22

Friday night was an event at Artemis to blow off some steam before finals. It was like an informal Power Playoffs but for the master's students… And clearly, I was exempt. Funny after how many times I'd been forced to compete and participate and now people made sure I was excluded.

It also wouldn't be fair given I could easily take on everyone in the stadium, so I just wanted to enjoy the time off and support Izzy.

So of course, shit had to go wrong.

Edelman had just finished with the introductions and thanking everyone for the livestream when I felt something off. And I wasn't the only one from the way some of the faculty glanced around.

But what did we have in common or what would we sense that others wouldn't?

It hit me the same time every fairy in attendance dropped, magic knocking them out.

The barrier. We felt the magic in the barrier change.

The man with my eyes stepped out of a portal where Edelman was and I teleported the warlock to me without even thinking about it, knowing he was no match.

"Protect my downed people from the other snakes," I told him and the other faculty I was sitting by. I stood and went down the stairs as I tapped into the barrier and opened a door into it.

While opening portals to my dogs.

All of them.

"How cute of you to use my shtick on me and come do this for a livestream," I greeted. I waited until he found me in the stands and teleported my sword to me so he knew he wasn't as in control as he thought. "Let your wings out. I have a pound to flesh to get for a start."

"People get a lot wrong about you, but you are an overconfident loudmouth as they say," he replied.

"Meaning you're old enough to be sexist and think any confidence or self-esteem in a woman is overconfident," I drawled. "And I'm not getting a lecture from the chickenshit who literally attacked me in the back the first time. Or now after I was waking fairies, you're just—"

"Enough with acting like you don't know who I am or this is all a mystery," he drawled. "Fairies deserve better than another royal who lies to them and—"

"Dude, I have no fucking clue who you are and neither did my mom," I cut in before teleporting onto the field with him. "Her best guess was—"

"She knew full well!" he bellowed.

I stared at him a moment. "I have no reason to lie. Yeah, great, we're related. She didn't know about you. She just sensed someone she was related to. She figured you're a bastard that didn't want to—" I flinched when he burst out laughing.

And it wasn't the sane kind.

"Your mother was a moron or—"

"Hold up on the Bond villain rant," I interjected as my dogs arrived. I didn't even glance at Chief. "Take charge and protect the downed fairies." I glanced out at the area. "Touch any fairy while they are incapacitated and my dogs will burn you to ash. Do not test me."

The dogs gave howls and spread out.

The fairy gave me a look like I was fucking nuts.

I simply shrugged. "I'm the shield to Faerie. I take that seriously. You knocked out my people and left them vulnerable. That takes priority." I smirked, making it clear that I wasn't worried about him. I twirled my sword around more like I was bored than anything. "Okay, go ahead. Mom was—well, she wasn't a moron. Too kind at times like with you but not a moron."

"I don't believe you that she didn't know about me. It was why her magic was here," he snapped.

I gasped and moved my free hand to my chest. "Oh no, the bad guy doesn't believe me. Whatever will I do?" I rolled my eyes. "Are we getting on to the fighting or—what's the plan here, man? I suggest you do it fast before the demigod shows up. And like I've told others, he's better than The Hulk."

I swore I heard Lucca swearing from the stands at my poking the psycho since he'd come to attend this with me.

He adjusted his neck at my dismissive attitude. "I'm here to announce to the world that you're not the rightful heir to the Vale family. I am. You should be queen of nothing."

I blinked at him like I was waiting for more and gave a dramatic sigh. "Well, clearly, you're caught up on our laws and as dumb as other sexist supes who—"

"Don't compare me to them," he blasted, gathering his magic.

I smirked at him and put a barrier over him that started draining his power. Fine, he did that trick and got out of it, but I still could, and he couldn't do the same so… Yeah, it wasn't much of a threat, but it at least showed I could fuck with him.

"Dude, start talking, or we get to the—" I pushed.

"Your grandmother did not miscarry her first pregnancy. I am the child from that." This time he smirked at me. "So I'm not a bastard like you're clearly assuming. I'm your mother's older brother."

I couldn't get my mouth to work for a full minute which thoroughly amused him. "Okay, assuming that's even really true—which we're going to for the moment—did she just sneak you out the back? I mean… Like what the fuck kind of crazy is in our family? Her and you, dude."

