Shadows of Ash and Gold

Chapter nine

If you would have told me a month ago that I would be sitting in a room filled with supernatural beings from a different world- wait scratch that- Royal supernatural beings from a different world, I would have laughed in your face. Actually I probably would have politely said that wasn't possible, then laugh when you were out of sight- but that is not the point.

The point was this couldn't be possible. I wanted it to not be possible. And the worst part was they thought I was one of them. Me! It was the most laughable thing I had ever heard. I could not be one of them. That would mean my parents were- and it just wasn't possible, Okay? My father was a lunatic and my mother was a sweet nurse. There was no way that they could have been a Devara.

"You must be Avaryn?" a man with long blonde hair asked as I walked down the stairs of the mansion. He was one of them. Although he looked nothing but human he could destroy me with a glance or a flick of his wrist. I still couldn't believe it.

I nodded my head. "That's me."

"Did Nyan explain everything?"

"As much as I could," Nyan cut in.

He nodded his head, taking a seat in their extravagant living room. It looked like it was made for royalty, which I guess it was. I sat across from him next to Mara. Everyone was in the room with us but I could tell it would just be me and the elder speaking.

"Avaryn, what are your parent's names?" The man asked. Ah, and so it begins.
I thought about lying, I thought about not telling him anything, but there was a big part of me that wanted to know the truth.

"Elizabeth and David Alastor."

"Have either of them seemed strange to you? Secretive?" he sounded so calm like he'd done this before, or like this was just another business meeting, meanwhile this conversation could change my life. And I didn't know if I wanted it to or not. Could I really be a Devara? Did I even want to be?
I stared down at my fingers that were tapping continuously on my leg. "My father."

"Can you describe in what ways he was strange?"

"Well, let's see ... he was a raging alcoholic, abusive, an asshole, and a borderline sociopath," I replied with a sweet smile on my face. I didn't want any of them to know how much he really affected me. "But I don't see what any of that has to do with this."

"When you say 'was' ...?"

"'Was' as in he's dead." I felt a twinge of pain in my chest and I hated myself for it. I hated that I cared.

Taven exchanged a glance with Bash then turned back to me, playing it off like it was nothing. But I noticed everything and I saw the question in his gaze. I just didn't know what it meant. "Any other family members? Siblings? Aunts? Do any of them act strange?"

"My brother, Ace, before he left and joined the military he started acting weird, again I don't see what any of this has to do with anything?"

Taven nodded his head then got up from his spot on the sofa and came in front of me, sitting on the table directly across from me.

"Do you mind if I take your hand?"

Nyan interrupted, weary, "Taven-"

Was that fear in her voice?

"It'll be fine. I won't hurt her."

I looked to Nyan, noting the concern in her gaze. She put on a smile and nodded to me. I faced Taven and held out my hand, I could do this. I needed to do this.

He took my hand in his, firmly gripping it.

"What exactly does this do-?"

I didn't get to finish my sentence as a blaring pain shot out from my arm all the way to my head. I bit my lip to keep from screaming. My vision blacked out. What was he doing to me? I faintly saw Taven's eyes glowing through the agony. For moments that felt like hours, I couldn't breathe, the searing ache in my head wouldn't let me focus on anything. Everything went dark, It felt like a tremendous weight was placed on me.