Chapter 2 #2
Shay had no fae powers when we met, and while her wolf was strong, she hadn’t gotten her wolf until she was in foster care in the human realm. She’d told me the whole sordid story of how her wolf had been forced to protect her from human traffickers.
“She was going to become very powerful. More powerful even than her mother.”
I blinked, surprised by that revelation as much as anything else. “Brand, I would never belittle Shay. I love her more than my next breath, but she has little more power than a lesser fae, as far as we can tell, and not much control over it. She also has a wolf, which gives her an edge, but—”
“Because she hasn’t assumed her full form yet. A greater fae cannot tap their full power reserve until they’ve taken their full form for the first time.”
I paused, considering. “So, you’re telling me Shay can shift into something besides a wolf?”
He nodded. “No one will know what until she does it. Most have a true form that aligns with their personal affinities, as you may have noticed with some of your guards.”
I thought of the female fae who looked like she was half fish and shuddered.
Brand laughed, a real, true belly laugh, and slapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t look so excited. If she hasn’t assumed the form by now, she may never, and it would most likely be very similar to her human form, since that’s how she’s most comfortable.”
I wasn’t sure whether I should be happy or unhappy on Shay’s behalf for that one, so I decided to let it drop for the time being. “But why did her having potential mean she had to leave the fae realm? Surely she’d have been better off here with her parents, who loved and protected her.”
“There were two plots to murder her in the first week after her mother sensed her powers.”
That set me back. “What? A six-year-old child?”
He grimaced. “The fae are cunning and ruthless, and more than one head was already plotting to hold the crown once Lyrica and I were no longer here.”
I shook my head angrily, unable to even articulate how repulsed I was by a culture that would happily murder children for power.
Not that it was any better at home, where newborns with the wrong gifts were murdered within days.
“So, what, you just stole her memories and dumped her on the side of the road and hoped a kindly human would adopt her? I get that she was in danger here, but I’ll never understand leaving her alone to fend for herself.”
Brand jerked back as if I’d punched him.
“We would never abandon her. It absolutely killed us to let her go, even for a moment. But Lyrica couldn’t leave the fae realm, and I couldn’t either, more than once every fourteen years.
We worked with a witch coven that wanted a powerful fae in their debt.
They devised the spell to wipe Shay’s memory and promised to watch over her inside their coven until they could find a suitable wolf pack to foster her.
I had six years left until my next time to leave the realm, so we had no other choice.
We truly didn’t think she’d survive another six years in the fae court, with the rate at which the threats were rolling in. ”
“If Lyrica is so powerful, and you’re an alpha, I find it hard to believe you couldn’t protect her.”
“One day, if you’re blessed to have a child of your own, I hope you’ll understand.
The cost of failure was her life. We would have done anything to protect her, even wipe ourselves from her memory to keep her safe.
She had to go back to earth anonymously, blend into her new pack, and sever ties completely with her fae heritage until she was strong enough to wield it and protect herself. It was the only way.”
“But that wasn’t what happened, was it?” I remembered the haunted look in her eyes when she told me her story, remembered the way her body shuddered in my arms as she processed the awful way she found out she was a wolf shifter.
The terror, the loneliness. But he was the one who’d found her there and brought her to her pack.
So he knew too. He knew they’d made the wrong choice.
“No, it wasn’t, and I’ll never forgive myself for that.” Regret burned deep in the depths of Brand’s eyes. He was a father who’d made a grave mistake, and he knew it. The question was, how did we move forward from here when Shay didn’t remember her own parents? Would she even want to?
“So that’s just it? She’ll never remember you again? She doesn’t know you’re her parents, her memories are gone, and now what?”
He sighed. “We can’t tell her. She wouldn’t believe us anyway.
It’s part of the spell, unfortunately. Her own power is the only thing that can break through it.
It was meant to be that if she ever manifested and tapped her fae power, the spell would shatter.
But she’s here, I can sense her fae side, and she still doesn’t remember us. ”
I rocked back on my heels, considering. “But you said she hasn’t taken her true form. Maybe she hasn’t used enough of the power to break the spell?”
“That’s our theory. Unfortunately, her not using her full powers is going to be more of a problem than that,” he said, tone clipped.
“How so?”
“We can’t give you the stone.”