Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

“I was jealous. My wings were near featherless, weak,unused, tied behind my back because I was a Fae, and I didn’t deserve to have the wings of a Fallen.”

I flinched back at the pure hatred in his tone, but I knew exactly what it felt like.

“Rose floated down the stairs and crouched down in front of me. She smiled, and with a flick of her wrist, the restraints fell away. ‘We already have a room for you’, and that was it. They took me home and I never saw that man again. I think Trick may have killed him. After that, I worked, joined the warriors, built up my strength, and decided I would never let anyone treat me like that again.”

And so became the High General of the Fallen Court.

I caught up with where we were in the story before finding his eyes again, seeing him in a slightly different light than before. “Your magic?” His past made him defensive just like what mine had done to me. We were the same in a sense.

I suppose it didn’t matter what species you were born in to, some things just didn’t change.

Cole shrugged, looking anywhere but me for whatever reason. “It’s a mixture of Fallen and Fae. My father was a Great Fallen, and my mother was a Great Fae, so I’m pretty strong. Which makes me a great asset for Trick to have. It’s also why I have pointed ears.”

My brows furrowed, eyes lifting to his ears. “What?”

He pushed his hair to the side, showing off his sharpened ears, slightly shorter than that of a pure Fae. “I keep them covered, but yeah, pointed ears just like Trick. Although his is definitely a genetic defect because both of his parents were full Fallen.”

Itruly didn’t care.

“Do you specialize like the Fae do?”

Cole shrugged, letting his hair fall back into place. “Not that I can tell. The only difference is the way it looks. My magic comes out red, but Fallen magic is usually a golden-yellow, and none of the Fae have red magic, in fact, I’m pretty sure only warlocks have known cases of red magic.”

Yeah, usually their magic matched their eyes, which ranged in color.

I scribbled down a few more things and nodded. “Hybrid. First known case. It’s something.”

Cole smiled, knocking his leg against mine once again. “Not the only one though. Trick is a hybrid, we just don’t know of what.”

My eyes lifted. I didn’t care to know anything about the High King, but it was important to the information I was gathering, so with an eyeroll, I waved him on.

He must have seen my irritation because he laughed. “Lora said her parents called it Shadow Magic, which does exist in the Fae species but not in ours. There’s never been anyone like him, and they were never sure why he got it, where it came from or if it could be inherited by his children.”

I had flipped to a new page and scrawled down the information. “How old is he?”

“1,306.”

Even though I expected him to be old, hearing the number was shocking. “His parents?”

“Aden and Uriella Michael.”

I scrawled it down quickly, wanting nothing morethan to move on. “Is he really as powerful as the world claims?” I asked, finding his eyes.

Cole nodded, a look of slight fear in his eyes. Fear covered by a lifetime of being the High King’s General. “As far as I can tell, yeah, but it’s hard to know where the fear comes from. People could believe that he really is as powerful as a god, or they could just fear him because of what he’s done. Once enough years have passed, it’s hard to decipher a certain kind of fear. It all just becomes the same.”

I wrote down‘think’s he’s a god. Might actually be one’before finding Cole’s eyes again. “There is this theory,” I finally said, “about convergence. Where everything kind of lines up in the world, creating these really powerful people to help fight off a really powerful force. Have you ever heard about it?”

Cole nodded. “You think this is that?”

I shrugged, shutting the book, wanting to be done for the day. “I can’t be sure. You kind of seem like maybe you’re a good guy—”

“Thanks,” he smiled.

I gave him a look. “But that doesn’t mean anything because your High King is what the gods hoped for when they created your species. So, the only way to prove the theory is to see how it plays out. I don’t trust you because you might be untrustworthy, I don’t trust you because of the man you work for. I understand that the decisions of the king aren’t the decisions of his people, but working under a man like that? You’d have to follow his law or…or he could just put you back in that basement.”

Colewatched me for a long time, something in his eyes shifting.

It might have crossed a line, but a small part of me wanted to push him. I wanted to see if there was a potential for friendship. Maybe with something else, but it’d be nice to just…to have another adult to talk to about the things that happened in this world.