Page 363 of The Spider Queen
He shook his head. “You have to show them to her.”
“Show me what?” Herron asked.
“Why can you see me the way I really look, then?” I asked, ignoring Herron for the time being.
His mouth lifted into a half smile. “Because you’re my kid.”
“Hello? What’s going on?” Herron placed her hands on her hips and stared at me.
I crumpled up the empty foil wrapper. “Promise not to scream?”
“When I was seven, I walked in on my parents having sex. Nothing can be scarier than that.”
“That’s what you think.” I took a deep breath. “Okay. Here goes.” I went to that place inside of me and found the glamour shield. It was thin and shiny, and I drew back the curtain.
I smiled at Herron, showing her my needle teeth.
She looked at me for three seconds and then her eyes rolled back into her head. Dad caught her before she hit the floor.
“Couch?” he suggested, lifting her into his arms.
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “Well, she took it better than I expected.”
“You might want to put the glamour back up,” he suggested with a laugh.
My glamour snapped back into place, and then I unwrapped another hamburger.
“I still can’t believe you call a human your best friend and you trusted her enough with your true identity.”
“She surprisingly took it all in stride,” I admitted. “Even after I told her about Lucifer and the pearls.”
“Herron?” he called out, not taking his eyes off me.
A moment passed, followed by, “Yeah, Thane?”
“You want to tell her, or should I?”
“You should tell her.”
“Tell me what?” I asked.
My best friend got up off the couch and came into the kitchen. She glanced at me, realized I looked like my normal self, and inhaled a deep breath.
“You know about the families that serve the Guardian,” he stated.
I nodded.
“Herron belongs to the Darcy line,” he said.
“The Irish family of witches?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t possess any magical abilities,” Thane went on. “When the mage concealed your identity, we knew you’d need someone in the world looking out for you because we couldn’t. So he ensured that Herron would be able to find you and befriend you.”
I looked at Herron. “So our friendship was orchestrated?” My throat was thick with emotion.
Herron glanced at Thane but then back to me. “Stella—”
