The Lionfield Brothers ✔

9| ''I'll never love you''

A/N: Picture of Anastasia in the media.

'Please sit down,' he smiled, gesturing to the seat in his office.

As I lowered myself down slowly into the comfortable chair, I glanced across his luxurious office with wide eyes. Rich polished wood and old fashioned bookcases dominated his space. His desk was huge and made of polished mahogany; littered with papers and quills.

Catching my eye he smiled apologetically and shuffled the papers into a messy pile before sitting down behind his desk, 'I want to apologise for not being here on the day you arrived. I could've done a better explanation than Cobalt Lionfield, I suppose'.

'You know we talked?' I asked, my eyebrows raising.

My uncle nodded, 'Of course, he told me you seemed rather skeptical about the whole thing'.

I shrugged, 'After seeing some things... I've become a believer but I'm still really confused'.

Uncle Edmund's blue-grey eyes stared me down before he closed them momentarily, 'After your mother left the family, we had no contact with each other. I only saw you once,' he smiled, 'you were so small then, believed in everything. You saw everything, as well'.

I narrowed my eyes, 'Saw everything?'

'Why yes, you saw all the fae-folk, all the nymphs... but the only reason Ryane had come visit me was to make sure you could never see those things again,' he smiled painfully, as if he had committed a crime. Looking at my confused face, he sighed, 'Ryane never liked the mythical world. She didn't like the hierarchy or the danger that comes with working in the healing field. She was great, the small healing she did perform were miracles upon themselves but when she fell in love with a human,' he looked at me, 'your father, she didn't want to include him in our world. She left when she fell pregnant with you, cut off all family relations and married Stephen Mercer, thinking that her life would be easy'.

I took in small breaths, trying to digest this information.

The only grandparents I had ever known were on my dad's side. Mom never talked much about her family, only uncle Edmund was mentioned a few rare times but she never seemed happy when she talked about it. Dad and I had learnt to not ask much about it.

'Her life was easy,' I whispered before I frowned, 'Wasn't it?'

Edmund sighed, his fingers massaging his forehead as he leaned back in his armchair, 'The van der Laine legacy has been healing the supernatural beings since the beginning of time. Our blood attracts creatures of the mythical world, good or bad. It's not something we can choose. No matter where Ryane went, even if she fled to the most remote town of Caleburg, they'd find her'.

'No wonder,' I whispered to myself, remembering the Lesovoi and the monster hound that had tracked me down.

'What is it?'

I gasped, looking up into my uncle's suspicious eyes, 'It's just-'

'Keira,' he said, serious, 'you have to tell me what happened'.

My mouth opened and closed before I bit onto my lip, 'To be honest, uncle Edmund. I don't have to tell you anything... I want to know why you didn't come get me when my parents died, why you waited for three years to contact me while I lived with Rosie'.

Shocked silence ensued as my uncle stayed quiet before he stood up, 'I'm afraid that's for another time but...' he pulled something from his drawer, 'I want you to have this, it was Ryane's before she left'.

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Through my tired eyes I watched the crystal necklace catch the morning light.