Change.

Chapter 5

The next morning, Jo woke me up with some tea and breakfast biscuits on a tray. For some reason, Jo and her mother are feeding and housing a mutant in their home. I guess that's what I've become. This time, before Jo can start talking, I blurt it out before she can even guess what I'm thinking.

"Jo, what was my father like? What-" I stutter "wings- did he have?" it's still weird saying that word like it's a normal thing.

"Your father was a kind, generous, noble man. My mum knows a lot more about him than I do. He touched the lives of many."

"Touched? Like past tense?" I feel myself tearing up. "I was hoping, maybe, he wasn't-dead, just in the other world you told me about." I meet Jo's eyes and she looks away.

"His wife in the other realm, someone he was forced to be married to, even after he had married your mother, killed him a few weeks after they were married. But only a few people knew your father had married a human a year before the arranged marriage.

 In our society, it is unheard of to date, marry, or even worse, have kids with other races. Usually the kids come out as half-lings, creatures isolated by all the purebreds. When your father's forced wife learned of the human wife, and the child, she murdered him."

"Who was the forced wife? Why did he have to marry her??" Why isn't Jo telling me the whole truth...?

"This forced wife... she is the queen of many realms. Your father was the prince, soon to be king, of the Fairie realm. Without any heirs, the cruel queen took over of the realm, adding it to her list of 'territories'."

"My father died because of me?" I can almost feel the walls closing in.

"No, the queen probably would have killed him like she does to all of her 'pets'. You were the only hope your father had. The queen cannot enter the human realm without losing the majority of her power, like most fairies. That includes her beauty, influence, and probably flight. That is why she's been unable to find you for fourteen years." Jo sits down next to me, putting an arm over my shoulder.

"This is probably a lot to take in. Mum told me to tell you today, and let you think about it. I'm still 'ere for ya, don't think your species makes me think of you any differently."

I look right at Jo and see her cheesy awkward smile, and I know I can't be mad at her for too long. I turn toward her and hug her tightly, like she's a stress ball that can take away the past few days. At first I feel her shoulders stiffen, but she relaxes and puts her other arm around me.

"Well hey on the plus side, you get bad*ss powers! In a few days you can start seeing what abilities you have! Your father had swallowtail wings too, maybe you'll have the same powers as he did!"

Jo and I start laughing, and I wonder what I would do without a friend like her right now. But hey, maybe this won't be so bad after all.