Diana padded back in and took a seat on the edge of the washtub, eyeing me like I was slightly deranged.
I frowned at her and went about combing out my hair with a vengeance. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you about something,” she said reluctantly.
That was something new. Diana was never reluctant. I paused and turned to face her.
“I wrote to my parents,” she began. “I asked them about bringing you home with me.”
Something warm and comforting dropped out of my center. The pain of anticipated rejection that replaced it was surprisingly sharp.
No. They said no. Of course they had. Diana was a fool to have thought it would be any different. A naive fool. She thinks she’s so all-knowing; that her people are so perfect. Turns out the noble Lupines are just like everyone else. Full of prejudice.
“My father,” she began tentatively, “suggested that they meet you first.”
In other words, no.
I turned my back to her and kept combing at my hair, even more roughly this time, pulling hard at the tangles, glad that it hurt. It distracted me. Kept me from crying. It’s better to be angry than pathetic.
“It’s okay,” I told her stiffly, swallowing down the pain of rejection. “I’ve been thinking on it, and I really don’t think I want to visit your people anyway. My people are just too different from yours. I don’t think I’d be comfortable.”
“Elloren...” she tried, her tone kind. On some level, I knew that she was really trying, that she was on my side, but the part of me that wanted to hate her at that moment out of sheer hurt was stronger.
“Please get out, Diana,” I said harshly. “I’d like to finish up with some privacy. I really don’t want you here.” I took some small, fleeting satisfaction in the look of hurt that crossed over her face before she left.
So much for sisters, I thought as she quietly closed the door. I pulled harder at my wet hair, tears stinging at my eyes. So much for finding friends and family among her people. So much for not losing my brother, but gaining a sister. I’m not gaining anything.
It’s just as I thought.
*
“It’s not possible to be close friends with Diana,” I tell Aislinn stiffly. “She’s just so...different. She’ll never understand what it’s like for us.”
Aislinn is studying me closely, as if she can read the conflict behind my words. I look away and try to swallow back a hurt that still feels jagged and raw.
I close my eyes and reach up to rub my temples, a dull throb beginning to send an ache through them. After a long moment I open my eyes and survey all the books scattered about.
“What happened to the Fae?” I ask Aislinn. “Toward the end of the Realm War.”
“They were brought to the Pyrran Isles,” Aislinn says, cocking her head in question.
“And after that?” I press. “What then?”
Aislinn shrugs, her expression growing dark with unease. “They were resettled. Somewhere in the far north...” Her voice trails off. “What? You think something else happened to them?”
I can make out the paper-thin click of an Elfin pendulum clock and the small trickle of the waterfall as silence descends between us.
“I don’t know,” I reply. “I’ve looked all over the archives. I can’t find out anything about it. There’s nothing. And no Fae anywhere.”
“Strange.”
“Here’s the thing.” I lean in toward her. “I don’t think they were just kicked out of the Realm. I think they might have been killed. And if they were, well, that means that anyone who’s Fae or has Fae blood...their lives could be in danger.” I swallow, attempting to beat back the creeping dread.
“There’s more and more talk about rooting out mixed-breeds,” Aislinn says ominously.
“And if Yvan’s mostly Fae...” The clock ticks out a few more beats. “Then there’s no more time to waste.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Asrai Fae
Tierney is waiting for me when I return to the North Tower. She’s sitting on the stone bench in the upstairs hallway, stock-still, lit by a single wall lantern.
I come to a stop before her. “Tierney...”
“I was three years old when they came for me,” she says, her thin voice low and hard. Her eyes are firmly tethered to the floor. “My parents, they were part of a small group of Fae. One of the last, hidden holdouts. It was over. The Gardnerians were closing in. There was no way out.
“My Gardnerian parents were close friends with my Fae parents. My father now, and my father then...they were both glassblowers, and they admired each other’s artistry. Before the end came, my Fae parents...they brought me to them. Me and my baby brother.
“Before they left, they held me down. My Fae parents, and some other Asrai. I was frightened, and I fought against them, but they were too strong. I felt a terrible twisting of my back, a pinching of my face, burning all over my scalp. I was terrified... I didn’t realize they were giving up their glamours for me and my brother. Making me into a Gardnerian. Ugly enough to keep me safe from fasting. Safe from the Fae Hunt.
“I remember screaming for my mother. And I remember her sobbing and trying to comfort me, then breaking down. My mother screaming for me as my father dragged her away, her nails like claws on my arm.”
Tierney pauses, still as a winter lake, her gaze locked on to the empty space before her.
“My Gardnerian family—we were planning on getting out of the Western Realm before the spring referendum, in case Vogel won,” she continues in a low, flat tone. “But now...we should leave right away, but we’re not ready to take our whole family across a dangerous desert.” She’s quiet for a moment. “My Fae parents...my Fae family. They were never seen or heard from again.” Tierney looks up at me, fear stark in her eyes. “The Mage Council voted today to make fasting mandatory for all Gardnerians eighteen and up. We have six months to comply.”
My stomach clenches. All of us—fasted by the spring. By choice, or by force.
“Vogel’s going to round us all up for fasting,” she continues, “and he won’t just be testing racial purity of the couple being fasted. He’s mandated the iron-testing of the fasting couple’s families at the ceremony.” Tierney’s mouth turns down in a trembling grimace. “My brother and I are Asrai Fae, Elloren. Full-blooded Water Fae. They won’t just arrest my brother and me. They’ll arrest my Gardnerian parents and brother for sheltering us. My whole family.”
She breaks into tears, dropping her face into her hands as she sobs. I go to her and sit down beside her, pulling her thin, crooked frame into my arms.
“We’ll find help.” I console her as she cries, my resolve hardening. “We’ll find a way to get your family out.”
And if no one will help us, I silently vow, we’ll fly you all out on a dragon, straight over the desert to Noi lands.
But I need more information, I realize. If we’re going to help Tierney and her family, we need to know what the Gardnerians are likely to do to the Fae. Where they’ll take them. And where the Fae disappeared to after the Realm War.
And I know exactly who to go to.
*
“What happened to the Fae?”
Professor Kristian pushes up his glasses and sets his pen down on his desk.
“I’ve been through all the archives,” I stubbornly tell him. And I need to know what happened so I can save my friend.
His expression turns jaded, and he spits out a grim laugh. “You won’t find anything about that in the archives.”
“I’m not in the archives,” I shoot back, shutting his door. “I’m here.”
He eyes the white band around my arm, then shoots me a hard look.
“Really?” I say, responding to his unspoken question. “Do you honestly think I support Vogel?”