Axel was what?

Blue jumping and clapping on my hip jolts me from my startled frozen state.

“I …uh…I thought dad already told you, I didn’t want you to learn it like that.”

“Like what?” I ask Axel, pointedly avoiding the crux of the matter.

“shouted in your face.”

Aziz has the grace to look embarrassed, it lasts for a moment before his shameless self adds, “good to rip the wound off at once.”

“Band-aid off you idiot, the saying is rip the band-aid off,” Roan says moving to scuff Aziz, at the back of his head.

Axel ignores them eyes, intently fixed on me, he looked anxious, was he waiting for something?

“he’s waiting for your reaction,”

“What?” I ask out loud.

“oh, great you fried her brain cells,” Andrei mutters moving closer as if to examine my head, I swat him away, mind buzzing.

“There weren’t that many left anyway,” ok that I heard.

“Hey!” I yell glaring at Nyx.

Bad lizard,” Blue mumbles, glaring at Nyx, my baby’s got my back.

“So?” Ax asks bringing us back to the matter at hand, “what do you think?”

“I get a choice?” I sass, my defence mechanism kicking in.

Ax’s face falls, “well, yeah if you want.”

“You don’t want to be his sister?” Aziz asks sounding confused and if it was even possible Ax’s face falls further.

Put the boy out of his misery, would you?

I ignore Rhys, staring at Ax, “how did that even happen.”

“Well, when a ma…”

“Shut it, Andrei now’s not the time,” comes from the doorway and we all glance up to see, Nona Ellie walk in followed, by the dean, well dad, Keon and Killian.

“my lady,” Andrei mutters head bowed.

“Nona, what’s going on?”

She moves to poke at Blue’s cheeks, but Blue doesn’t jump into her arms like he normally would, her smile seems somewhat sad as she turns to me, “he missed you so very much, I’m glad he has you now.”

“Would you guys mind giving us a little privacy,” the dean says glancing at the rest of the guys.

They exchange looks moving towards the door.

“I don’t mean standing out the door privacy, I mean going back to your rooms privacy, you got me?”

“yes sire,” they mumble clearly not happy but they leave.

I stare at Keon and Khalil when they don’t move to leave, and then what Blue shouts next floors me.

“Hi daddy K,” he says waving at the two who were standing side by side at the door.

Daddy what?

I almost die, when Keon’s face transforms and he waves back at him, equally enthusiastic

Was I in a parallel universe?

Now, this is entertaining.

Shut it Casper.

“Daddy what?” I whisper baffled.

“you two out!”

“but…”

“out, I need to do this talk with my daughter without any distractions.”

Reluctantly they all turn to leave.

Silence reigns after they leave, and I glance around and realise Nyx is gone too, he must have disappeared right after they came in.

“Would you like to sit?” Khalil asks staring at me, gone is the fierce man, and in his place, a perfect copy of Ax’s anxious face.

“Uhm, sure, I think I need to,” I say moving to sit at the edge of the bed, moving Blue from my hip to my lap, trying not to wince at how deep his claws were into my skin.

Getting settled, I turn expectantly towards the dean.

“Well where do I start?” he asks rubbing his hands together.

Nona Ellie moves to his side, and guides him to a loveseat, “how about from the beginning honey.”

“First of all, I didn’t know about, you, I never would have left you alone, please trust me on that, I wouldn’t do that to anyone let alone my child.”

I nod, urging him to continue, I didn’t think that he had abandoned me.

A few years ago, after the division, I disappeared for a while, I spent around five years give or take, and when I came back I had vague memories of where and what I had been doing and every time I tried to recall, it hurt like a bi…it hurt like hell,” he adds quickly casting a nervous look at Blue.

“of course, it didn’t help that everyone thought I was just gone for a couple of weeks, I take some expeditions sometimes, to calm my mind, it can be taxing having psychic abilities, so no one thought it was suspicious when I resurfaced five weeks later.”

“Eliane was a way for the first two weeks, visiting Selene, and when she came back I supposedly returned a few days later.”

“I thought nothing of it at the time, until I started having these vivid dreams, about a white-haired baby, it is normal for me to dream weird things, so I didn’t ponder the matter, chalking it up to my abilities.”

“but then the dreams persisted, it was like a slideshow to this baby’s life and then one time I saw myself in the dream, holding the child, playing with them, it looked like me, but didn’t feel like me.”

“Right after that, the dreams ceased completely and everything went back to normal, I thought nothing of it until years later when Ellie comes back with stories about a mysterious girl adopted by the Dracons, she described you and it jolted the memory of the dreams, but I ignored it,” he lets out a self-deprecating laugh, “I chalked it up to a weird coincidence, and it cost me my time with you.”

