“I do?” I looked at her in shock. She had always said that my dad was the best-looking guy she’d ever seen but when I asked her to describe him, she had always been vague. And there were no pictures of him, either—anywhere.
Mom nodded.
“Well, except for the hair. I still remember how he looked when he brought you to me. He—Oh!” She stepped back, putting a hand over her mouth as though to hide her blunder. But it was too late.
“Mom?” I looked at her uncertainly. “When he brought me to you?”
Her eyes got wide.
“Emma, I didn’t mean to tell you like this! I swear it!”
“Tell me what?” I asked flatly, though I had a feeling I already knew.
“Emma, honey…” She put a hand on my arm, her eyes big and pleading. “I love you so much but…I’m not your real mother. You were adopted.”
38
“Here—sit down and just breathe,” Bran murmured in my ear, as he got me settled in the middle of the sagging, second-hand couch in the middle of our tiny living room.
“It’s all right, little one,” Lachlan said softly. He sat on my left and Bran sat on my right—maybe they were trying to offer me emotional support. I was grateful for that, but at the moment I wasn’t feeling any emotion but shock.
“Adopted,” I whispered. The word tasted strange and bitter on my tongue—like a pill I was trying to swallow but couldn’t quite get down. “I’m adopted.”
“I should have told you when you were little.” My mother was pacing up and down the living room, another lit cigarette glowing between her fingers as she gestured. “All the books say you should, but your father told me you would be in danger if you ever found out the truth about yourself.”
“The truth?” I looked up at her. “What truth? What about me, Mom?”
I wondered if I should still call her that, but honestly, that was still how I thought of her. After all, she had raised me and loved me and taken care of me—just because we weren’t related by blood didn’t mean I didn’t love her.
Although I was feeling pretty confused and upset right now.
“Ms. Plunkett, Emma is clearly Fae,” Bran said to my mom.
“High Sidhe by all indications,” Lachlan added. “But maybe she has some other blood in her lineage as well? I only ask because she has shown extraordinary magical talent.”
“Her magic is manifesting?” Mom’s eyes got wide. “Oh, he said that might happen—your father, I mean. He said if your true form was revealed and you found out who you are, you’d be in danger, Emma.”
“Who am I then?” I asked, bewildered. Was I some lost fairy princess? That sounded crazy, even in my own head. “Who am I?” I repeated.
Mom threw up her hands.
“Honestly, Emma—I don’t know. Your father wouldn’t say. He just brought you to me and begged me to watch you until it was safe for him to come get you.”
“So he just handed you a baby and you agreed to raise me on the spot?” I asked flatly. “Why would you do that, Mom?”
“Emma…” She pinched the bridge of her nose with the hand not holding the cigarette—a habit she had when she was feeling stressed. “I never told you this, but I was married before your father brought you to me. It was…a messy time in my life. I wanted a baby—so badly—but I could never have one. It’s why my husband left me.”
“So you took me just because you wanted a baby?” I asked, frowning.
“I guess…” She sighed and gave me a pleading look. “I took one look at you and just…fell in love.”
“Perhaps an affection spell,” Lachlan murmured, looking at my mom speculatively.
I rounded on him.
“Are you saying my mom only loves me because someone put a spell on her?” I demanded.
“Don’t get mad, little one.” He raised his hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “The spell is temporary. Your father probably did a scrying spell to find the most appropriate human to leave you with and then placed a short-term affection spell on your mother, knowing that by the time it wore off, she would have genuine love for you, which grows over time.”
“There wasn’t any spell.” Mom frowned stubbornly. “I wanted a baby and then here came this handsome stranger offering to give me one—it was as simple as that.”
“And you raised me all these years just because you wanted a kid?” I asked. It still seemed kind of hard to believe.
“I didn’t just want a kid—I wanted you, Emma.” My mother looked at me pleadingly. “Please, honey—try to understand. I know I should have told you about being adopted, but I didn’t want to put you in danger. And besides, I liked thinking of you as just mine.” She sighed and shook her head as she took in my new appearance. “But look at you now! There’s no hiding the fact that you’re different.”
“I know,” I said ruefully, looking down at my new self. “But Mom, you still haven’t really told me anything except that I’m adopted. Who is my real father? Where is he? Am I Fae—from the Fairy Realm? I mean I must be—right?”
To my dismay, she shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Emma, but I don’t know much about your real background. Your father only told me that you needed to stay hidden from some very powerful people. And he also said that he would provide for your education when the time came.”
I snapped my fingers excitedly.
“He must be the one paying for my scholarship to Nocturne Academy!”
I had always wondered about my mysterious benefactor—wondered why anyone would pay the exorbitant fees to send a drab little nobody like me to such an expensive supernatural school. Now it all made sense!
“So you don’t know Emma’s true lineage?” Bran asked, frowning.
“Or her family’s magical background?” Lachlan added.
Mom shook her head.
“I’m afraid not.” She frowned, studying the two of them for the first time. “And who are you two anyway? You look a lot like Emma’s father did. You have that…” She waved her cigarette in the air, as though searching for the right words. “That movie star look about you.”
Lachlan frowned.
“Movie star?”
“I think she means you’re ridiculously gorgeous,” I said dryly. “Both of you.”
“You think we’re gorgeous?” Lachlan raised his eyebrows. He shot Bran a grin. “Did you hear that, old friend?”
“I most certainly did.” Bran grinned back.
I felt my face getting hot.
“You know what I mean,” I said, glaring at the two of them. “So stop grinning like that! All fairies are good looking—it’s just part of being Fae, I guess.”
“You should know, Emma, since you are now the fairest of us all,” Bran said, suddenly serious again.
“I am not!” I exclaimed. “I’m just…different.” I looked at my mom. “You said I look just like my dad—did he have purple eyes like mine?”