Blood of the Exiled (Witch Fairy Book 10) (27 page)

Dismayed, Fatin says, us?"ithout me even realizing it?" tries to kill any more of us." see for yourself.
 
Kallen and i hat the k

Five minutes later, I am in the library with Kallen, Kegan, Alita, Adriel and Tana.
 
“That’s the story so far,” I tell them, finishing my report on the details of the evening.

“From the description we have given, do you believe these creatures are Skin Walkers?”
 
Kallen addresses his question to Adriel.
 

Adriel sighs.
 
“Like you, I cannot imagine what else they could be.
 
Have you seen the cat again?” she asks.

I shake my head.
 
“I wasn’t really looking for it, but I’m pretty sure it disappeared after bringing us to my grandfather’s room.”

“I don’t get it,” Kegan says.
 
“If you believe the cat is a Skin Walker as well, why would it rat out the other Skin Walkers like that?”

“Perhaps they are just showing us how vulnerable the Witches are,” Adriel muses.

“Maybe the cat doesn’t agree with what the others are doing,” Alita chimes in.
 
She always wants to believe the best of everyone, even talking cats.

“That does seem the most plausible,” Tana says.

Kallen surprises me by saying, “I agree.”
 

I give him a puzzled look.
 
“You’re on the cat’s side?
 
I thought you believed all Skin Walkers are bad?”

He shrugs.
 
“I used to think all Witch Fairies were bad.
 
I suppose I could be wrong again.”
 
I throw the chair pillow at him.

“Maybe they had everything set to go and were just waiting for us to arrive,” Kallen says.
 

“So many
maybe’s
,” I moan.
 
“Why can’t bad guys wear signs that list the reason they are pissed off and what they plan to do?”

“Maybe you could bring that up at the next bad guy symposium,” Kegan teases.
 
He’s lucky I don’t have another pillow to throw.
 
Lucky for me, Kallen does.
 
He throws it harder than I would have, too.

“I’m serious, why now?
 
Why start attacking the Witches right after we show up?”
 
I ask the room in general.
 
“How would they have known we were coming?”

There’s a light knock on the library door and Jadyn’s head peers around it.
 
“I came to check on you.
 
Gunnar woke me and told me what is going on.”

“Why didn’t my grandmother mention you?”
 
The words are out of my mouth before my brain even told me I was thinking them.

Jadyn’s eyes widen and she opens the door fully.
 
“She did not mention me?”

“You have too many tells to continue lying to us,” Tana drawls.
 
“What do you know of a black cat that can speak?”
 
She sounds accusatory.

Nervous now, Jadyn says, “A black cat?
 
I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it.”
 
Tana’s right, she does have tells.
 
Jadyn’s pupils dilate and her hands move to her hair to smooth down the locks, sort of like a black cat would groom itself.

“Seriously?”
I moan.
 
“I was actually starting to like you.”

“I don’t know what you mean.
 
Perhaps it simply slipped your grandmother’s mind.
 
It must have been ages since you spoke to her last.”

“I spoke to her yesterday morning before we came here.”

“Oh.”
 
She didn’t have a lot of options in how to respond to that.
 
At least she didn’t pick another lie.

“What is your game, then?” Kegan asks her.
 
“If you did not work for Xandra’s grandmother, as you apparently did not, why do the Witches believe you had?”

Jadyn drops the pretense of being an assistant.
 
“I have the ability to make people feel as if they have known me for quite some time.
 
It was easy to slip in here and convince them I have been here for ages.”

“Why, so you could let your kind in to slaughter the Witches?” Adriel asks.
 

Jadyn starts at the sound of Adriel’s voice.
 
Man, she is way more frightened of Adriel than she is me.
 
I’m starting to get a complex here.
 
“No, that is not the reason at all.
 
I came to protect the Witches.”

“Why do the guilty always say things like that?” I muse to no one in particular.
 
“You’d think they would at least try to be cleverer than the last.”

“Why were we not victim to this glamour of yours?” Kallen asks.
 
