There was a beat of silence that fell over the room, and I glanced up from staring at my fingers as they flexed out the residual sensation to see Zadok watching me closely, reflecting. His face flipped through several expressions, as if this entire scenario was finally hitting him, and he didn’t know how to take it.

“I still can’t believe…” He sighed, tears welling in his eyes. “I didn’t know you existed.”

Well, that answered my main question, I supposed, and the way he said it, the regret pouring from him seemed genuine. He hadn’t yet given me a reason to think he was liar, and his initial reflex wasn’t defensiveness or hostility. From our brief encounter, I suspected that he wore his emotions on his sleeve, much like I did. Excitement, fear, worry… it was all there, playing out on his face in real time. His nerves weren’t fake—as a connoisseur of anxiety, I could tell—and no alarm bells were ringing, so it wasn’t difficult for me to believe him.

Cair also wouldn’t have been so neutral around him if he sensed even a sliver of trickery, so I had to trust our judgment. There was still so much more I needed to dive into, though. More I had to dig up and figure out. I just had to list everything in order of importance. “I have so many questions for you.”

He chuffed lightly, a barely there smile returning to his face. It seemed authentically fond. “You wouldn’t be my son if you didn’t.”

The easy way he’d said those words made my heart thump.

He already accepted me.

There was a knock, and my gaze shifted to the stranger standing in the doorway. He was a hybrid—an ogre and… a Fae? His demeanor seemed larger than life, bold and unapologetic, though he barely reached Zadok’s shoulders—not short, by any means, but being a half-blood like me, he was on a similar wavelength in the height department. He had green skin, as would be expected of an ogre, yet his eyes were unmistakably Fae, black and enthralling.

There was a striking pink scar that sliced through his left eye and carried on down to the bottom of his cheek, cutting through his copper stubble. His hair was a deeper shade of red, cropped at the sides with two plaits on the top, trailing between his small black horns and stopping at his nape. He had muscles for days, and more scars littered his arms, but I tore my gaze away before it became a little too intrusive.

“Fuck,” the guy said bluntly, grinning around two protruding tusks. “I thought it was some trick.” He huffed a laugh, turning to Zadok, and I noticed his pointed ear. There were piercings lining the shell, except for an inch or two halfway up where a chunk of flesh was missing. “The resemblance is uncanny.”