"What?" I frowned in utter confusion.

The Fey King chuckled. "I know. It's all rather hard to follow."

"She's alive?"

"She is. In my castle."

Castle? I shook my head to dispel the astonishment.

"Did Lord Charters discover the affair?" I questioned. Afraid for her.

The Fey King shook his head solemnly. "No, she told him right away. He chose to keep her even after he knew. Can't say I blame him. She's a ravishing little thing."

Bodin's mother? I'd never much thought of how she looked.

"But watching her sadness all those years, after she chose him, he could bare it no longer." The Fey King continued.

"Why was she sad?"

His lips twitched and he smiled faintly without looking up. "She chose her loyalty to him, but I had my hold on her already. Something I don't wholly control, but I did exploit to have her."

What kind of hold?

Was that what Bodin was doing to me? Putting some hold over me? That thought made me chew my lip.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because she was the most feisty, loyal, enchanting creature I'd ever come across. I did try to let her go..." He said as though defending his awful actions. As though it would redeem my image of him.

***

"Have a seat." He invited me to the bench next to him with a gesture of his beautiful hand. The brown over coat revealing wrists which seemed to have a bit of green blood pulsing beneath the tan flesh.

I squinted at it, but it seemed to change even as I gazed, looking more normal. My eyes drifted up to his face and saw the hint of a smile around his mouth.

Like Bodin gets sometimes.

I was suddenly sure he'd somehow changed how his veins appeared to me.

Focus on the conversation. I told myself.

"I'm fine standing." I advised. Unwilling to get any closer to him, as I already felt somewhat lightheaded where I was and was having a hard time looking away for him.

Magic. I recognized.

That hold he talked about. He must draw everyone he's around. Or at least women.

"But you have her now." I sighed. Understanding that, at some point, she'd left Lord Charters to go somewhere and be with this man. I couldn't entirely blame her. He was captivating.

"She was always mine. She just didn't know it. She was destined as a creature to match me."

"So where is she now?" I asked the words slowly. Half afraid of the answers.

"In my kingdom." He murmured. "Where she's chosen to be."

"And Lord Charters?"

"He let her go. He knew he never had her. And he was kind enough to give her, her happiness."

Lord Charters sent her to be with him?

"And me, mine." He added almost as an afterthought.

***

"Why did you want to see me?" I queried.

"I wanted to look on the woman that has enraptured my son."

Enraptured. Bodin has never seemed so infatuated as that.

Especially not lately.

"And to warn you, that in this land, nothing is ever as it seems. Not like in my Fey Realm."

"What is the Fey Realm like?" Despite myself, I found I'd drawn closer and inadvertently taken a spot on the bench next to him. Twisted so I could look at him. Mesmerized by the concept of another place so near.

And filled with magic.

He laughed slightly at my eagerness. "Perhaps I'll show you one day...Or perhaps he will. I'll let that be his decision."

"How is it any different there?" I couldn't help it. I was awash with curiosity.

I'd planned to think this man was crazy if he started talking nonsense like this. But the hypnotic swirling of his pupils was mesmerizing. And his calm, flat effect made it impossible to deny that he was sincere.

"I and my creatures are very direct there. We keep our word, we advise of consequences. There's very little deception. When there is, it is always by omission."

"But I don't think Vix has been completely honest with me?" I argued.

"Vix." He sighed and shook his head. "I am going to have to do something about her. Her insolence can only be tolerated so far."

I felt suddenly protective of her.

She's young, barely more than a child. I'd been able to tell by how she talked. Her impulsiveness.

"She is impulsive." He agreed thoughtfully. Uncaring of the fact that it disturbed me that he seemed to know what I was thinking even as I thought it.

Can Bodin do that? I grimaced at the idea. Reassuring myself that he certainly could not. I'd have seen signs if he could.

"But it is unlike her to deliberately lie." The Fey King murmured.

"Vix?" I had to recall who we were talking about.

"Yes."

"Then why has she lied to me about, Bodin."

"Fair question that. She usually only cares about one thing."

"What is that?"

The Fey King's head shot up and his eyes brightened as if he'd been struck by a sudden realization. "Her little brother."

"She has a brother? What has that to do with anything."

"That may prove a good question since I haven't seen him in a long while."

***

"I need you to do something for me." He said. Twisting to lean an arm across the back of the bench and rest his other elbow on the arm along the side.

"What?" I leaned forward. Unsure why I had such a desire to please him.

"Take care of my son. Heed him and care for him."

I reared back as though slapped. "He needs no one to care for him. I listen to no man. And I did care for him until he..."

Killed my father. If he did.

I thought either way, Ginny snooping would either discover evidence on Bodin or begin to draw out the real killer until she could give me information on him.

"Ginny?" The Fey King asked.

I cursed under my breath. Annoyed I'd so readily forgotten he was reading my mind. How do you forget something that unsettling?

You can't stop thinking. A small voice in my head defended.

"Who is Ginny? And why would you think Bodin killed your father?" He sounded astonished that I might consider the idea.