Good question.
 
I don’t feel like I’ve known her for ages.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Jadyn admits.
 
“It would appear that Fairies and Angels have some sort of resistance to my suggestions.”
 
She sounds disappointed.

“Sorry to screw up your plans,” I snark.
 
“Where are your friends?”

“They are not my friends,” Jadyn says as she had about the Witches.

“Do you have any friends?” I ask just to be mean.
 
Here I am, antagonizing my enemy again.

Her answer isn’t what I expect.
 
“I have very few close friends amongst my own kind, unfortunately.”

“Why is that?” Kallen asks.

Jadyn’s expression becomes fierce.
 
“I do not have the same values as many of my kind.
 
I am part of a minority that is trying to change our culture.”

“How did you get here?” Adriel asks.
 
“This realm, like many others, was sealed to you.”

“It was not a true purge.
 
There were a handful of us who were able to avoid being exiled.
 
Since that time, there has been civil unrest in our small community.
 
There are those among the Skin Walkers who still harbor ill will towards those who rose against They do not believe our ancestors committed acts worthy of exile.”

“How noble of you,” Tana says dryly.

“So, let me get this straight,” I say, trying to wrap my head around what she’s saying.
 
“For a thousand years your kind has lived under the radar in this realm.
 
During this time, factions of you have been constantly at odds with each other?
 
It seems
someone
would have noticed you at some point during the last millennia.”

A sly smile forms on Jadyn’s lips.
 
“As you have experienced, we are able to move among Cowans and Witches without rousing suspicion.”

“Why don’t you leave a magical fingerprint?” Alita asks.
 
Good question.

Jadyn sighs.
 
“May I sit down?”

“Are you going to answer our questions?” I ask.

She inclines her head.
 
“I will.”

“Okay then,” I sweep my hand towards a chair.

“They do not leave a magical signature because they can only perform earth magic,” Adriel says.

I don’t know why that’s significant.
 
“I thought Witches perform earth magic.
 
They leave a magical fingerprint.”

“It is different,” Jadyn says.
 
“We are only able to perform magic that is directly associated with the earth.”

Huh?
 
Slowly, a memory trickles to the front of my brain.
 
“The spell you performed on Aiden when we first got here.
 
You had a twig or something in your pocket.”

Jadyn smiles like I just figured everything out.
 
“That is correct.”

That is not helpful.
 
I look to Adriel.
 
“I still don’t get the difference.”

Adriel’s face is grim.
 
“I should have figured this out at the time.
 
The spell she performed tied her victim to the earth.
 
Literally.
 
Skin Walkers are able to commune with nature.”

“What does that mean?”
 

“I asked the roots in the ground to hold him in place,” Jadyn clarifies.
 
“Skin Walkers are very much in tune with nature.
 
We prefer to live away from others, living off the land as we were meant to do.

It sounds like they live in communes or something.
 
“Oh.”
 
What else is there to say to
that.
 
I think I’ll go with, “What do you really look like?”

That makes Jadyn uncomfortable.
 
“We look like Cowans and Witches.”
 

“There is one difference” Adriel says.
 

Jadyn glares at her.
 
“I have pointed ears,” she admits.
 
She pulls back her dark hair and reveals ears like an elf’s.
 
“Other than that, this is my true form.”
 
So, yes to my Humanoid question from earlier then.

“How long does your kind live?” I ask, my curiosity overflowing now.

“Perhaps we can discuss biology later,” Kallen says.
 
“Right now, we should focus on finding the one who wants to kill us.”
 
He gives Jadyn a pointed look.
 
“Unless she is already in the room.”
 
There is no heat behind his words.
 
He doesn’t think
it’s
Jadyn.

“That would be my brother,” Jadyn says, keeping her head high but it’s obvious she’s in emotional pain.
 

She’s going against her own family?
 
I can relate to the feeling.
 
“Sometimes families suck,” I mutter.

This garners a small smile from her.
 
“Indeed.”