I wouldn’t mind thumbing my nose at the fae, Adam admitted, his voice strong and humorous in my head.

I looked at Zee, who I trusted to tell me what I needed to know. “So what exactly is he?”

“He’s human,” growled Zee. “Or mostly, anyway. He started out that way a long, long time ago. He’s been lost in Underhill since she closed her borders to the fae, and it changed him. He’s not the only abandoned one who turned up when Underhill reopened herself to us. He’s just the only one who was coherent. Underhill changed him, changed them all, gave some of them elemental powers. Powers of earth, air, water, or fire. Most of those children . . . have been returned to the Mother.” “Returned to the Mother,” I thought, meant killed, but this wasn’t the time to ask. “They were broken by their time alone.”

The boy smiled fiercely. “They don’t want to kill me,” he said. “They want to figure out why I can work fire. They want to know why Underhill likes me better than she likes them. Why she played games with me while leaving them out in the cold for all these centuries. They want to know everything I know about Underhill because they’ve forgotten what they used to know.”

From the expression on his face, I was pretty sure that “played games with me” might have the same meaning to Underhill that it would to Coyote.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” I quoted.

“Nietzsche?” murmured Zee. “Appropriate. Also, perhaps this one: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, daß er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird.”

I dragged out my college German and came up with a few words. Ungeheuern was “monsters.” Kämpft was “battles.” “Let he who battles with monsters take care lest he become one?” I translated out loud.

Aiden gave the old fae a smile with teeth. “We are all monsters here,” he said. “It’s too late for any of us to be anything else.”

His words sent a flinch through far too many of the pack, including Adam. “That depends,” I said.

He looked at me with mild inquiry.

“On your definition of ‘monster,’” said Tad. “Who do you allow to tell you what you are? Monster or angel, it’s in the eye of the beholder, surely.”

“Why . . .” I started to ask, then stopped. Aiden had told me why the fae wanted him. He knew things they had forgotten, secrets about Underhill. And they were jealous because she kept him and gave him power. Any of which, I thought, would be reason enough for the fae to want him.