She stared at her plate, her stomach roiling.
After every impossible thing that had happened to her, that she might be a faerie just seemed a step too far.
“Thea, you need to eat.” Conall nudged her plate impatiently toward her. “You need your strength.”
At his implacable stare, she’d picked up the sandwich and forced it down. It was delicious but it also sat heavy in her nervous stomach. The noise of the lunch crowd was making her jittery. She needed to think. To work out what the hell it all meant.
Conall seemed to sense this and paid for their meal, ushering her quickly outside. Thea drew in cold lungfuls of air and tried to ignore how comforting Conall’s hand was on her lower back.
“Talk to me, Thea.”
She looked up into his face, wondering when it became so familiar to her. Thea realized she trusted him. Despite the whole Sienna prevarication. “Let’s walk.”
He fell into step beside her as they meandered up toward the Royal Palace. People didn’t look at Conall so much here and she wondered if it was because they were in the home of the Vikings. Big tall guys were a thing here, right?
“Thea?”
She withdrew from her silly musings and sighed. “Do you believe him?”
“I think the better question is, do you?”
Thea exhaled slowly. “Conall … I know what he said sounds insane, but …”
“But?”
“It feels true. I don’t know how to explain that … it just feels true.” She gazed up at him. “My body is certain, while my mind is screaming that it’s ludicrous. And … there’s something else.”
He nodded at her to continue.
“There was a young woman in Prague, around my age. The night those vamps attacked me, she pulled me out of the crowd in the club and she was strong, Conall. Very strong.” Thea pictured the woman’s lovely elfin face. “I sensed something from her. I think she was fae.”
Conall’s brows drew together. “How did she feel?”
“Feel?”
“Yes. Her energy should feel stronger than other supernaturals. It would draw you to her in a crowd. To me you feel like the moon just before the change. An ancient, compelling energy, integral to everything.”
Thea gaped at him in awe. “I feel like that to you?”
“Aye. I imagine you feel somewhat different to vampires, but still powerful. They probably presume it has something to do with your blood.”
She considered that a moment and shook her head. “Conall, that’s not how this woman felt to me. It was more that she felt so familiar. I just … she touched me and I felt like I was home. That feeling I used to get when I’d finish my homework and come downstairs to sit at the dinner table with Mom and Dad as they listened to me talk about my day and made me laugh. Made me feel safe. I don’t know how else to explain it. It was weird. So, so weird. And that wasn’t even the strangest part.”
She stopped in the middle of the street and he drew to a halt beside her. “She told me I could trust you. But she spoke to me in my head.” Thea tapped her temple. “I heard her speak in my mind. How did she do that?”
“A telepath?”
“I guess. And a psychic. She said you weren’t my enemy. How did she know me and how did she know you?”
“She could have been a witch or even a werewolf. Some wolves, like myself, are born with extra abilities.”
Thea shook her head. “That doesn’t explain that feeling of family I got from her.”
Conall began to walk, his strides so long Thea had to hurry to catch up. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then you and this woman are in terrible danger.”
“She’s like me. I know she’s like me. I mean, I didn’t at the time, but now I know. Like I know Vik is right, that I’m … fae. It sounds ridiculous, but I know.” She lightly punched her fist against her gut. “I know it in here.”
He was silent as they walked.
Her heart fell. “You don’t believe me.”
He cut her a bleak look. “Aye, I do. I just wish it wasnae true.”
She recoiled. “You … are you disgusted by what I am? Afraid of me?”
“God, no.” Conall scowled. “Not disgusted, Thea. Or afraid of you. But I’m fucking afraid for you. How do I protect you from this? This is bigger than anything I could have imagined.”
She understood. “Conall, as soon as we get to Scotland, we make the exchange and I’ll get Ashforth out of there. Your pack won’t get caught up in this mess.”
“The pack.” He stopped in the middle of the street, glaring down at her. She felt the air around him grow eerily still and glanced down at his hands to see he was curling them tightly, as if quelling the shift. Her gaze met his furious one. “It isnae about the pack,” he bit out, the words ending in snarls from the wolf’s awakening. “I care what happens to you, Thea, far fucking more than I should.”