“I am going to go and find Delinda. Drake wanted her to have some sort of history lesson,” I say, standing up.
“I’ll come with you, if you don’t mind the company,” he says.
“Never,” I say and take his hand to help him up.
I wait patiently while he gets dressed and then hand-in-hand we make our way back downstairs.
I lead us in the direction of the way Maurelle went, hoping to happen upon the classroom, and I sense Delinda in a room off to the side that has big windows that we can peer through.
I see her sitting there, with a handful of other little Faerie children, concentrating on what Galoch has to say. I smile as I watch her, with Lincoln standing behind me watching her over the top of my head.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but how old is she supposed to be exactly?” he asks.
“Good question,” I say with a sigh. We both turn away and sit on the bench outside the classroom. “Older than she should be.”
“I’m guessing that has something to do with the Dragon Realm’s time warp thing?” he asks.
“I guess so. It seems the only explanation. It’s sad. I feel like I have missed so much already,” I say with slumped shoulders.
“You’ll have an eternity to make it up to her,” Lincoln says gently and puts his arm around me.
I smile up at him and then the class lets out. The young Fae race out screaming, but Delinda is a little slower. She brightens up slightly as she sees me waiting for her and climbs into my lap.
“Hi, Mama,” she says despondently. “Hi, Wolfie.” She reaches out to pat Lincoln on the head and he lets her with a sweet smile.
“Hi, sweetie. What’s wrong?” I ask immediately. She has lost her sunny temperament and I need to know why now.
“Nothing,” she says but I know she has something she wants to say.
“Delinda, you can tell me anything. Linc? Would you mind giving us a minute?” I say.
He nods and is about to get up when Delinda blurts out, “The other Faeries here don’t like me!”
Lincoln sits back down awkwardly, feeling that if he left now, he would make her feel even more rejected, probably. “Why do you think that?” I ask, but I have a pretty good idea. Jealousy makes you nasty and all that.
“I’m different to them,” she says, and I nod wisely. “I don’t look like them, so they make fun of me.”
What? Oh! I wasn’t expecting that.
“You are beautiful,” I tell her, stroking her hair.
She pushes my hand away with a frown. “But I don’t belong here,” she says. “I belong with Daddy’s people. I want to go and live with Daddy.” The tears pool in her eyes as my heart stops. She doesn’t want me; she wants a man who isn’t even her real father. That stings just like you would think it would.
“Sweetie, you are just as much Dark Fae as you are Light,” I say and I am grateful for Lincoln’s supportive hand on my back, or I would break down right now.
“I know, and I love Grandpa and Grams, but I like it with Daddy,” she says woefully.
I chew my lip. She looks so sad; how can I refuse her anything?
“Can we go and live with Daddy? Please?” she begs me and my heart soars again. She said “we.” She wants me to go with her. She doesn’t want to leave me.
“Of course,” I say to her. “I will have to talk it over with Grandpa first, though,” I say before she can shout “Yippee!” in my face. “He likes you being here where he knows you are safe.”
“Okay,” she says and nods, happy with that, confident in my ability to not let her down.
“Okay,” I say with a smile and then give her a cuddle. Something crosses my mind at this point, so I ask her carefully, “Do you like your other Grams?”
Lincoln pricks his ears up.