“So, I will be pregnant, and she will be born a human Dragon. I had kind of figured that out already, seeing as Vampires can’t be conceived,” I say, and she looks surprised.
“Oh, you have given this some thought then?” she asks.
“Yes, we aren’t going into this half-arsed,” I say. “What is the point to this?”
“Well, actually, you have raised a fairly good point. But what I am trying to say is you are destined to have a daughter, but it might not be your sire’s. In fact, it doesn’t seem likely.”
“But the future us said it was working,” I say, confused.
“But is future you being faithful?” she asks delicately.
“Erm, well, no,” I admit slowly, thinking of what future Sebastian said.
“You are having relations with Sebastian?” she looks away as she asks it.
“Apparently, in the future. Not now. How do you know that?”
“Your mother has conceived many children, after She was cursed. None of them have been born as you were. Just regular humans who lived and died being what they were.”
“Okaaaay. I assume that is because I was destined to be Queen.”
“Perhaps. It is more likely because you were the only child conceived within a certain relationship that She had.”
“So, you do know who my father is! I knew you were hiding something,” I accuse her.
“Your mother fell in love. With a man who was forbidden. There has never been another relationship between their two species, such is the lack of tolerance, to put it nicely, but they were in love and they consummated their love the night you were conceived.”
“Who was he, dammit? Just tell me,” I snap at her, beyond curious now.
“The Fae King,” she says, and I feel the bile rise slowly in my throat. The Fae King? Sebastian’s father? Oh, the things I have done with him…oh, I am going to be sick. I put my hand to my mouth and am nanoseconds away from hurling as I think of us being intimate together when she adds, “The Dark Fae King, Drake.”
Wait, the Dark Fae King? Sebastian said he was Light Fae. I have no idea what that means but thank the old gods he at least isn’t my actual brother.
“Okay, you are going to have to explain further. I don’t really know much about the Faeries, except Sebastian said he was Light Fae. That is no relation to Dark Fae?” I ask hopefully.
She smiles at me. “No, no relation. But you see why I am prone to think that if you have a human-born Dragon, it may not be Constantine’s, it may be Sebastian’s.”
“But Sebastian is also a Vampire
,” I say, shaking my head at the disturbance of that thought. “And we aren’t engaging in any power-boosting rituals.”
“He doesn’t need a power boost, Aefre. He has enough of that all on his own.”
“But he must have had sex with millions of women and never had a child. Why would you think now that he is capable?”
“Because of you,” she says simply as she pushes the scroll towards me. “It tracks. Unless you know of any other Faerie you may have relations with.”
“Erm, no I do not,” I state determinedly. “But I don’t see why, just because I am a human-born Dragon and my daughter will be, why the father has to be Faerie? If you say the only child conceived by a Dragon and a Faerie is me, that’s hardly enough evidence for a case study.” I am confident of my words and I sit back, relaxing slightly.
“Perhaps,” she says again. “I am not here to tell you otherwise, as I do not know. I am just here to give you some facts and to warn you to be careful. If you have plans that you intend to keep, make sure they don’t go awry.”
I chew my lip. “But what if you are right?” I say quietly. “What if the only way I will have a child is with Sebastian?”
She shrugs and says, “The prophecy will come true. How it will come true we don’t know.”
“So, it’s just a wait-and-see kind of deal? Great,” I mutter. “How come you didn’t want to tell me about my father?”
“It was your mother’s wish that you didn’t find out. She didn’t want you going off to find him.”