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I wanted a real parent who loved me unconditionally so badly it was almost a physical hurt. I was extremely worried about getting my heart broken because of this.

Quinton folded up the very last letter he’d read and placed it atop the neat stack in front of him on the table. His body was rigid, and he looked extremely unhappy. I didn’t like his posture and I really didn’t like the look on his face. What did he have to look so unhappy about? This was the family I had been born in to, not the one he had. If anyone had a right to be upset, it would be me.

“I don’t get it,” he said absently. “How does the Council not know about this or about who you are? If your family is as big as they sound like they should be from these letters, then the Council should know of your existence. They sure as hell should know of your kidnapping. Yet, they’ve said nothing. I told them we’d found you. I told them your history that I had been aware of with that woman. They know your name. How have they come back to me with nothing? After reading these letters, it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Those fuckers have to be hiding something from me.”

I didn’t get it either.

“Do they keep records of every family with magic?” I asked him out of curiosity.

“They keep records of everyone,” was his reply.

I didn’t like his answer.

If what he said was true, then why did no one know who I was?

What little faith I had in this Council of Elders dwindled at this knowledge.

“I need to go home,” Quinton said abruptly as he stood up. “There are a few books I have there from my father’s library that should help me with location spells. I need to look through them and find what I need to bring back here.”

Quinton looked me over with an assessing eye. He looked spooked, something in the letters had really gotten to him. And now he was practically running away from me.

“Unless you want to come home with me and save me the hassle of having to drag all of my shit back here,” he taunted.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t running away from me.

I shook my head in the negative. I did not want to go home with him. I did, however, want to know what had spooked him.

Quinton nodded absently, like he had expected this answer from me. He turned and, without so much as a goodbye, walked away. Normally, he would have ordered me around a bit and touched me in some way before walking away from me.

His actions had me worried now more than ever.

“Damn,” Tyson muttered, and my gaze shot to him.

“What?” I asked him almost frantically.

“You’re a mystery,” he said. “I’m not sure if I should be frightened by this or excited by it. I’ve never known the Council to not know what’s been going on before with one of our own.”

He sounded excited, like we were about to embark on a great adventure and he could not effing wait for it.

I hated it. The whole thing.

Too many things in my life were unknown at the moment.

Chapter Eighteen

Both of the Salt and Pepper twins had taken to heart what I’d said to them earlier and decided to stay the night with me. What I liked was that neither of them felt the need to ask permission from anyone. They both lived with Tyson and Quinton, but they didn’t need to ask for permission to stay the night somewhere. They didn’t ask Dash if it was okay with him if they slept over either. They simply knew that he wouldn’t care, and they were welcome so they didn’t waste time asking.

It made me feel less like an A-hole for not asking Dash if it was okay with him if I had people stay over at his house. I was already comfortable here enough to invite them to stay because it felt right being here. It felt like home.

There had been a bit of texting going on with their phones and I hoped they were texting Quinton to let him know they wouldn’t be coming home for the night. I knew if it were me, Quinton would care to know. I assumed he was the same way with the rest of them, but I could have been wrong. Maybe he didn’t care what they did at all.

Tyson left, claiming it was too crowded for him to sleep over. I didn’t believe him one bit. He knew the twins were upset about not getting to spend a whole lot of time with me lately and he wanted to give them some space. He was also nosy. I knew he went home to grill his Uncle on what he found out or wasn’t able to find out.

Quinton never returned, and it worried me. It worried me enough that I even went upstairs, plugged in my cellphone to charge and sat up there on the loveseat until it had enough juice to turn itself on.

Then, for the very first time ever, I sent a text message to Quinton Alexander. He didn’t even make me wait long for a response, either.

Ariel: Did you find those books you were looking for? I would like to be kept in the loop on this one, please.