Page 246 of Bitten By the Fae
“Zeph bit you?”
I swallowed, the intensity in his gold gaze leaving me uneasy. “Yeah. To pull me out of the enchantment.”
His gaze went to my neck, a flicker of jealousy flaring in the depths of his soulful eyes. “I’m glad he did,” he said, his hand leaving my hair to run his knuckles over my neck. “Protecting you is priority number one. And you’re right; whoever the Quandary Blood is that’s responsible for these attacks is trying to take you.”
The certainty in his tone had me studying his expression. “How do you know that?” I wondered out loud. “And how do you know it’s a Quandary Blood?” We’d discussed the familiarity of his power but hadn’t decided his fae type. At least, not with the resolve he’d just spoken those words.
“There’s a lot I need to tell you, Aflora,” he said, sighing and withdrawing his hand. “It’s actually why I brought you here. While this conversation would be better in person, I can’t leave without looking suspicious, and I didn’t want to wait to tell you what I’ve learned. My father is requiring I stay here through my free days to review some texts that are related to our current situation.”
“Oh. I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“No, you’re not,” he agreed, sounding sad. “I learned today that certain members of the Council and our Elder circle have been hiding several crucial secrets, all revolving around the Quandary Bloods.”
My heart dropped into my stomach as he continued telling me all about his meeting today and how they questioned Headmaster Irwin. He told me how he learned that Quandary Bloods were in fact not eradicated, how the Elders hadcontinued hunting them with help from the Council, and how Shade knew about this for months without letting on.
“He bit you because they told him to,” Kols added. “Or that’s what I thought until I spoke to him later. He’s hiding something, and I suspect it’s Fortune Fae related because he mentionedseeinga future path.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“You knew?”
“Not about your Council’s secrets or that they told him to bite me, but I know he’s working with a Fortune Fae.” I didn’t know whether or not I should elaborate. It wasn’t my story to tell, and while I trusted Kols, I didn’t want to put Shade at risk.
“That explains his penchant for being cryptic,” Kols muttered, his arm flexing as he shuffled on the bed beside me. It drew my attention down to his chiseled chest. Similar to my figment, he wore only a pair of pajama pants, while I remained nude.
Something about that wasn’t quite fair.
And thinking of my white-haired figment reminded me of his final words.Consider that I exist.
Do you?I wondered.Do you exist?
Then how was he in my dreams? Well, Kols had infiltrated my head without mating. So it was definitely possible. I needed to learn more about how he did it. That would help me determine if I had anything to worry about or if my head was just playing tricks on me.
“There’s more,” Kols said, drawing me back to our conversation. “It’s about your parents.”
Ice drizzled through my veins, his tone telling me nothing good would come from whatever he had to say next. “What about them?” I asked.
“There’s no easy way to say this, Aflora, so I’m just going to tell you what I learned.”
“Okay.”
He took a deep breath, his gold irises swirling with remorse. “The Midnight Fae Elders killed them for being known Quandary Blood sympathizers.”
I froze, his words not fully registering beneath the thudding in my ears.
No.
No, that couldn’t be right.
“They…” I cleared my throat, my voice a rasp of sound. “They were Royal Fae…” I trailed off, my voice still not quite right. It sounded loud now, like a squawk. Or maybe that was just me.
And wow, I was dizzy.
Stars danced around me. Real ones. Huh. That reminded me of Dream Guy again and his nickname for me. I never did ask why called mestar, of all things, nor did I know his name. I should probably give him one.
You know, after I figured out the whole dizzy thing.
Because yeah, um, the world was starting to go black.
