Truth Buried in Lies
"No. That's impossible. I saw you. I felt you..." I stumbled back in a hurried manner. My knees threatened to give way but I stood still regardless as I clutched my chest.
My mind reeled as the scene of Khalid's lifeless body replayed against my will in my head. The feeling of his hair between my hands when I held his head, the sound of his neck snapping, and the loud thud when the weight of his body met the floor. Had I imagined it? Misread the signs?
“You’re alive?" The words weakly left my mouth in half a gasp and half an accusation. My brows were heavy as they wrinkled tightly. Relief flooded my chest the second it clicked in my head that I didn't kill him but confusion swamped my thoughts.
I stared as he stood but Khalid simply reached to scratch the back of his neck. It was off-putting, the way his lips twitched into a nervous half-smile like he wasn't dead hours ago. “Yeah, surprise?”
“You’re alive," I uttered again but it was more of a pointed accusation. Whatever sense of guilt and relief I felt before was hardening into something sharper.
Ethan strode past me, his heavy footsteps thumping rather loudly in my ears further irritating me. He stopped by Khalid's side with his expression remaining carefully controlled, but there was a tightness around his eyes that betrayed him. “This is part of what I was going to explain,” he said evenly.
I rounded on him as my annoyance piqued. “Explain?” I snapped, my voice cracking. “He died! But for some reason only the moon knows, he's standing right there! How can you possibly explain that?“
Khalid raised his hands in a placating gesture, stepping closer. “Harlyn, hear me out for a minute—”
“Don’t,” I snapped, backing away from him as my breathing hitched. “Don’t come near me!”
Indeed he looked alive, but his presence didn't exactly confess he was truly alive. After all, I was being haunted by sorceresses and I was one. Who knew, I could have performed some form of necromancy unconsciously too.
Khalid stopped in his tracks, his usually bright countenance hardened. Perhaps sensing my unwillingness to engage, Ethan stepped forward in Khalid's place to speak. “He won't come any closer but I want you to calm down Harlyn. Due to your shift, you're very prone to emotional outbursts right now.“
“Prone to emotional outbursts,” I scoffed before laughing bitterly as I wiped at my face. “My parents are MIA, you’re an uncouth liar, he's not dead after I killed him, and I just shifted for the first time in my life. I'll have as many emotional outbursts as I want.” I stated clearly with a serious glare.
“What more are you people hiding from me?” I shuffled forward as I swept my angry gaze across the room.
However, everyone seemed hellbent on keeping their poker face, slightly bowing their heads in silence. Right, it was not technically in their place to offer me an explanation.
I faced Ethan directly. His flickering amber-green eyes met mine with a level of intensity that made the room feel smaller. “Well then,” he said calmly, “Let's get into it, Daughter of Gaiyetre.“
“Daughter of Gaiyetre?“ I muttered under my breath as he talked.
“Yes. Since you're so enthusiastic about knowing the truth, get used to the title,” he walked to me as he spoke, eyes persistently on mine, “but I'll advise you to take a seat first.“
Following his advice, I turned on my feet and quietly approached the closest couch before taking a seat. I folded my hands against my chest and sank back against the plush chair. “So?“ I remarked with a pointed look.
Ethan seemed to contemplate his decision but in a quick second, he seemingly decided to start talking. “There’s more, Harlyn. More than just Khalid and the things I told you on the plane.”
I hummed a mocking tone, squinting my eyes. “Oh, fantastic. Let’s pile it all on shall we? What else could you possibly throw at me?”
“Your parents—the Sages—they aren’t your biological parents..” Ethan revealed slowly in a calm steady tone that did little justice to the gravity of the revelation.
For a second, I stared at him in silence letting his words float in the space between us to settle. When it did, when I indeed confirmed what I had heard, I let out a sharp laugh.
My laugh burst out before I could stop it, hearty and bemused. “Right. Of course. What next? You’re going to tell me The Higan's are half demons spawned from Hell's pit.“
I only continued to laugh at the notion. But then no one else seemed amused, No one said anything else. They all just watched me in a manner that felt so demeaning, like they pitied me.
Abigail, usually composed, was shifting uncomfortably where she stood and Khalid avoided my gaze entirely. Only Ethan stood firm, his gaze unwavering and void of any form of deceit I was hoping for.
I blinked, my laughter faltering as unease crept in. “You’re serious?“ The words felt like sandpaper against my throat. “You can’t be serious.”
Ethan nodded curtly, his resonant voice carried his words through the air. “I am.”
I shook my head, shooting up from my seat abruptly. My arms dropped as I stared at him, my voice rising. “I understand you may need to hide whatever you're hiding but you're crossing the line now with the lies you're making up too. That doesn’t make any sense! My parents—my mom, and my dad—raised me. I've been with them all my life!”
“Well, from what I know, you are related in some way,” Ethan countered with some sense of urgency in his tone. It didn't feel like the kind of urgency that came from lying but the kind that came from fear of escalation.
“Mrs sage is a distant cousin of your real father,” He attempted to patronize. “And in every way that matters, she and her mate are your parents. But biologically, they’re not.”
My throat tightened, swallowing questions I didn't know how to ask. Breathing felt shallow like my lungs couldn’t fill fast enough. I felt suffocated by the possibilities of the truth.
“You’re lying,” I denied them all. There just wasn't any. I was right from the start, they had mistaken me for someone else. “This is some kind of sick joke and you're playing them on the wrong person.”
Ethan didn’t flinch. “I wouldn't dare to joke about this, Harlyn.”
My mouth opened to argue, but the words wouldn’t come. They drowned in the tides of my denial and contemplation clashing. Every memory of my childhood flashed before me, but now they felt questionable, out of place, and distorted. I hated that.
Ethan hesitated, the faintest flicker of regret crossing his face but he continued. “Your father, your blood father was the alpha of the Moonstone Pack, one of the original bloodlines. And your mother… She was Gaia’s chosen, a sorceress, a melbringer. Their union was forbidden. They knew their child, you, would be seen as a threat.”