This is not the conversation I thought I was going to have with him. The memory walk is fresh. Behind my eyes, I can still see Pearl’s face contorted in fear of her own child. I can still see the midwife backing away from the infant as if it were cursed. He may look like a baby, but that is their disguise. They cannot be trusted because it is in their nature to lie. You know this, Pearl. Just like his father, he will turn on you one day.… This is not a child. It is a monster. “How can the Order use monsters? Nick’s life is in danger. All of these attacks—”

William sighs heavily. “There are protections in place—”

“Protections?” How can he be so calm about this? I sputter, “But if he’s half demon… half uchel—”

“Sel’s mother was a Merlin and his father is human. You’ve heard of incubi and succubi, yes?”

I blink, head spun by the turns in this conversation. “Sex demons?”

His mouth widens into a full, amused smile. “Did you just whisper the word ‘sex’?”

“No,” I retort, flushing around my collar. “I emphasized it.”

“Sure, we’ll say that,” he says, leaning over his desk to pull out a notebook. He grabs a pen and starts sketching a diagram, starting with two circles labeled MM and I.

I open my mouth, but he stops me again. “I need you to listen. Not talk.”

“Willia—”

“Listen, Pageling.” He points his pen at me. “Give me five minutes.”

I take a deep breath. “Fine.”

“Thank you,” he says primly, and taps the first circle. “Way back in the sixth century, Merlin’s mother was a human woman who fell into bed with a powerful goruchel incubus. A little bump, a little grind, and you get a cambion. A child who is part human and part demon.” He draws a line between the two circles and a perpendicular line down to another circle, M. “Aether affinity in demon blood is dominant. Like, break your Punnett square dominant. Which means that all of Merlin’s descendants are cambions too. The people we have come to call Merlins can draw on and use aether almost as well as Merlin himself could, even with only a single drop of his demon blood—no Legendborn Awakening spell needed.”

I stare blankly. “All Merlins are part sex demon.”

He smirks. “Technically, yes, but at this level of genetic distance, their seductive traits are… passive.” He waves his hand dismissively. “Nothing that normal human genes couldn’t produce, eye color aside. Unnatural beauty, distinctive voice, et cetera. Passive, but still effective. One minute you’re taking bloodwork, the next you’re wondering if the infirmary bed will hold two people. Don’t believe me?” His eyes sparkle as he leans in close. “Just ask Tor.”