Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (36 page)

Rayne stepped over beside me, and inspected
my face seriously before he spoke, “You know nothing of your
birthparents…?”

“Austin has the folder with their
information, but I haven’t even looked at it, so no,” I reasoned
while shaking my head, “I don’t know anything about them, yet….”
Rayne was face to face with me, staring into my eyes, but his left
hand reached over my shoulder into thin air, except, it sent a
strange shiver down my spine.

“You’re part fae,” Jack mumbled, my eyes
scrunching in further confusion, “We can see faerie wings behind
you, small ones, but that just proves it’s only a part of you… and
you have the starburst mark on your forehead….”

“What is a starburst mark?” I wondered as
Evan walked over in front of me and placed his finger in the center
of my forehead, pressing a small circular spot before drawing lines
out and away from it.

“Similar to a child’s depiction of the sun…
but it is a starburst when referring to the fae,” Evan stated,
meeting my eyes with absolute seriousness in his, “You can hear me
talking because of your fae blood.”

My eyes widened and I jerked away from him.
“You’ve known this whole time and you didn’t say anything?!” I
blurted, but the others looked at me in confusion, “He says I can
hear him talking because of the fae blood…. Is that why Ty can find
me?”

“Yes… I’m rather certain with your coloring
that you belong to Winter Court… but without your birthparents’
names, we can’t be certain,” Evan continued as I inhaled a deep
breath and looked over at Jack.

“Will you take me back upstairs so I can get
the file on my birthparents from Austin?” I requested and he
instantly nodded, holding onto my hand as he led me away from the
way we had come down into the basement. My birthparents… I still
wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to know anything about them… but
after the bits and pieces I’d caught of Wren and Ty’s elusive
conversation, I felt like I needed to know….

When we got up to the ground floor, Alex was
standing there and I flinched as his eyes swept across me.

“What were you doing in the basement?” his
question was directed at Jack who slowly shook his head.

“Not now, Alex,” Jack growled, but his hand
in mine didn’t grow warmer like it normally did when he was angry
and Alex redirected his attention to me.

“I hear you have gotten rid of Mark,” he
commented and I barely nodded my head only once, “You have a
visitor waiting for you in the living room… I’d appreciate it if
your fae wouldn’t follow you home.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent
Austin a message.
‘Give the file to Jack when he
asks for it.’
was all I said before I tucked the phone back
into my pocket and looked over at Jack. “You go see Austin, I’ll go
see my visitor,” I decided and Jack smiled distantly but nodded
before he kissed my cheek and walked away. Alex started to reach
for my arm, I saw him do it, but just then the others walked out of
the basement behind me and Rayne growled in his chest. I took the
distraction, and slipped away to the living room, hearing Alex
interrogating them as to why they had been in the basement.

I knew the house well by then, and I knew
where we had come up onto the first floor, so I rounded the corner
to find Ty sitting awkwardly on the sofa, staring blankly at the
television which was showing some kind of emergency news
broadcast.

“How long have you known?” I demanded as his
ice blue eyes shifted to me.

“I don’t know, exactly… you were using
empath powers near me one time, and I knew for certain then… but I
guess I had suspected since I was so drawn to you that first night
at Jack’s party,” Ty explained calmly while I sat down beside him
and he turned to face me.

“What are empath powers?” I wondered and he
laughed softly.

“The ability to sense what others are
feeling… I left you alone because you had enough to deal with and
you weren’t doing anything too drastic, but today… that power you
used towards the troll… it was too strong to be from a lesser fae,
and too strong to not be noticed by any upper fae… that is what
called to Wren and me… that is what will call our court’s attention
to you,” he paused as I looked at him in blatant confusion, “You’re
from Winter Court… I’m certain of it… and you are no mere
changeling… you are of noble birth, and whatever reason you were
sent here, I assure you won’t keep them away any longer. The only
chance you have of staying hidden is to keep all of your faerie
powers turned off.”

“Why have you been following me?”

