Induction by T.K. Eldridge (howl and other poems TXT) 📕

silence us. “You’re the first male-female twins born in the shifter line, and the first twins born in the witch line as far back as recorded time.”

We stared at him for a minute, then Sid and I looked at each other. She pulled the written copy close, read it a couple of times, then pushed it over to me. I read it through, then looked back at Grampa. “What has this got to do with if we know mythics or fae?” I asked.

“Bring all that is, into the two – Gifting them with all…” Grampa cleared his throat, then continued. “That means two that have aspects of all the species.”

“How can we have more than just what Mom and Dad brought to the table, Grampa? I’m a pre-med student. I know how genetics works,” I said.

“Unless Mom is not a pure witch and Dad is not a pure shifter,” Sid said.

Grampa picked up his toast and ate it, not speaking. Heh. Great. He was doing the ‘figure it out for yourselves’ game.

“Grampa, I get what you’re doing, but we don’t know which one, or how they both could be anything but what they’ve told us. We’ve not seen Dad shift into anything exotic, nor have we seen Mom do any unusual magic, so you sitting there, silent, is not helping,” I said.

“Your parents do not know they are not pure,” Grampa finally said. “My Bridie was a Mythic from a clan of Sylphs. Your great-grandmother, Margaret Fraser Fortin, was Fae.”

“Sylphs. Air elementals, right?” Sid said.

“Yes. She was exceedingly gifted with the element. Maggie was an incredibly talented witch with the enhanced power of the fae.”

“What kinds of power do fae have?” I asked as I started to clean up the dishes.

“They have a connection to the earth stronger than any other beings. They draw their power from all of the elements around them,” Grampa said. “Have you ever noticed that your magic is more powerful when you’re standing outside, surrounded by plants and trees?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s part of being a shifter,” Sid said.

“Yes, it is part of being a shifter, but it is the essence of being fae. You two probably didn’t notice that it was different, because you two are different.”

He had a point. We wouldn’t know just how different we were because there weren’t any others like us that we had ever met. It was one of the reasons Sid and I were so close. No one else understood what it was like to be us as well as we did.

“Well, shit,” Sid said.

“If the prophecy is such a big deal, how come Mom and Dad didn’t know they were more than a shifter or a witch, particularly when Mom was pregnant with us? Or even when we were little kids and you all knew we were going to survive?” I asked.

“Marcel and I, and our wives, thought it would be safer for you kids – and your parents – if we kept that silent until we saw what the two of you developed into and became capable of doing.”

“But then Marcel died, you and Grandma Bridie were killed. Well, you know what I mean,” Sid said.

“I was more interested in finding out who had been behind blowing up the plane. I got hyper-focused and that isn’t a good thing. I failed you two and your parents. I’m so sorry.”

“No, Grampa. You didn’t fail us. Priorities change over time, and you’re here for us now,” I said, a hand rested on his shoulder and squeezed.

“Okay, so now we have all of this information,” Sid said. “What do we do with it?”

“Do we go after Lord James?” I said.

“Who is Lord James?” Grampa asked.

“Oh, that’s what we call Grandpa Boudreau,” Sid said.

Grampa laughed for a bit, then leaned forward, elbows on the table, hands folded together. “We’re going to see if we can get Lord James to implicate himself. He has quite the following and we don’t need to turn him into a martyr.”

“Yeah, that would suck,” Sid said.

“I’m thinking you have a plan?” I said.

“I do. You two have your graduation ceremony tomorrow, correct?”

We both nodded.

“You will be the loving grandchildren of the current Academy director, something he can be so visibly proud of since they’re graduating top of the class. Then you’ll all go celebrate with food and drinks. I’ll give you something to put in his drink that will lessen his inhibitions.”

“It won’t hurt him, right?” Sin said.

“No, not at all. But it’ll make recording the conversation a whole lot easier. I’m going to show up after you let me know you gave him the drink.”

“Hopefully that won’t give him a freakin’ heart attack, Grampa. He’s an old man, remember?”

“I’m older than he is, Sin. He’ll be fine. Until we can throw his ass in jail.”

“So, we need to make sure that it’s just the three of us at this celebratory dinner, or you’ll spend the whole time dealing with family freaking out that you’re back from the dead,” Sid said.

“We’ll tell him we’re turning over a new leaf,” I said. “That we want him to respect us as graduates and fellow SPD officers, not just as his grandchildren. We’ve proven ourselves to the whole Academy, we don’t need to prove ourselves to him any longer.”

“And I’ll be as patient as I can be with his misogynistic bullshit. It won’t matter that I got the highest scores in decades and am a graduate of the Academy. He’ll still find a way to make me out to be less,” Sid said.

“His words don’t mean anything, Sid. You know this. Don’t let the old bastard get into your head like this,” I said.

“In this, Sidonie, your brother is right.”

“She’s also an excellent actress. As long as she keeps her heart out of it, we’ll be good,” I said.

“I can do that,” Sid said. “I have to, so I will.”

“I’ll have the potion for you tomorrow morning at breakfast. Press your uniforms and be ready for tomorrow,” Grampa said as he rose from the table and put his dishes in the sink.

I looked at Sid as he left and let out a slow breath. “Well, fuck.”