Thorne stepped through the tunnel wall. “I’d love to see you with a suntan.”

At that, Everest grinned. “I had a tan for two centuries before Sweyn was born. You missed it.”

Thorne sighed and strolled closer as Sage stepped out of the tunnel wall behind him. “Yet another thing to hate our father for.”

“What?” I shouted.

“Excuse me?” Cooper yelled.

Jackson raised his hand. “OI.”

Warner put his hands on his head. “What the fuck?”

Deacon’s projection leaned against the tunnel wall beside Everest. “Fitting.”

“No, no, no. Hold on, just hold on a second.” I pressed my fingers to my temples. “Our father. He said our and he was looking at you, not Sage, so you and Thorne—-and Sage—-have the same father. What am I missing that the rest of them are freaking out about? Explain this to me like I’m five, please.”

Everest gave me a soft, warm smile that sent warm, fuzzy butterflies through my body. “My father was Seelie King Atzaran. I am Seelie.”

My jaw dropped. “You’re Seelie, not Unseelie . . . the other vampires⁠—”

“The other vampires, literally every other vampire—” he paused and met my stare, and I got the message, he was telling me not Saber, “—is half-Unseelie. I am the only one that is half-Seelie.”

“Then why are you a vampire?” Warner asked.

Jackson smacked the back of his head. “Oi. We don’t ask people why they aren’t vampires.”

Everest chuckled. “My mother is what makes me a vampire. The genetics I got from her. Which, to clarify for you, is where the Unseelie get it.”

“Which Lilith gave to them after our fuckface of a father banished them from Seelie.” Thorne grinned. “Her magic allowed them to evolve into being bloodsuckers, whereas pretty boy here was born that way naturally.”

“And that’s why you don’t need to feed as often.” Tim nodded.

“Wait, wait, wait.” I held my hands up. My brain was moving slowly, but the pieces were coming together. “You were the first ever vampire then?”

He nodded.

“Father did love that.” Thorne wagged his eyebrows. “Pity he didn’t live long enough to rub it in their faces.”

“It was glorious to watch him die.” Everest pressed his hand to his chest. “Perhaps we could summon his spirit one day just to rub it in?”

“Everest,” I hissed.

Thorne pointed to him. “There’s the little brother I love.”

Sage cackled. She wrapped her arm around her little brother’s shoulders and grinned. “It’s funny though . . . his first two children have a literal angel for a mother and we turned out much more twisted and fucked up than the child he had with the mistress of evil herself.”

Everest grinned. “Father hated me so much.”