“I’m sitting right here.” Elora pointed to herself. “I can totally hear you.”

“As I was saying,” Lisa continued, “my mate gave it to me to hide from Lorsan, and then he was killed. Oakley, Elora, your father was a dark elf. There I said it. No more hiding.”

“Bloody hell, did not see that coming,” Elora muttered as she stared wide–eyed at her mom.

“Me either,” Oakley agreed, dumbfounded.

“After he died, it was safer that I sever ties with that world and so I raised you in the human realm, although Syndra and I kept in contact. She and I became allies and she helped shield the magic of the book to keep it hidden.”

“Um, putting aside for a second that you are claiming that my father is an…elf,” Oakley interrupted. “What’s in the book that is so dangerous?” Oakley asked.

“Prophecies and history,” Cush replied solemnly. All their heads swung around to look at him. “Past and future—all contained in one book. What could be more dangerous? The one who holds the book holds the fate of the elves in his hands?”

“I can’t read most of it,” Lisa admitted. “It’s in your language. But my mate told me that it was imperative that Lorsan never get his hands on it. So we kept it hidden together for centuries, and then I continued to keep it hidden once he was gone.”

There was silence and then Oakley nearly yelled. “Centuries?”

Lisa nodded her head slowly and then looked over at Elora who’d become quiet.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Elora told her when she noticed Lisa looking at her. “I’m still stuck on ‘your dad was a dark elf.’ So just, um…,” she flicked her hand at them, “just carry on.”

“Um, sis, I think you need to get your head in the game because our mother just told us she has been keeping the book safe for centuries, as in plural.”

“It’s only been two and a half centuries, Oakley, don’t you go getting dramatic on me too,” Lisa told him with a sigh.

“You’re over 200 years old?” Cush asked her.

She nodded.

“But how? You live in the human realm and your mate is dead.”

“There are ways,” Lisa told him noncommittally. She looked back at Elora then and her features softened. “Are you alright?”

“I just wish you had told me,” Elora said quietly. “Wait, so all that time that you acted like you hadn’t seen Syndra in her true form was a lie? Everything you said you didn’t know was just a lie? Wow, that’s just…I mean…I totally get that it was your secret to keep and that you have your reasons, and I’m not going to have some big meltdown or cry fest over this revelation because, drama or not, I don’t do cry fests.”

“Do you breathe?” Rin laughed, “Because you nearly started turning blue in the face on that little tirade.”

Elora narrowed her eyes at him. “Watch it quiver carrier, you have to sleep sometime.”

“I wanted to tell you,” Lisa interjected, “really I did, and there were so many times that I spoke with Syndra about it, and then when Cassie wound up being Trik’s Chosen, I nearly just spilled it all.”

“Why didn’t you?” Oakley asked.

“Fear, shame, and any other reason a parent can come up with for not telling their children the truth,” she answered sheepishly. “I just wanted you guys to have a normal life. I wanted you to grow up and get married and not worry about whether your love was going to be killed by a dark-elf king. A fat lot of good that did me, huh?” She smiled at both her kids and was relieved to see that there was no judgment in their eyes.

“So I’m assuming that Lorsan killed our father? That he didn’t leave us when we were babies?” Elora asked.

“Yes, but you should know that your father’s name wasn’t Ben Thomas.

Lisa smiled and her eyes seemed to glaze over as her mind went back to another place in time. “His name was Steal.”

Elora covered her mouth as she laughed. “Your man stole the elf book and his name was Steal?” She looked over at Rin and Cush as she shook her head. “What is with you people and your messed up names?”

A single brow on Cush’s face rose and his lips quirked as he looked at her. “You people?” he asked. “Don’t you mean our people?”

“Dude, I might be half elf, but my name doesn’t mean butt pillow.”

“Ouch,” Oakley laughed. “Is that why she calls you Cush?”

Cush didn’t answer; he just continued to hold Elora’s stare.

“Okay you two, the sexual tension in this room is enough to strangle an elephant. How about we don’t make direct eye contact,” Lisa told them and though it was obvious she was teasing, it was also equally obvious that there was a tiny drop of seriousness in her admonishment.

Elora finally broke eye contact with Cush and rubbed her hand across her face. Her mind felt like mush, her body ached, and though she wanted to know everything and anything there was to know about her dad, she also just wanted a shower and a bed. Now to figure out which of those wants was the greatest?

“Okay,” she said looking at Cush, “so you could probably read what’s in this elf book right?”

Cush nodded.

“And it might shed some light on how to open up the portals?”

Cush shrugged, “I honestly do not know, but I suppose it could be a possibility.”