Free The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset Page A

have a bad habit of falling out of favor, we Le Fays.'
    'Anyway, Parsymeon is still supernatural today,'continues Will, who is beaming like a proud father about this. 'It has the highest concentration of supernatural beings anywhere in the Thisworld.'
    'But only two faeries,'murmurs Ben.
    'Well, wasn't that the point?'says Will. 'Keep the Seelies out, keep all faeries out?'
    'How did you get in?'I ask Ben.
    'Special permission from the Witch and Ward Society,'he replies. 'I had to apply and everything. But you were to be
    kept safe, and they needed a faerie to do that, much as they hated to admit it.'
    I look at my aunts, connecting the dots. 'Because you don't like faeries,'I conclude.
    'Faeries are flighty and capricious,'says Aunt Virtue staunchly, 'and you are not one. Not entirely. There is ogre in you.'
    'Ogre,'I echo. 'So I'm'half and half.'
    'Exactly,'agrees Aunt Virtue.
    Aunt True says, 'We'd wanted a baby so very desperately for so very long. Centuries.'
    'Or minutes,'murmurs Ben.
    My aunt ignores him. 'But how were we to get one without faerie magic? So your father asked your mother for a baby.'
    'I warned him not to,'Will says. 'I knew the prophecy. I knew the danger you would be in from the very beginning. And I knew there would be a price'the Seelies always extract a price. But Etherington would not be dissuaded.'
    'And your mother brought us a baby.'Aunt Virtue smiles at me, her expression so soft and full of affection. 'You. A beautiful little changeling, half-faerie, half-ogre.'
    'Which made you''Aunt True's voice is hard''only half ours.'
    'My mother named me,'I realize.
    'Of course she did,'Will says. 'Power over you.'
    'Is it a problem that everyone knows my name?'
    'No one knows your whole name,'Aunt True tells me.
    'Your middle names are secret,'Aunt Virtue adds.
    'You should keep them that way,'says Aunt True.
    'Why?'
    'In order to completely dissolve a faerie's powers,'explains Will, 'you would need to know all of the faerie's middle names. Faeries frequently have three or four middle names, to make them harder to dilute. Of course, give a faerie too many names, and they can't work under the weight of their burden, and you have the same effect as their name being known.'
    'I have a cousin with 302 middle names,'muses Ben. 'She's quite useless.'
    'So, know a faerie's whole name, dissolve all his powers. Know just a couple of his names''I look at Ben.
    'It weakens us. But it doesn't destroy us completely.'
    'That's why you couldn't hold the enchantment around me together anymore.'
    'Right. It was broken. And why I had such a difficult time jumping. I was wet and diluted.'
    'But,'interjects Will softly, and he is staring at me, delight in his face, 'not dissolved.'He turns his look to Ben now. 'Oh, it's very pretty work, Benedict. I would never have known it was there if we hadn't been discussing your enchantments.'
    'What?'I ask. I look from Ben to Will to my aunts in confusion.
    Will is still smiling at Ben, looking a cross between proud and amused. 'How much energy is that taking you, to keep
    that up? No wonder you're letting the Seelies get closer to you
    than usual and fretting about the moisture in the air.'Ben looks embarrassed. 'It's not a big deal,'he grumbles. 'What? 'I demand. 'Benedict's still got you enchanted. It's a minor enchant
    ment, but it's very well done, virtually undetectable'''The protective charm,'I realize. 'Yes,'says Will, eyes narrowed speculatively at Ben. 'And
    what a very pretty thing it is too.'There is a moment of uncomfortable silence. I venture finally, 'If faeries aren't allowed into Boston, how
    did my mother manage to get here?'
    'Ah,'says Will. 'That is a question we have never been able to answer. She was pushed through to Thisworld, but we don't really know how.'
    'And Ben got here because of the Witch and Ward Society. What's that?'
    Will rolls his eyes. 'Let's not talk about them. That's the problem with Boston these days'so much bureaucracy, so many societies