of pure devastation on his face was so raw, so genuine, it made my chest ache. Not just for him, but for her too.The specter that had haunted the academy for far too long. It had to be her. The timing, the stories…Everything connected.
“Tell me…” he said softly. “Tell me everything.”
And so I did. I filled him in on Melanie’s spectral condition. On how she’d helped me by getting into the academy filing room, and how her mind had been compromised. Her memories taken. I told him about Travani and Carter and what they’d done. How they’d been manipulated into kidnapping Melanie and ultimately killing her.
“And the baby…” His voice cracked. “You were taken…”
The baby…the baby they’d left at the church had been me. I knew it now. Felt it in my bones to be true. That this man…thisgraynitewas somehow my father.
“Lionel did this,” Ivor said. “He found out that Melanie was pregnant before I could, and he took you.”
Emotions tumbled inside me, anger, grief, and shock, all fighting for dominance. I pushed them all down because right now I needed to think. To focus.
“But why? Why would he do any of this? You’re his father.” Wait… “Oh god, heknowsyou’re his father, doesn’t he? That you, a graynite, are his…I’m so confused.”
“I’ll explain all of that to you later, but for now, all you need to understand is that you’re an anomaly. A halfblood graynite, something we weren’t even aware was possible until I discovered your existence. After that, we went in search of others like you. The children we hadn’t known we’d spawned.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Graynites cannot procreate with humans or any other supernatural race, but it seems we can do so with a fae blood.”
It took a moment to sink in. “You’re saying that Melanie was fae blood…”
He nodded slowly. “We met on one of my sojourns outside our wards.”
“A sojourn like you made to go see Calista?”
His eyes narrowed. “Calista is not part of this story, Cameron. But, yes, she is a friend to the graynites.”
I wanted to know more about Willowman’s friend, but it would have to wait. “Okay, go on…”
“Melanie didn’t know who I was or what I was. I didn’t plan to tell. She was meant to be a…diversion. What do you young people call it? A fling. But I fell in love and took risks to see her. Lionel obviously discovered my association with Melanie somehow. I think…I think there may have been a photograph of Melanie and me together. I should have taken it from her, but I wanted her to have something of me when I left her.”
“You never planned to come back?”
“No. It was safer for her that way. To have the memories of our time together.”
“Did you know she worked at the academy?”
“Not at first, and by the time I found out, I was too infatuated to stop seeing her. One more day, I’d tell myself. One more day…”
“Enough to get her pregnant.” I sounded bitter, and maybe I was. Bitter on Melanie’s behalf. A woman who’d been punished simply for loving the wrong man. But if she hadn’t done so, then I…I wouldn’t exist. I was grateful to be alive but hated that my existence had caused her so much pain.
“I didn’t know it was possible for me to sire a child. I didn’t know she was fae blood. I didn’t know…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “And now she’s gone.” His eyes snapped open. “I need to see her.”
And she deserved to see him. To have her questions answered. To get closure but… “She’s trapped in the academy walls.”
“Because of her trauma, because she doesn’t know the truth,” Ivor said. “But you can set her free. Once it’s safe to do so, you’ll tell her who you are. You’ll set her free to find me, won’t you?”
He looked so earnest, younger somehow in that moment.
“I will. I promise you that.” Melanie was my mother. I was her child, taken from her all those years ago, but fate had unwittingly brought us together again because Travani and Carter hadn’t known who I was when they assigned me that room. Their part in my abduction was horrendous, but they weren’t the only ones to blame.
I closed my eyes, my head buzzing with information that spawned more questions. “Lionel sent Romi to find me. He knew my mother…the woman who raised me. It all points to him. He killed Melanie, and he placed me with…” But I’d loved her. Loved the woman who raised me. “I need a moment.” Maybe more than a moment.
“Of course. I…I’m sorry this is so much to take in. There is more. About the faction and when we believe it was formed and who we think might be overseeing it. But that can wait until your team is present.”
