Warrior Fae Trapped (Warrior Fae #1)(79)



“What is it?” Roger asked.

“Reports have come in about the possible Arcana.”

“Possible… So it still has not been confirmed.”

“No. There are no guarantees, though it seems like Vlad has no reservations.”

It wasn’t like Vlad to engage in wishful thinking, but given the magical people that the other vampire Brink power player, Darius, had at his disposal, Vlad might be leaning a little too heavily on outlandish possibilities.

Alder settled into a chair in front of the desk. Soft light filtered in through the many windows in Roger’s office, the trees outside swaying gently. Papers crinkled as Alder organized his thoughts. When he was ready, he gave Roger a steady, intelligent gaze. “How aware are you of the custodes’s practice of questing?”

“You mean, when they come of age and power?”

Alder nodded.

“I know they do it. That’s about it.”

“When they reach full power, the timing of which varies depending on the individual’s power level, a custodes—warrior fae—goes on a quest. This quest is self-defined and really could be anything. One person might stay in their home for a moon’s turn doing mind-altering drugs. Another might visit each part of the Realm for some purpose. They return, or go back to normal, when they feel they have completed their quest. Once a quest is completed, they are an adult by their reckoning.”

“Sounds weak.”

Alder huffed, as close to a laugh as he usually came. A shifter’s summons was an extremely dangerous affair, even with someone to guide the new shifter through their first change. Some were killed attempting to travel to the Realm, and of those who did get in, some lacked the magic to sustain their secondary form for any length of time. They were relegated to a mostly human life, cut off from the more magical members of their faction. Devon’s mother had had that affliction. It was why she’d given up on her background and married a non-magical human.

It was also why she’d almost killed Devon. Until his first shift, he’d had no notion he was a shifter. A lesser wolf would’ve died. Devon had instead struggled through the summons, ventured into the Realm on his own, and somehow managed to show up at the castle. It had cemented his incredible potential.

It had put him on Roger’s short list of shifters to watch closely.

“Some have more extravagant quests than others,” Alder went on. “Regardless, the second Arcana, upon acquiring his full strength, had a dream that he should travel to the Brink and forge a bond linking the warrior fae and humanity. That was apparently it. Just link the two. Reports say that he had no idea how.”

“Sounds pretty vague,” Roger agreed.

Alder nodded, glancing down at his notes. “So he made the journey through the Realm, largely undisturbed as one of his magic and power level would be, and emerged somewhere near Chicago. There, reportedly, he met a woman, as a handsome man usually does.”

“And seduced her, as a fae usually does,” Roger added. He already knew where this was going.

“It’s said that he loved her greatly. He was apparently convinced that his quest was to sire a child of both bloodlines.”

Roger shifted in his seat. “Sounds promising, but I have a hard time believing a fae, let alone an Arcana, would leave a child behind.”

“Exactly. They wouldn’t. After six months or so, the woman still wasn’t pregnant. The Arcana, feeling the pull of home, decided he had misinterpreted his quest. He’d connected with a human, and that was his quest completed. Since he couldn’t take his love with him, he had to leave her behind.”

“And she was pregnant?”

Alder quirked an eyebrow. “That’s where it gets murky. Charity was born about ten months after he left, judging by the reports I have. Nine and a half months, to be precise. She delivered a day before her due date.”

“So Charity couldn’t be his blood.”

“Well, actually, from conception, the doctors count out forty weeks until birth, give or take. Ten months.”

Roger sat forward. “So if he gave this woman a farewell lay, then it’s possible Charity could be his child.”

“It’s possible.”

“The reports you have can’t be all that exact. I wonder how many children were born within that time period, within that city.”

Alder grinned, a disturbing sight. “Exactly, on both counts. The Arcana did send someone back to the Brink to make sure a child wasn’t formed from that union, and the scout found a run-down house with nobody in it. They searched for the woman in question, but found nothing. Figuring they could sense their own kind, and didn’t, they went back to the Flush.”

“So…”

“Charity being this child is a shot in the dark. Although it’s said only an Arcana can bloom the sun in the darkness.”

“I had no idea you were a poet,” Roger said dryly.

“I have hidden talents.”

“Apparently. Did you visit Charity’s parents’ house to ask questions?”

Alder grinned again, this time with murder glinting in his eyes. “Of course. Found dear old Dad. He didn’t like the look of me. I narrowly dodged a shotgun blast.”

“Ah. So we have no idea if this mysterious woman was Charity’s mother, and even if she was, we have no idea if the child is the powerful Arcana’s. Even if Charity is this child, she isn’t full fae. She’s a half-breed.”

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