Soul (Chaos #1)

Chapter Twenty

He nodded. "Think of the cat like a guardian. She won't harm you."

"But is it the same cat? Is it the cat I saw... other times?"

"I believe so."

"Why me then?"

"That's between you and the cat."

I stared at him, wondering if he was making fun of me. "You said something else. When we danced. You said... you said the fae had caused most of my misery. What exactly did you mean?"

He paced, his hands opening and closing into fists. "I don't think you're ready for that, Cara."

"Ready for what? Just tell me what you know, Brendan. I'm not a bloody child."

"Aren't you?" he whispered. "Gathering playmates around you."

"You're the one who sent them all to me! I didn't ask for Líle or Anya or even a sprite and a brownie. They were your choices."

He shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder. Yes, I bade them to stay with you, to protect you, but you're the one who has befriended them, charmed them into loving you. I couldn't separate you if I tried. Even Líle, loyal to me and barely known to you, has that same look in her eyes that the others have. And I have to wonder why. Is it because your humanity is a novelty for them, or is it something else? They want to please you so badly. Does a streak of fae in you compel them to obey?"

"Obey? I don't order them. I'm not like you."

"No. And yet, you are a lot like me. You do what you have to do to survive another day. And you have a knack of knowing just what that might be."

"Stop talking in circles and just tell me, please. What is that you know about me?"

"I know where you came from," he said, looking distraught. "But it doesn't matter, Cara. You're never going back to your human family. You never need to look in their eyes again. What does it matter how it all began?"

I rubbed my goose-bumped arms. "Tell me."

He sat next to me and cleared his throat. "I told you how fae deal with humans, pushing, prodding, provoking."

"Are you saying my dad acts the way he does because a fae is picking on him?" My heart lifted with hope. If there was a reason, an excuse, then maybe I could fix it. Maybe I could have my family the way I needed it to be.

Brendan hesitated. "Partly. This goes back to before you were born, Cara.This is... many of us are attracted to human children with fae ancestry. There's something a little... extra about the emotions they feed us. There's a bubble around them, a hive of more."

"Are you saying... do you mean that I'm the one provoking him? That I'm causing all of it?"

He stared at his hands. "I'm trying to explain. Your mother is like you, human with fae blood, and when your father fell in love with her, his love was so exaggerated, so deep, that it bordered on obsession. That alone is attractive to a wandering fae. But your mother already unconsciously called us to her." He frowned. "That was another reason why we mixed. A hybrid would form a melting pot of emotions around them, affecting everyone in her family, sometimes even her neighbourhood. It's this call that's so strong. It provides so much without us having to stir things up, as it were."

"So there have always been fae around my family?"

"Yes. Your mother already attracted the fae, and her relationship with your father strengthened the call. Some fae knew to hang around the family, knew it was an easy gain. And one night, things went bad."