He blinked at me, maybe shocked I would so publicly bash a past Queen of the Light Realm, but like… I stood by my what the fuck for this.

"She did just that," he told me. "She banished her baby to Earth and put a list of enchantments on me."

"You can't open the portals to Faerie," I chuckled darkly. "A queen or heir can mess with them. She did it to ban you from Faerie."

"Don't side with her!" he roared. "She was a monster who—"

"Yeah, if this is true, she was, but I'm not on your crazy ass side either," I drawled. "And I can't exactly get her side of the story since she's dead and…"

And I was looking at her murderer. A sick glee filled his eyes as he realized I'd pieced it together.

"Don't take the high road with me," I told him. "You have no idea why she did what she did and what she faced. The corruption and more that—"

"There is no excuse to do what she did!" he roared.

That was debatable. I couldn't have ever done it, but I was looking at a pawn to be used against her and more. If I took all of the emotion out of it, that was what he was.

"And I am her eldest child so—"

"So nothing changes," I told him with a shrug. "My mother was still crowned queen. She took over ruling. I'm her eldest and only daughter. I'm the heir. I've connected with—"

"The sexist laws of Faerie are too much and—"

"Yeah, they are," I agreed, stopping him in his tracks again as he stared at me with shock. "And I have no idea what I'm going to do if my first kid is a boy. Well, not send him out to Earth, but I'm not dealing with corrupt ancients and more since they're all gone." Again, I shrugged. "But the law is the law. Girls rule in Faerie. That changes nothing."

"I'm the first-born Vale to—"

"There's no record of you. There's no way to prove that probably. We both know you aren't really trying to call my claim into question." I gave him a look to not underestimate me. "You've tried killing me—several times—and failed. Your help is all gone and fractured, and now I'm coming for you and out for blood after what you did.

"So this is a smear campaign, and you think if you announce to the world that you exist that I won't kill you." I teleported to right above him as I let my wings out and swung my sword at him. He was faster and got out of the way. I landed easily and smirked at him when there was fear in his eyes. "Except you have committed so many crimes that you're already dead.

"Like super dead. Just on trying to assassinate me the first time." I flipped my sword around as I moved towards him. "Oh no, people are going to talk shit about me. I've never had that before. I care about that big time." I used my speed and sliced his leg before he was able to get out of range. "I don't give a shit if you're my uncle or—"

"You're just as big of a monster as your grandmother," he seethed.

"Dude, you've tried to kill me how many times now? Don't go throwing stones in glass houses and…" I trailed off and smirked when I felt energy pass through my door in the barrier. "Time's up."

Lageos appeared, but I caught a thought from the fairy and immediately teleported my dad away.

"Naw, he can wait since I'm having fun." Then I thought better of it and teleported the box Mom made. "I just have to…" My mouth fell open as the guy dropped something on the ground as he opened a portal and walked through it.

The magic from the barrier faded and a very pissed-off demigod appeared back in front of me. Immediately, I turned on my telepathy.

"Dad, he was very confident he could not only block your attacks but do something really bad to you. I couldn't take the chance and pulled out the trump card. It worked and he left, okay?"

Lageos let out a slow breath and nodded before giving me a hug.

Portals started opening all over the place, and I nodded to Shael as she gave orders to collect every knocked-out fairy and make sure we got a headcount of each student, guard, and more.

I went over and picked up what my "uncle" dropped, frowning when I saw it was an envelope. Inside was a copy of a birth certificate and his documentation like I had—basically an intake form into the system. "Mario."

"What?" my dad asked.

"Says here that his name is Mario," I sighed. I shrugged. "It can all be fake. We have no idea if he's legit or—I can get a birth certificate here tomorrow. And a copy of a copy is—there's no way to know unless I find Grandmother's journals, and if Mom didn't find this out—"

"She didn't read much of them," Lageos admitted, rubbing his head. "Their relationship was too—"

"I apologize for interrupting, but you're both still being livestreamed," one of the commanders came over and reminded us.