“Because you are faerie raised in the human
world… you don’t have the slightest clue how to protect yourself… I
was trying to help,” he admitted with a shrug, “I’m an Earth-bound
fae… can’t get back to Faerie unless I’ve been seriously injured,
like with my friends… Apparently we’re not good enough to stay
there with them… but whatever….”

“Anna, we have the file,” Jack commented
from the doorway, and I glanced back at them before looking over at
Ty while he stood up.

“I should go… I don’t want to know any more
than I already do… be safe, Arianna,” he finalized before he
disappeared, but I looked at the spot he had stood in with shock.
Ty never called me by my real name; he always,
always
,
called me Anna Gray. I also found myself wondering just how long
they had all been standing in the doorway.

Jack walked over and handed me the file as
they all fell to sit on the oversized sectional sofa. My hands were
literally shaking as I opened the file to find my birth certificate
on top.

Mother: Eira Mistral Father: Dolan Rider

I don’t know what I had expected, but my
heart thudded in my chest. I really was adopted, and sitting in
front of me was complete proof of that. It was my real
birthparents’ names, and I cautiously passed the paper to the
others, fully aware of Evan and Rayne’s sharp intake of breath.
When the paper made its way back to me, I looked up at them in
confusion, “What’s the big deal?”

“Your mother was the fae,” Rayne stated,
“Definitely Winter Court from the name… your father was literally a
dark knight, his name translates directly.”

“We have to tell Alex,” Evan started and my
eyes darted to him worriedly, “Your mother… Eira Mistral… Gods
Arianna… she was…
is
…” he paused and took a breath, “She’s
Winter Court royalty… if they find out who you are… you’re not full
fae… but they’re not going to quit looking for you if they find out
who you are….”

“Um… Evan says… we have to tell Alex… cause
my mom is royalty…” I mumbled and they all froze and stared at me
in shock. Rayne was the first to move, standing up from the sofa
and pulling me along with him. I knew where we were going only a
moment later, and Alex caught up to us just as we reached the dimly
lit room with the mirror.

“It’s a pack problem now,” Rayne announced
calmly and Alex barely nodded his head. Rayne pulled me around in
front of the mirror, and Alex slowly walked around in front of it,
too, but he froze.

The wolf I saw in the mirror was gorgeous, a
deep black that could blend with the shadows and aqua blue eyes
that didn’t belong on any creature, much less a wolf. What
surprised me was how big he really was, especially since he had
claimed Malcolm was bigger than most of the pack members. The other
strange thing was the diamond on his forehead that was dark
silver.

“You’re Winter Court fae…” Alex uttered,
looking from the mirror back at me, “Partly so… The news… they’re
looking for you…?”

“What news?” I instantly queried and he
sighed as he glanced in the mirror again.

“Two fishermen were found dead in their boat
in the middle of the lake… It was 80 degrees outside, but their
cause of death was determined to be hypothermia,” Alex explained as
tears stung my eyes.

“Her birthmother is Eira Mistral… Evan says
she’s royalty,” Rayne told him and I felt Alex flinch.

“And her birthfather…?” Alex hesitantly
asked, both of them essentially ignoring the fact that I was
there.

“Dolan Rider,” Rayne stated and Alex
flinched again, “It’s rather obvious… he was a dark knight… Human,
but not exactly normal….”

“What is a dark knight?” I finally queried,
and Rayne lightly pulled me away from the mirror as Alex
followed.

“Dark knights are humans granted minimal
magical powers and an extended life in exchange for guarding and
protecting the Winter Court fae… they’re supposed to keep the human
world and the fae world separated… they can enter the human world
without suspicion…” Alex explained calmly, “From what we know,
there aren’t a lot of them… and I’m pretty sure they aren’t
supposed to have relationships with the fae….”

“So what my parents did… was wrong…?” I
faltered, but they just started dragging me toward the kitchen.

“We’ll take care of you, don’t worry about
it,” Alex dismissed, but as we rounded the corner, we came upon
Kiris. His name still didn’t suit him, standing there looking so
much like Aeril… which is why I guess they called him Kris.

“Kris suits him better, don’t you think?”
Evan remarked and I jumped and spun to face him as he laughed, “I
didn’t mean to sneak up on you, Anna.”