He finally meets my eyes, which I know appeared glassy, then a wave of anxiety and sadness, but most of all guilt hits me threatening to overwhelm me, it took me a moment to figure out the emotions weren’t from me.

“I’m sorry, I am so sorry, Mahina, that I didn’t remember you or recognize you, so very sorry, he finishes in a whisper.”

It tore my heart to see such a majestic man, succumbing to his emotions, and I teared up a little as I watched Nona Ellie enfold him in her arms, whispering soothing words.

“I don’t remember you,” I realise that I have said it out loud when they both glance up at me with twin anxious expressions.

“I remember, nothing about my life before I woke up in an alley naked and cold, why don’t I remember anything?”

My emotions were haywire now, and Blue moves to try and bury me in his arms, I had even forgotten that I was holding him.

“We think that the block placed on Khalil was the same one as the one placed on you, only Khalil’s psychic strength enabled him to get snippets of you.”

“Do you know my mother, my birth mother,” I ask the question that had been eating at me since he started.

They share a glance before Khalil shakes his head.

There was something there but that was an issue for another day, maybe another lifetime, there were more important things to deal with.

“first of all, stop feeling guilty, it wasn’t your fault, I believe you, if you don’t mind me asking when did you guys realise?”

“you are so very gracious my dear,” he answers face lighting up for the first time since he came in.

I wave him off, and he continues, “when you kicked me out of your head, I got curious, and doubled back on Ellie’s research on your origins, because not many fae boast of the ability let alone such a strong one, following a hunch, I did the magical version of a DNA test, but the results came in the day you disappeared, I realised you were mine then I lost you again.”

“Acknowledging your existence kicked the parental bond into gear and I was searching for you with no luck, and I thought maybe you had blockers, which Ellie had mentioned when the boys burst into my office saying you were gone, and I realised the emptiness I felt was because you had disappeared, again.”

I felt his anguish, this time not projected from him, but from myself, by picturing myself in a situation such as his, and my heart broke all over again.

“I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault dear.” Nona Ellie shushes me.

They both stand and move towards the bed, sitting on either side of me.

“wow, I went from no parents to a set of two parents,”

A jolt of exuberant joy washes through me, and Khalil turns my face towards him, “so you accept it? Accept us.”

“Yeah, I’m still calling you Nona Ellie though,” I add.

“And I would accept it gladly child.”

“What about me,” Khalil asks, tentatively.

I go to answer before he cuts me off, “I know it would be too much to ask too soon, but I promise to make up for the time we lost, I want to be there for you and our gorgeous grandson, if you give me the opportunity, please give me a chance,” he adds, and the look on his face is so similar to when Blue begs to have ice cream after dinner that I freeze for a moment.

It must have taken me a long while to answer because I feel a wave of sadness drown out the joy previously drowning me.

“Sure,” I add quickly before the man breaks his own heart.

“I would love nothing better,” as an afterthought I add, “dad,” and his face crumples, then Blue never to be left out adds, “ok, new papa,” patting him with his tiny hands.

And I kid you not the monarch of faery breaks down, I glance at Nona Ellie in alarm but she seems used to it.

“He’s very in touch with his emotions, and the past month has been brutal for him.”

“I’ve been gone a month?” I ask alarmed, and it’s like a switch has been flipped.

Khalil reverts back to the Dean, standing to stare down at me, “Yeah, time moves differently across different realms, on earth the time difference is in hours, here it’s a tad more., which means you’ve missed a month of the new semester young lady.”

I scowl up at him, suddenly thinking I preferred his emotional self more than this version of him.

He laughs adding, “we need to work on those walls, my dear.”

“He’s playing with you, we understand your situation but you do need to hassle to catch up, I’m not worried though, she’s smart,” she adds looking at her mate.

“Do mama and papa know?”

“Yeah, we told them the moment we found out, which also happens to be when we also found out that you were gone, that was not a fun conversation,” the dean finishes with a cringe.

Laughing Nona Ellie kisses Blue on the cheek and stands moving to leave, “Yeah Raphael was not amused, and dragons put a whole new meaning to that word, your mama thought It would be a great idea to stay away until his dragon quieted, we just called them though, they’ll be here in a few days.”

“Now we will live you to rest, talk to your brother so that he can also go rest," he says pointing at the door, "I don’t why I bothered asking them to leave,” Khalil adds following Nona Ellie to the door, after pecking Blue goodbye too.

Maybe my luck was finally looking up.