Of Dreams and Sorcery (Royal Fae Guardians #1) - Heather Renee Page 0,1

unsure of what he was getting at.

“Well, there’s something I need to prepare you for since you’re not exactly like the others who live in Arvayta.”

He was lucky he was flying just out of reach from me, because I really wanted to yank him closer and shake him. “What do you mean?”

“You have more fae in you than any Arvaytan born since before your parents. Your grandmother Taliah on your mother’s side and your grandfather Cello on your father’s side came from a long history of royals. Their fae side was much stronger, because blood lines had remained purer than most due to their standing as royalty.”

“Are these people still alive? Will I be meeting them and need to remember to curtsy or something?” I asked when he failed to get to the point.

“Unfortunately, no. They’re not still alive, but what is important to know is that they diluted the fae line when they found love with those descended not directly from their kind. And it would have kept diluting the powers in each generation if your parents hadn’t met each other.”

“Stryx, I don’t understand genealogy. You need to be more direct before I lose my mind over here.” I hated having conversations that didn’t get right to the point.

When I stopped walking, he swooped around to face me and snapped his beak at me like he so often did when I frustrated him. “What I’m saying is that your grandparents on both sides had enough fae magic in them to carry on their powers for many generations to come, so long as the fae line remained predominant between future unions, but they’d each taken bonds with those not of pure blood. That made your parents half-fae, still powerful in their own right, but nothing completely out of the ordinary. When you were born, you became the first being conceived from two royal families in hundreds of years.”

My eyes pinched closed as an irritation settled over me. I still felt confused, probably more overwhelmed actually, but I was beginning to wrap my mind around it all.

Stryx landed on a rock near me and continued, “Most Otherworld beings are only a one-third or less fae. When your parents found love with each other, nobody knew what would happen when they decided to have a child until it was too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“You carry a significant amount of magic within you that was thought to be lost long ago. When your parents realized this, they had that power suppressed and brought you to Earth in hopes of keeping you hidden for as long as possible. But, sometime tomorrow night, your magic will be set free and there will be no hiding what you truly are.”

Part of me knew I shouldn’t ask, knew that I didn’t really want to know, but it didn’t stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. “What am I?”

“That’s something I can’t answer for you yet. I wish I could, but there are bigger things at play and I just need you to trust me. What I can tell you is that you’re the first royal who has a chance of restoring the balance lost in the Dark War many centuries ago and stopping the prophecy that was given when you were conceived.”

A deep laugh escaped me, and once it started, I couldn’t stop it. If I understood what he was saying correctly, I was the reason for the doom and gloom he spoke of, yet I was also their only hope of stopping it.

“Kaliah, this is not a laughing matter. I’m only telling you this because your transition will not be easy. You will go through more pain than your human body can handle, and you will die before being reborn into your new fae form.”

That’s when the laughing stopped, but my hands still shook, and I was finding it hard to breathe normally. Stryx was more serious than I’d ever seen him, and he’d just told me I was going to die. What in the actual hell was happening? Out of all the crazy things he’d said in the time I’d known him, that was by far the worst.

“Is there a way to stop it?” I asked, doing my best not to scream out my frustrations.

It had taken me months to cope with the fact that I was going to be something other than human on my nineteenth birthday. Now, I was suddenly supposed to be okay with dying as well? Fat chance of