“It didn’t.” I cut in with a smile. “People always used to tell me that, when they weren’t being mean.” He frowned, and I waved him off. “She used to say it to me herself, and that she was so glad I mostly took after her. Except my curls and my eyes. Those were yours, and I… think she kinda hated that.”

He nodded sadly. “She didn’t tell you anything about me? Nothing at all?”

“No.” I stared down at the pastry in my hands, picking at it for a distraction. “And whenever I asked, she’d say some choice words and tell me to forget about it. She wouldn’t even entertain the idea of me crossing the barrier into the Fae side of the city, or trying to sate my curiosities about monsters. I never understood it, I thought she was just bigoted like all the others, but… I suppose she had a different reason entirely.”

I felt awful for being angry at her, for almost resenting her once I crossed the border. We’d had a tricky relationship because of the obsession she’d had with sheltering me, but now that I knew it was genuine fear and trauma from what had happened, I wished I had been more sympathetic. Taken the time to understand. She’d still hidden the truth about my father, but she wasn’t at fault.

No one was.

Well, except the king.

“I can’t exactly blame her, can I?” Zadok muttered. “Not if her first real interaction with our kind was me disappearing without a trace, and while she was pregnant at that.” He scrubbed a hand down his face, looking frustrated. “Did she… did she ever find solace with anyone else? After me, I mean. I don’t ask out of jealousy, I have no right, only that I hope she was able to move on. Have a good life.”

“She was with a guy when I was a kid,” I said, thinking back with a squint. “Trey. He was pretty cool. It was what kick-started my interest in you, ’cause I called him Dad once and he corrected me—said he was my stepdad. She told me they’d been together since before I was born, so it wasn’t exactly a wild assumption to make. Their marriage fell apart, though, as these things often do. I think it was just loneliness for her, and the fear of raising a kid on her own. It wasn’t purely love.” I shrugged, gazing at him. “She had no one else after that—or none she introduced me to anyway—but I think she was somewhat content with that. She always told me I was everything she needed, and despite her anxieties about monsters, she lived a full life. Was she happy? I don’t know, but I think she tried to be.”

“I never meant to cause her any suffering. Please know that.”

“I do.”