I nodded but then shrugged. "It wasn't like we were going to hide all of this anyways. I mean, fine, we shouldn't talk about Mom's relationship with Grandma, but there were questions about how the former Queen of the Light Realm died. Now we know a murder was covered up. Why? Who helped?"

"I doubt you'll get much of an answer," Lageos sighed. "That is the way of life more than everything wrapped up neatly."

That was for damn sure. I swallowed a flinch when I saw what else was in the envelope.

Hair. He'd wrapped up a tuft of his hair. I quickly showed Lageos as I put back the papers, and I knew he saw it.

The question is how did we use it… Or did we bother? Would it really change anything if what my "uncle" said was true?

No, he'd still tried to kill me. He was part of trying to let demons into Faerie. He'd killed the Queen of the Light Realm. There was nothing but a sword to the neck for him.

I blew out a harsh breath. And now I had to deal with having an Uncle Mario. Seriously, was my life a video game now instead of a too-dark Disney script?

Fuck everything.

It was easy to have every fairy student accounted for and even my detail, but we weren't sure who else was there. Maybe some of the students invited friends like I did. We were allowed one guest and we just had to sign them in. Plus, extra security was always at Artemis, so the grounds had to be swept.

Someone checked the security logs and I was the only fairy who brought a guest, but we were still on edge as the healers started waking people. Luckily, no one seemed suspect, but my dogs wanted to stay while Edelman took back over and went on with the fun.

I wasn't staying now that I had a mess and hopefully he would excuse me.

Or not. Whatever.

Almost immediately, I was being interviewed by Essie, the news anchor on the new Faerie media network. I hadn't even met her yet, but so far the buzz was good about her being fair and she was who Leigh had wanted.

And I had no say now that my hands were out of everything.

"Your Highness, let's skip the dancing and jump right in because you're a busy woman," she started. "People will already have heard or seen clips of what you said from the livestream, but you were talking with an adversary in a contentious situation. Most would say anything to get out of that or to throw their opponent off balance."

"Thank you for understanding that, but I didn't lie. I also want to not dance around this even if I still won't tell everything. However , while I won't defend my grandmother, if what this man accused is true, there are a few things Faerie needs to know."

"Not other supes?" she checked.

"No, this isn't for outsiders," I confirmed. "First, the corruption of the ancients was worse than people know. We're not letting out the list to beat the dead horse or—it's over. The corrupt ones are gone. But people need to understand how bad it is because I have evidence that Ancient Simimar raped one of my ancestors after killing her mate.

"He was actively trying to take over the monarchy for generations . He mocked my mother that I was the way he would do that and she was an idiot for basically handing it all over to him. He firmly believed that her mating a non-fairy and having a child that wasn't a pure fairy was what he needed to make his dream happen."

"That is disturbing on so many levels," she whispered. "And this proof?"

"From my mother's journal which she learned from her mother's. That Ancient Simimar was powerful enough to put magic on that queen so she couldn't tell about what happened." I gave the quick recap of what I knew, nodding when she couldn't hide her disgust. "So again, if this is what really happened, I'm not defending my grandma. I'm not."

"You're simply pointing out that there's always more going on than we understand and you're not convicting a woman who cannot speak for herself," she surmised. Nodding when I did. "You are really as fair as you seem. That's impressive."

"I try to be," I sighed. "I have enough bad qualities, and apparently now I'm going to be a huge pain in the butt when I have my periods, so I should at least try my best to practice what I preach." I smiled at her when she snickered. "Look, I didn't know my mom or my grandma. But again, for fairies, I think it was pretty common knowledge they didn't get along well.

"So I don't blame her for not reading her dead mother's journals. She did push hard to investigate her mom's death. She thought it was more than an accident but was shut down left and right. She was also queen and had too much to handle and a lot of corruption no one seemed to know about or were willing to ignore."

"My mother passed when young and I'm very old," Essie said calmly. "I would have trouble reading her journals and feel like I was prying all of these years later. I think most of us could understand that feeling."

I blinked at her. "You were the right person for this job. I understand why Leigh had only you as the candidate and wouldn't consider anyone else. You're easier to talk to than therapists I've sat with and make this easier when I'm always too on edge to discuss personal matters."

