I’d always dreamed of being something special. I knew almost nothing about my parents, so I’d often wondered if they could possibly be some undetectable species of Outworlder, a kind who looked identical to humans. My mother and father had both died in a car accident when I was four years old. My Uncle Phil and Aunt Betty had adopted me and raised me. For my part, I had hardly any memory of anything before the age of five. In the few photos I’d seen of my parents, they both looked normal enough.

”You’re neither human nor Outworlder,” Belinda said. “You’re something else entirely.”

”Do you always have to be so mysterious?” Astrid said with a wry grin and a roll of her eyes.

”Oh, very well,” Belinda said, holding up her hands as if in surrender. “I’ll be as direct as I can. You’re a Keeper, Jeremy.” She gave me a crisp nod and a firm smile, as though I would know exactly what she was talking about.

I didn’t.

”A Keeper,” I said. ”That’s not any less mysterious than what you were saying before.”

Astrid frowned. ”Your mom and dad didn’t mention anything?”

Belinda glared at the lycan. ”His parents are dead. He’s adopted. Did you even read the brief?”

Astrid frowned and turned her gaze to her feet. ”I was busy,” she mumbled.

”Busy? You’ve had three months inside the mansion. Didn’t you find yourself bored on one of those days and think to yourself: ’Hey, I should really read the mission briefing which would ensure its success’?”

”Nope,” Astrid said. ”I didn’t think that. Not once.”

Belinda glowered at Astrid before she turned to me. ”The Keepers are a rare race. They look much like humans, and have almost indistinguishable DNA, which is why you never would have registered as anything other than human on anyone’s scans. All the Keepers in Eosor were hunted down and killed. But this wasn’t so on Earth. But Earth’s magical knowledge was lost to the passage of time, and so Keepers were forgotten about. But there are still ancestors of Earth’s Keepers. Those with their ancient and magical bloodline.”

”Whoa, come on,” I said and stifled a chuckle. ”I’m sorry, I want to believe you and all, but this is all coming across as a bit crazy. I mean, it would be awesome to be something other than human—I’ve dreamt of what it would be like to have been born an Outworlder, but this is something else entirely.”

”Yes,” Belinda said, ”it is something else entirely. We were being mysterious for a reason, Jeremy. We knew you would find this hard to take.”

She fixed me with a sincere look, and Astrid gave me an equally sincere smile. I looked from one to the other of them.