“It’s okay…” I murmured distractedly because
my gaze shifted back to Kris’ strange yellow eyes.

“He was born a wolf. Alex told you that
happens sometimes. Kris was born in wolf-form so his coloring is a
little more suited to a wolf than a human,” Evan explained, but
Kris was darting his yellow eyes between Evan and me.

“You can really hear him,” Kris realized as
Aeril walked into the room and ran his hand over Kris’ head,
messing up his meticulous spikes.

“Hey, little brother,” Aeril greeted with a
laugh while Kris darted away from him with a glare in his eyes.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to
mess with my hair?!” Kris blurted but Aeril only shrugged.

“I just have to mess up those spikes… so
stop spiking it,” Aeril decided and I giggled at how similar a
conversation it was to one I’d had with Jason numerous times.

“You two sound alike,” I laughed softly as
Aeril walked over in front of me.

“Do we?” Aeril wondered, brushing his hand
lightly across my cheek, “I never noticed… Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I whispered and he smiled softly
but Alex pulled his attention away as Jack and Farren made their
way into the room.

“There’s only one way I can think of to keep
her safe…” Alex started and I saw the tension spread through them,
“I’m sorry, but a blood tie is all I can come up with.”

“You can’t ask that of her,” Jack countered
but Evan leaned next to my ear.

“I’m going to show you something,” he
started and immediately I was seeing strings, but they only went
from me to the others around us. “Breathe deep for me,” he
whispered and I took a deep breath as I was suddenly seeing the
entire property from a birds’ eye view but I could clearly see each
person around us. “A blood tie is an exchange of blood… it can
effect both parties of the exchange… the strings you’re seeing now
are linked to the elite group.” A breath later and those strings
were replaced by innumerable other strings, “This is the rest of
the pack… Red means you would have a positive benefit while the
other party would have a negative… blue is good for them and bad
for you… Orange is a little better for you and a little worse for
them… purple is a little better for them and a little worse for
you….” Those were the only strings I saw and so he shifted the view
back to the elite group where I saw black and gray strings, a
couple of red and purples and yellows and greens. “Blacks and
shades of it means the exchange would be harmful to both parties…
the yellow means you would both benefit from it… the greens are
considered some of the best connections.” The image zoomed back
into the room and he lightly grabbed my arm when I swayed. “We have
to do this for when a pack member marries out of the pack… Alex is
going to have Kiris look at these connections in just a moment,
which is why I’m warning you now… Yellow and green strings are what
we seek when we do blood exchanges with humans. You have yellow
strings to Jack and Elisabeth… you have green strings to Rayne, and
we know he won’t allow that… and one to me….” All of the strings
suddenly disappeared except for the one that I somehow hadn’t
noticed before that linked me to Alex and was pure white.

What is that?
I thought and Evan’s
hand on my arm tightened.

“I wanted to be the one to tell you… because
he won’t tell you right and he won’t show you all of this…” Evan
continued softly, “The white strings… we don’t see them often… like
the black is the absolute worst, the white is the absolute best…
it’s an ideal blood exchange. The thing is, you would definitely
become part werewolf from the exchange. But it’s best, and it’s
safest….”

How much part werewolf?
Even in my
mind it came across as a whisper.

“Depends on how much blood is exchanged… but
with the white string… you’re going to be able to turn into a wolf…
even with a drop exchanged…” he gently explained and I was suddenly
looking around through my own eyes again, feeling as though the
world had shrunk around me. What I did see was Alex giving some
direction to Kiris who nodded before closing his eyes.

What happens in a blood tie…?
I
hesitantly queried but Kiris’ yellow eyes had bolted open and over
to me in absolute shock. He touched his brother’s arm and Aeril’s
eyes shifted to him only briefly before darting to me.

“What is it? Who are her safe connections?”
Alex queried, but my arms were shaking as I stared back at Kiris
and barely felt Evan still holding onto me.

“She has a white string…” Kris stated almost
silently, causing all of the voices in the room to go quiet.