I shared my fears with Dad and waited for several long minutes while he paced the room deep in thought. His face was still pale, but he looked more like himself as he worked out things in his head.
He stopped walking midstride and turned to me. “We’ll tell people the doctor said our memories are gone for good. That usually only happens with long-term goren addiction, but we were given high doses and put into comas, so it will be believable. If the guard is watching, they’ll get wind of it.”
“What about Mom? What if she gets her memory back and tells someone?”
Dad nodded. “I’ll talk to her. She’ll be okay.”
I didn’t ask what he would say to her. If he said he would take care of it, he would. My parents’ marriage was built on a deep foundation of trust and mutual understanding. They were best friends and partners and knew each other better than anyone else ever could. Whatever Dad told her, she would trust him and follow his example without question.
“That takes care of Mom. How do we protect you if the queen’s guard comes around?”
A gleam entered his eyes. “The guard took me by surprise last time, but now I know what I’m up against. I’ll make some preparations and call in favors from a few friends. Don’t worry about me.”
The pressure on my chest eased. “Are you going to tell Maurice the truth?”
“Yes. I’ll ask him to come by this evening.”
Maurice normally didn’t stay in town this long, and I’d assumed he’d be off on another big job now that the ke’tain had been found. He felt guilty that he hadn’t been there for us when Mom and Dad were missing, and he wanted to make up for that by sticking around for another month or so. I’d never been so happy to know he was next door.
“Now what do we do about you?” Dad asked, startling me from my thoughts.
“What about me?”
“It’s you Prince Rhys came to see. Even if the queen believes my memories are gone for good, she’s not going to allow you two to continue seeing each other.” Dad paused. “Especially if she thinks his interest in you is more than platonic.”
My stomach rolled at the mere suggestion that Prince Rhys might have any romantic interest in me. He was raised a Faerie, but he was still my brother. The fact that I’d never been attracted to him didn’t ease the ick factor one bit.
It made much more sense now why Queen Anwyn had sent her guards to warn me away from him. It had nothing to do with me being a lowly bounty hunter and everything to do with me being his sister.
“I doubt we’ll be seeing that much of him anymore. You heard what he said when he was here. He’s Seelie and I’m Unseelie, so it wouldn’t be right for him to visit me.” I let out a breath. “And I don’t think the queen will come after me now that I’m Unseelie. She knows I’m friends with Lukas, and after the whole ke’tain thing, he would suspect her if anything happened to me.”
“That’s true.” Dad smiled, but there was no mistaking the flicker of sadness in his eyes. His focus was on keeping our family safe, but at the root of all of this was the child who had been stolen from him. What turmoil he must be feeling. To protect the rest of his family, he had to pretend he didn’t know his son was alive and well.
He cleared his throat. “I’m going to the office to make a few calls.”
“I’ll make us some coffee,” I said a little too cheerfully. “That is if you haven’t used up my stash.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” He chuckled, and the sound warmed me.
As soon as he left the room, the weight of everything I’d learned pressed down on me again. I moved on autopilot as I put the coffee on and took down two large mugs. The last week I’d wallowed in my misery, thinking about what I’d lost. That was nothing compared to what my parents had suffered and the loss to our family.
Caleb is alive. I wondered how many times I’d have to repeat those three words before they sank in. I thought back on all the years of visiting his grave with my parents, of looking at that tiny, white headstone and imagining what my life would have been like if my brother had lived. Not in a hundred years could I have envisioned a scenario where he was stolen by faeries and raised as the crown prince of Seelie. Or that if I breathed a word of it to anyone, the monster he called a mother would have my entire family killed.
The coffee finished brewing, and I inhaled the rich aroma as I poured it into our mugs. At least some things didn’t change. I made my father’s just how he liked it and then my own. I had been so depressed for the last week I couldn’t even think about food, and the smell of the coffee made me realize how much I’d missed it.
I raised the cup to my mouth and closed my eyes to savor the first sip.
And then I sprayed coffee across the kitchen.
I set the mug on the counter and ran to the sink, ducking my head under the faucet to rinse the awful taste from my mouth. It was bitter and ashy and made me think this must be what burnt dirt tasted like. No matter how much water I gargled, I couldn’t get rid of it.
Raising my head, I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and stared at the coffee left in the pot. Someone was pranking me. They’d switched out my coffee for this horrid stuff and…
Realization hit me like a blast of cold air, and I let out a cry that would have put a banshee to shame. Dad came running into the kitchen, wild-eyed like he expected to find the entire Seelie guard attacking me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked a little breathlessly.
“I hate coffee,” I wailed.
He stared at me in confusion until understanding dawned on his face. “I’m sorry, honey. It was bound to happen.”
I bent my head so he couldn’t see the tears burning my eyes.
“Jesse,” Dad said at the same time the doorbell rang. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up my mess while he went to see who else was paying us a visit. The way this day was going, it was probably Queen Anwyn.
I didn’t look to see who it was, but I could hear the murmur of male voices. Seconds later, footsteps approached, and I looked up at Faolin’s scowling face. I would have preferred the Seelie queen.
“Are you crying?” he asked brusquely.
I tossed the wet paper towels in the trash. “I’m just that happy to see you.”
He scoffed, but I caught a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, which only annoyed me more. His sharp gaze moved past me to the coffee machine and the two mugs on the counter. He quickly put two and two together, and in typical Faolin fashion, he said, “You’re crying because you can no longer drink that stuff?”
I glared at him. “It’s not about the coffee.” I didn’t need to add the words “you insensitive jerk” because my tone more than implied them.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s nothing.” He was the last person I wanted to confide in. I hadn’t even told Dad about it. That ever since I’d woken up and learned I was Fae, I had taken comfort in the fact that I still looked and felt human. I had no magic or Fae strength, and iron didn’t affect me thanks to my goddess stone. As long as none of that changed, I could pretend I was the same old Jesse.
I crossed my arms. “Why are you here, Faolin?”
“I brought you some food.” He set a bulging cloth bag on the counter.