And her name is…

My heart is racing along with my mind as I consider what all of this could mean. The anger is the only thing keeping me from having a panic attack and I can feel it bristling under my skin.Traitors. Liars. Deceivers. The voice is harder to quiet as I start to agree.

Once the door is closed I fold my arms across my chest, hoping to hide my heart racing under my skin, and pin each one away from me with a glare as they enter.

“How deep is this rabbit hole?” I demand.

“What do you mean?” Ealdian is just joining us and looks very confused.

I’m sorry he missed the show.

“It’s not possible that it’s coincidence that my head jailer and the guy who foiled my first escape are both your informants. I don’t believe it.” I’m shaking my head as I sit on the window sill.

“Theodosine, don’t do it,” Ignacio warns and my glammer slips again as my understanding of what he meant shifts.

He had caught me inching my fingers towards the window to open it. I had been planning to discreetly siphon from the plants outside to rebuild the energy lost and reinforce my glammers, but now I think he only meant not to jump out the window and run. With that I slip nearly completely and at the present they can see my pointed ears and the glow behind my eyes that comes with age as your powers grow.

“Fuck,” I mutter, as I watch all their mouths drop open and I suck my teeth with my tongue.

I’m not talking my way out of this one.

“Your eyes,” Wulfric gawks and I see his own powers slip as his eyes glow.

“Your ears,” Helion returns and I take a calming breath.

Yup. Pretta didn’t glammer me a set of ears, I already had them.

“Yes?” I ask.

Ealdian stares in an expression of surprise I didn’t think I’d ever see on him. “But you’re..”

“Half human? I never said that. You assumed because I said my mom was Sioga. I never said what my dad is,” I return flatly.

Wulfric is grinning like he’s impressed and I repress the desire to smirk back. “Your eyes,” he says again. “So you’re…”

“Over a hundred, yes. I am one hundred and thirty one,” I blurt out. “The flier Ignacio’s search party found for the 125th annual festival was for my birthday. They must have translated wrong.”

Wulfric is openly laughing now. “You kept a full glammer on for six years?” His eyes start watering with his laughter and he grabs his side. “I should have been calling you little fox. That fool has no idea!”

His comment makes my face flush and I’m trying not to show my irritation at my realization.He knows. “You’re the one that sent the message with an official seal for them to find me,” I presume, eyeing Wulfric, “the one that said I’m important to Kheliq, was underprepared, and damaged.”

Nyx moves around the table between me and everyone else and sits on my side. She is the only one that didn’t seem surprised by my ears or my eyes.

Nyx knew. Nyx always knew. She was waiting for me to be ready to reveal it myself.

“Well actually…” she begins.

“Yes,” Wulfric interrupts her, and I glare at him. “I sent the missive. It was before I found out what happened with the thirteen guards.”

Ignacio looks angry. “What happened….”

“They all lived!” I bark back, glancing at Wulfric who nods. “Now explain! And I swear if one more person side tracks with a question about me like I’m the one who has caused any physical harm to any of you…” I glance at Noryth and his face. “You don’t count after what you did to me.”

I see Wulfric wince and a small part of me is glad he remembers what side of the table he is on. Tiago moves around the table to join Nyx. They both have their backs to me and while I appreciate the show of support, I wonder what I’ve done to deserve it. I’ve done nothing but tell them how I want to kill people, and hide things. I’m still hiding things.

Ignacio opens his mouth but I interrupt him. “Don’t you dare be the one to speak, and if you command me one more time I’m gone. The only reason all of you are still alive is because Nyx and Tiago are here, and I like them best.”

“Darling…” Helion sounds hurt but I don’t fall for it.

“I see what side of the table you’re on Helion, that means something,” I return.

I watch Wulfric’s mood shift and he grits his teeth. He looks angry and I wonder if it’s because I’ve just admitted to being ready to kill them all. There’s a tick in his jaw and he moves to sit at the table.

“My brother has been a spy for them for decades now. He must have been sneaking in the night you were trying to escape.” Wulfric glances at his brother and gestures for him to sit like it isn’t a choice. “I was unaware of this since he didn’t come seemethat night.”

“Not everything I do in that court revolves around you dear brother,” Noryth bites back. “But yes, I was sneaking in. I didn’t know who you were but I saw the prison red and heard the alarms. I wasn’t sure which of us tipped them off, but I needed to keep my meeting and couldn’t be caught. So I dropped you for them to find.”

He sounds so indifferent and it makes me grind my teeth together. “Do you know what he did to me after that? Did you know he put six guards on watching me, at any given time, every day after that? Not only did I not have a single moment alone for five-years, but he broke every finger and toe I have for trying to leave, with his hands.”

Nyx flinches, and I know she is imaging that scene now that she’s healed all my injuries. Tiago glances back toward me and I wonder if he’s looking for sadness or pain in my face. He won’t find it. Any traces of those emotions are drowning behind the voice that only feels my anger.

“He did that every week for months. That’s also when he started binding my wounds so they wouldn’t heal right. Said I was less likely to try again if the punishment was permanent.” I’m seething and I need to shake my head to keep my vision clear, so I look to Vera. “Wulfric is why I know every poison and every drug in the Sioga realm.”

She gasps and moves away from him. He just looks down at the table. I can feel my control lapsing again and my head feels thick with it.

“He didn’t know that it was me that day that kept you from escaping,” Noryth admits. “He never knew I was there. It was unusual for him to have even been at Kheliq’s at that time of year. Truthfully, I didn’t know he was there myself.”

That doesn’t exactly do anything for my rising emotions and the magic in me begs for life. I throw the window open and reach to the tree before anyone can stop me. Someone is saying something but I can’t hear them over the pull of energy as I do a shit job of winding it into mine. The tree won’t live, but I will and they will, and it calms me down.

“Theodosine…”

“Don’t you dare Ignacio!” Vera chirps and that surprises. “You can’t just control her every time she’s not who you want!”

Her words distract me in the wrong direction and I take from the tree all at once, turning what’s left of it to dust like there was never a tree. I have the energy now, but it feels like swallowing a bite you didn’t chew well enough, like a lump in my life tapestry, and I rub my chest.

“Wow,” Wulfric gapes.

“Nyx and Tiago, Nyx and Tiago,-“ I take a deep breath, “- .. and Vera…” I repeat softly to myself and move to rub my face. “I can’t do this… Ealdian, did you all lie to me?”

Everyone is shocked that I asked him except him apparently, and he moves to sit at the table across from Nyx. “No, we never lied to you. We didn’t know what Noryth did that night, and we didn’t know who Wulfric was to you.” He glances at Ignacio. “Nothing that I was told anyway.”

“You think I withheld..” Ignacio begins but Vera, of everyone, cuts him off.

“I think she was important enough for you to do anything to get her on our side,” she snips and moves to sit beside Nyx, both of them crossing their arms. “You were the one asking why Kheliq took her like that when she’d be a stronger ally. She’s right, and I’d be hella suspicious if I was rescued and then two people that facilitated my capture and shit treatment turned up.”

“I didn’t know,” Ignacio insists.

“Nor did I,” Helion adds and I glance at him.

He seems so much smaller in this moment.

“Darling, you need to believe me.”

So I do.

I nod, just barely catching something change in Wulfric. He looks angry again and I wonder for a moment if he’s jealous that I believe him. I shake my head and find my fingers fidgeting with each other.

“I believe you didn’t know the details, but how can I trust anyone when this is the company you keep?” My voice is small and I hate it, but I find myself unable to yell right now, my anger is still there but it feels muted.