All That Shimmers [Seungmin]

23

We reappeared at the edge of the familiar forest. Seungmin cradled my mother in his arms. She had no idea the journey she'd just taken. We walked to the lake as we'd done many times before and I was relieved to see that it no longer hid itself from Seungmin's arrivals. It trusted him, too.

He set my mother on a fresh patch of grass, and I knelt down beside her. I shook her shoulder gently and her eyes fluttered open. She noticed me first...the human me that I'd reverted my appearance back to...and looked around in perplexity.

"Aerin...where are we?" she tried to ground herself and gazed past me at the lake. "Are we back home?" she asked with furrowed brows as she pinched the bridge of her nose in confusion. "How?" she asked simply.

I sucked in a breath and revealed my fairy self again. Just like before, her eyes widened in fear. She cowered away from me as if worried I'd hurt her. It hurt to see her so fearful of me. We were all we had left.

"It's okay," I tried to calm her down. "I'm still me. I'm still Aerin."

She glanced behind her as if looking for someone to help but only found Seungmin. He offered a small smile but she shouted and hurried to hide behind me. "He's a killer Aerin," she reminded me through shaky shouts.

Can you give us some space? I asked him. We wouldn't get anywhere if she was too scared to talk.

He nodded and headed off for a bit.

"Where is he going?" she asked, still anxious. "Are there more ready to attack?"

"No, no," I tried to soothe. "Nothing like that."

I re-hid myself so she'd feel more comfortable, and she examined me, trying to figure out what was going on.

"How could you become one?" she questioned disappointedly.

"I had to," I told her honestly. "I'm trying to keep the King from obtaining any more power, and this was the only way."

"Why this?" she asked.

I took a deep breath and explained all of it. From the very first day when Seungmin pushed me off the cliff to prove to me that I did have powers...

"I knew something was different about you," my mother confessed.

"What do you mean?" I probed.

She shook her head as she recalled the distant memory. "You always wanted us to go to the lake with you. But we never did after that first time," she began. "I was busy watching your sisters and making sure they stayed safe since they couldn't swim, and when I looked up, you were gone. I panicked and brought them back to the house and came out to search for you. I looked for hours around the lake and in the lake...I thought you'd drowned and that it was my fault. I was crying on the dock and cursing myself for being a horrible mother when you resurfaced with a smile as if nothing had happened."

I had no memory of this. It must've been a long time ago.

"I knew there had to be a reason..."

"It's because I was a hybrid," I told her. "Half-human, half-fae. Seungmin said my water magic was strongest. That must be why it was the only one you ever saw me use."

"A hybrid?" she mumbled to herself.

"It means my father wasn't my father," I told her.

"No, he wasn't," she whispered. "Your father was a man I met on a trip when your father...Dorian and I had only just met. Dorian agreed to raise you as his own, and we never planned for you to find out otherwise. We didn't want you to feel different."