The Heir Of Dreams And Curses

Where I'm part of the worst family reunion in the history of man

"That's fine," I said. "I'll tell them I won't go."

"But you will meet up with them, won't you?" Jeff asked. He didn't look confident that I could say no to them.

"Trust me," I said, "Even though hybrids are welcome in both realms, I have no intention of goinf back there."

"Maybe you could live in both worlds for a while," Raegan suggested, but she didn't look too happy about it.

"It wouldn't work," I smiled bitterly. "Everything would be different now -- I have huge powers and not a lot of control."

I was really weaker back then, but every time I felt like I was losing control I managed to blow something up. With my mind. What was going to happen if I went back to the human realm?

"If they want to make an effort and reunite after all these years, you can ask Flora to work in her shop above ground and they could visit," my grandfather said. He probably wanted to make up for all the very unflattering things he'd done.

"I am a son of two Ancient Families who can see the future," I said. "I'm a loose cannon, even in the Aether realm. And I have studied black magic. I do not trust myself around humans."

Nobody knew how to reply to that. I figured they were just trying to help me --- they didn't want me to go, but they respected my wishes. I felt guilty all of a sudden.

Well, I thought, another thing to look forward to when all of this was over. The possibility of moving back to the human realm seemed unlikely, but maybe once the curse was over...

No. I had a job to do. I was pretty sure that, this time, I would be lucky enough just to stay alive. 

"So," Jeff summarized. "You're going to meet up with them just to tell them that you won't go back to living with them?"

I nodded. "It's even weird they're asking for me as we haven't seen each other in years," I said. "But I feel like they deserve to hear it from me, face to face. I can't just let them know in a message."

Jeff shifted his weight from one foot to another, uneasily. "Well, good luck then. I know they're not the best."

I thanked him silently, with a smile, and I grabbed my phone from my grandfather's hands. My fingers were trembling as I was writing my reply, but I knew I was doing the right thing. In that moment, I wished I had Edgar by my side. I tried to think about something else. It's not that without Edgar nothing would make sense. It's just that very little would.

The following day, I went to the human realm to meet my adoptive parents. I tried not to panic, but it was hard when I had the feeling that everything was about to go very wrong. 

Evelyn and Lucas wanted to meet me in our old house. I started thinking about my childhood --- the way I started calling my adoptive parents with their given names instead of mom and dad because Evelyn had insisted. I was just a child when she started making clear that I was not her own child.

I kept asking myself why she had adopted me, if she was going to mistreat me. The reason I was told was that it was my adoptive father who wanted a son. He had insisted, she said. But I didn't know anything back then. Walking towards their house, I figured things probably went sour between us for a reason. After all, I was put in a human orphanage because of a deal my grandfather struck with the government --- something along the lines of, Enchanters won't strike as long as you have one of ours. And even the place itself, it wasn't the usual care home. It was a place built for the children who'd lost their parents in the exploded building, and everyone knew I was a hybrid there.