"Where are we?"
Lacey asked as she looked around.
They were in a mansion, far away from Aron City. They had driven for hours to get there.
"This is my home away from home. It's where I stay when I'm here on business."
Yvaine answered casually and Lacey looked around. On a normal day she would have been impressed with the decor and the opulence of the place but she had too much on her mind to even care.
"I thought you were taking me somewhere else..."
She trailed off as she looked around. She had certainly thought she was going to meet more Faes like her. Where they lived.
Her mother chuckled as she started walking towards the kitchen.
"I told you... In my world you'd be hunted for being an halfbreed."
Lacey frowned. It didn't seem fair to her at all. And if her mother was Queen, why couldn't she put an end to the silly law. Why was her kind still stigmatised?
"How will they know that I'm an halfbreed?"
She asked as she followed her mother closely. They walked through a large hallway adorned with artworks from the greatest artistes. The mansion was tastefully and artfully done but it lacked personal touch. It looked too cold and impersonal for someone to comfortably live in.
But then again, it was where her mother lived, cold and impersonal may be her style after all.
"Trust me, they can smell the human in you from a mile away!"
"Why am I here then?"
Lacey asked as she walked into the kitchen. There was a bottle of wine in her mothers hand and she was pulling out glasses from the cupboard.
"Why are you here? I thought you already knew..."
She rolled her eyes.
"Well... I only assumed you wanted to steal my powers again. And I don't want that."
Yvaine rolled her eyes.
"Do you even know what your powers are supposed to be used for?"
"Have you even discovered the things you can do?"
Her mother asked and Lacey shrugged. No, she had not.
"See, you may think that having wolf boy around would be good for you but a lot of Supernaturals are very clueless when it comes to dealing with Faes."
"And why is that?"
She asked as she watched her mother pour the wine into the two glasses.
"Because they know nothing about us. Who we are, our way of life, it's meant to be protected. It's meant to be a secret passed down."
Yvaine passed her daughter a glass of wine.
"Well... Seeing as I don't know much about Faes either I'm not sure I understand what I as a Fae should be doing."
"Oh! There's much you need to learn."
"I only wish I have enough time to tell you, but honestly time is so short."
She gestured to Lacey to come with her and they start walking away from the kitchen.
Her mother led her to the living area which looked regal and classy.
"Tell me what?"
Lacey asked.
"Ugh! Where do I even start from?"
Yvaine lamented as she sat down gently in her seat.
Lacey sat as far away from her as she could, just in case her mother decided to try and steal her powers again.
"Well... We've already established the reason you left. Why don't you tell me about why you're here?"
"Why now? Why are you even here in the first place?"
Yvaine opened her mouth to answer but Lacey quickly raised her hand.
"I want the truth this time. The absolute truth. If you cannot be completely honest with me, I would have no choice but to leave."
She warned and her mother paused, slowly a smile spread on her blood red lips.
"I have a sister. A younger sister."
"She was born five years after I was born... But to another mother."
She paused as she sipped her wine.
"We were raised as one nevertheless. And we grew up together. But we drifted apart quickly. I grew up to be Queen and well, Ianthe grew up to be wild and free. She was quite the rebel too."
Her mother had a sister? Lacey had no idea. She had felt that her mother had no blood relations at all.
"We never agreed on anything. And we fought all the time. But, we always honoured our bond as sisters. It was the only thing that kept us truly together."
Yvaine smiled, she did share some good memories with her sister.
"Ianthe was different. She was so much different from any other Fae you would meet. You see, there's a reason why we Faes have laws. there's a reason why we keep ourselves away from others."
"It's not only for our protection, it is for the preservation of our race as Faes. Ianthe didn't care about that."
"How?"
She was curious and anxious too.
"You see, we Faes know that we are magical beings. We know we are blessed with magic and we also know there are different types of magic. The kind of magic a witch or a demon would possess is very different from ours."
"But, even though we do not have these other powers, we have access to them. We can learn them if we want."
"What?"
Lacey blurted out and her mother nodded.
"And that was what happened with Ianthe. Because she was my sister, I relaxed the rules anytime it came to her. And Ianthe spent several years in the human world studying and practising all types of magic because of that."
"After a long time she came back to me. With an exiled Fae. his name was Hades Vigilanco."
"Why was he exiled?"
Lacey asked as her curiosity was piqued and her mother shrugged.
"He was exiled while my father was King. I didn't know the details but he practiced dark magic. The one of the unspeakable kind. He was exiled so he wouldn't corrupt the other Faes."
"That was the man my sister brought home begging for me to grant him another chance."
"The elders kicked back against it. Strongly. I didn't want him either. So of course I refused."
"I didn't see my sister again after that. For a very long time. Although I did feel something had changed between us."
"After that I began to hear some horrible news of what was going on in the human world. Someone was using humans and other Supernaturals, using them as sacrifices... Nobody knew why but the deathtoll was increasing."
"Oh it all sounded so horrible. The Supernatural and human council were panicking. I was called in the minute it was suspected to be a Fae. I was asked to apprehend Hades or the attacks would be seen as an attack on all of mankind. An attack they would reciprocate."
"I was able to find Hades. He was arrested."
"At what cost?"
Lacey asked as she saw the look on her mother's face.
"At the cost of more than half of my powers. The Dark magic he practiced made him very strong. He could not be killed easily."
"So what happened to him?"
Lacey asked and her mother shrugged.
"He was taken off my hands. The Council took him. I don't know where they did. But Ianthe has been looking for him ever since."
"She's the one behind all the killings in the city."
Lacey's eyes widened in shock.
"You knew!"
"Yes... And she was the one who killed your sister Lila."