Her eyes flashed shock but she dipped her head. "Thank you, Your Highness. My resume will probably get out soon, especially after this interview, but long ago I was a royal healer." She smiled when I couldn't hide my shock. "Yes, so my magic is deeply tied into comfort and healing, but I couldn't stomach the pain and losing people.

"I switched to journalism and trying to give the truth to our world so we could stop with the lies and rumors that drove us apart. So as much as I try to be neutral, I accepted this position because the fight you push for is the one that's always been mine." She took in a slow breath. "That fairies think for themselves instead of being swayed by others."

"It's a good fight to have," I praised.

Then I went over what I knew and even showed her the parts of my mother's journal, making it clear that they were only to use the photos I'd taken with the excerpts. She could see the full proof to verify, but I wasn't just going to let cameras catch extra anything given it was the journal of the Queen of the Light Realm.

No fucking way.

She and everyone in the studio seemed very accepting of that, shocked even.

"I have nothing to hide. I delayed telling everyone because we didn't know what was going on for sure. I didn't even know how to unlock the journal. And I know how it sounds—it is crazy. It's all crazy. I don't even know what to believe."

Her eyes flashed shock. "You don't believe him?"

I sighed. Heavily. "I don't not believe him but—this world is magic. I've reminded people of that repeatedly and to not be so easily fooled by things. I'd be quite the hypocrite if I didn't listen to that and not blindly believe someone who has my eyes. Yes, we are related. I felt that magic zip thing saying we're family."

She frowned. "You act as if you've never felt that before. You would have the moment you first met your dad, right?"

I shook my head. "It only is between fairies from what I know."

She winced. "I apologize. I only have fairy family."

I guess that made sense then, but I doubted that. Probably only that she knew of or acknowledged. Then again, I wasn't sure if that was really how it worked but maybe not with a demigod?

Yeah, everything was a confusing hot mess.

But at least the interview went well.

The only question she really asked that surprised me was if I had informed Neldor about all of this before the public.

I frowned at her. "Yes, he was the first person I told." I frowned deeper when she couldn't hide her shock. "He's my right hand and the only other royal alive in Faerie. Plus, he knew my mother and—he was alive for the war. I thought—I honestly hoped he might have answers. Maybe a rumor of something or another that my father doesn't pay attention to."

But I had a feeling she was reading something more into it all. Either way, I let it go and the interview went well. One of the commanders promised to go over the final cut of what could be released to Earth supes and then I was out of there.

I was thrilled to find out that we had every fairy accounted for from Artemis's campus. They were all awake and fine, confirming everyone had been retrieved.

And apparently, Lageos was there putting more power into the wards so not even one of the gods could try to take them over again without his approval. Oh boy. He was super pissed.

I knew I should talk to the guys or do any list of a million things, but I had too much in my head and just too much noise.

So I was a complete fucking idiot and went off on my own to work on that magic my dad had taught me to find animals. Except I went to Earth and looked for fae dogs, hobgoblins, and unicorns all over Australia.

I found four solo fae dogs hiding where no one would look and we hadn't been near. They were all in rough shape and just so beaten down that one even snapped at me.

It hurt me to see even as it gave me hope we were still making good progress to bring them to the sanctuary to get the help they needed.

"Are you out of your fucking mind going off alone?" Neldor seethed as he caught me there after I dropped off the last one. "Do you have a death wish or what?"

I opened my mouth to ask him what his problem was but then slowly closed it, frowning. "Sorry, I wasn't even thinking. I just…" I met his pretty green eyes that were losing their anger and not just confused. "I have an uncle, Nel. My mom had an older brother that my grandma ditched? Like what the fuck, man? Seriously, just what the fuck?"

"Shock. She's in shock," a deep voice said from behind me.

I realized he was right and I gave a slow nod. "I just needed to keep moving."

"You also need to refuel, agra ," a different voice said gently. "What are you in the mood for?"

"I'm not hungry." I wasn't, but when he named a few things, comfort food sounded good. I wasn't always a mac and cheese fan, but right then the loaded kind sounded nice and cheese always helped.

So that's what we did. They took care of me and got me comfort food while making a few comments that apparently one of them always needed to be tethered to me.

That didn't sound so bad.