Page 29 of The Second Sight
Seven watched me, his patience seemingly infinite. I crossed to the bed slowly, extending the frame toward him while keeping myself just out of reach.
He took it gently. For a long moment, he simply stared at my mother’s face, his expression shifting through emotions I couldn’t read. His thumb traced the outline of her face through the glass cover, a gesture so intimate it made my chest ache.
“Theia,” he said, the name sounding like a song in his mouth. “I thought so.”
“You knew my mother?” My voice cracked on the question.
Seven looked up at me, his eyes reflecting memories. “Not personally. But I know what she is. What you are.” He held the photo up beside my face, comparing. “You have her eyes. Golden-brown with flecks of amber. Yumboe eyes.”
“Yumboe?” The unfamiliar word seemed strange on my tongue.
“You’re half Fae.” Seven stood and his body filled my bedroom.
“Fae?” I knew what Fae was, but what was he really saying to me.
“All Fae isn’t created equal. You’re Yumboe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Yumboes are a kind of fairy from Goree Island, off the coast of Senegal. Powerful beings, especially the women.” He set the frame on my nightstand, next to the Emporium glasses. “Your mother is a full-blooded Yumboe. Which makes you half.”
I nearly laughed, the absurdity of it all finally pushing me past fear and into hysterical disbelief. “A fairy? My mother is a fairy? That’s ridic?—”
“Why do you have dreams that come true,” he interrupted. “You could see me feeding through those glasses when no human should have been able to.”
My body tensed defensively, hands curling into fists at my sides. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you’ve dreamed about your mother since she left. Not ordinary dreams. You have visions where she’s probably trying to tell you something. Fairies have a psychic connection with one another.” Seven’s voice remained gentle, but each syllable hit me hard. “Let’s move past the stage of denial. You’re special and you know that. You’ve always known that.”
My resistance faltered. How could he know these things? I’d never told anyone about the dreams, but Brooklyn.
“Seeing things before they happen or after they happen doesn’t make me a fairy,” I countered. “There are humans with the same abilities. What you said doesn’t make me a fairy.”
“Half-fairy,” Seven corrected, his eyes never leaving mine. “It’s the only thing that explains everything about you. Kasi, it’s everything you’ve been afraid to tell others. It’s everything that’s made you feel different your entire life.”
I sunk onto the edge of the bed, not trusting my legs to support me anymore. The proximity should have frightened me, but instead, I felt a strange calm settling over me. It was as if some part of me had always known this truth.
“Why did she leave us?” I asked, the question that had haunted me for six years. “Why did she leave me and my dad?
Seven took the seat on the on the bedspread beside me. “That,” he said softly, “is what we need to find out.”
“We?” I asked.
“Yumboe fairies are indigenous to West Africa,” Seven explained, his voice taking on a teacher’s cadence. He’d shifted on the bed, angling his body toward mine. He was so close our shoulders were nearly touching. “They’re known for their connection to nature, their pre and post cognitive abilities, and their protectiveness toward family. Your mother would have been exceptionally powerful, even among her kind. She’s an older fairy. The older the more abilities they possess.”
I glanced at the photograph on my nightstand, at my mother’s face. The idea that my mama who made pancakes shaped like animals and sang rap songs like they were gospel could be some powerful supernatural being seemed absurd. And yet...
“Kasi, I would never lie to you.” His confession came out of nowhere.
“If don’t think you’re lying, but if what you’re saying is true,” I said slowly, “then why didn’t she tell me? Why pretend to be normal?”
Seven’s lips curved slightly. “The supernatural world isn’t exactly forthcoming about its existence. Most of us prefer to remain hidden. Your mother was likely protecting you.”
“Protecting me from what?”
“From those who hunt her kind. From the responsibilities that come with your gifts.”
I tucked my damp hair behind my ears, trying to process his words. “You said I should have... abilities.”
