Realm of Mirrors (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

species, I thought—so this was like trying to believe a goldfish and a pit bull were brothers.
    I definitely didn’t see the resemblance. But I also couldn’t completely brush it off, because my brother was a…Taeral.
    Cobalt picked up his coffee mug from the table, and then put it back down. “First, let me explain this,” he said. “I’m no prince.”
    “That’s not what I’ve heard,” Taeral said.
    “Yes, I know the rumors.” He frowned slightly. “By birth only, I am the son of the former Seelie King. But I’ve never known the bastard, and I’m glad for that.”
    Taeral raised an eyebrow. “Former?”
    “Aye, the Summer Court has a new king now,” he said. “It happened very recently, and it’s a story for another time. But I was banished from Arcadia years ago, long before I knew about my…royal blood.”
    Something in Taeral’s posture relaxed, and I was glad for it. He knew a little something about being banished. Not him personally, but his father. Our father, technically speaking. I didn’t know much of the story, but the Unseelie Queen had banished Daoin, and Taeral chose to stay in the human realm with him out of loyalty.
    It was a choice that hadn’t turned out well for either of them.
    “So about your tattoos,” Cobalt said. “I assure you, they’re not intended for harm. And I believed you’d never realize they were enchanted, because…well, you clearly did not know you were Fae. I assumed you were a changeling.”
    “I was, actually,” I said, surprised he’d figured that out. “And I’m only half Fae.”
    Uriskel made a derisive sound. “That explains your brother, at least,” he said.
    “Don’t.” Cobalt shot a firm look at him. “Anyway,” he said to me. “Most changelings never know what they are. You must know what it takes for one to realize their potential, since you’re aware of your true self.”
    “Yeah. I had a little help with that.” Taeral had to explain the changeling thing to me, when I still didn’t trust a word he said—and I’d had to dig up the remains of my real mother, a woman I’d never met and didn’t know existed, since she died giving birth to me.
    Then I had a conversation with her.
    I decided it wasn’t a great idea to tell these people I’d just met that I was the DeathSpeaker. Most of the Others seemed to know what that meant, and it wasn’t usually welcome news.
    After all, Milus Dei wanted to use me as a genocide weapon to wipe them all out.
    “I can imagine who might’ve helped you.” Cobalt smiled slightly.
    “You’re probably right,” I said. “So what do the tattoos do? I mean, besides glow. And why did they start glowing?”
    He looked around uneasily. “I’m not sure whether you want me to discuss certain…aspects of your circumstances in front of others.”
    At first I had no idea what he meant. Then I remembered how awkward it was when I went to him the first time. There I’d been, eighteen and stupid, trying to stumble through some total bullshit story about why I’d wanted cover-ups without actually saying the word scars .
    I think at one point, I even asked him if I could get tattoos without taking off my shirt.
    “You mean the scars,” I finally said. “Yeah, it’s fine. Discuss away.”
    “All right.” He glanced at Will, and I wondered why. But he didn’t elaborate. “Well, I’d never seen a Fae so marked,” he said. “We don’t scar easily. If you’re half human, that accounts for some of it, but…” Suddenly, he couldn’t look at me. “You seemed lost. Defenseless. And I wanted to help.”
    “Uh-huh.” I couldn’t help noticing he still hadn’t gotten to the point. “So, how did you?”
    He made a vague gesture. “For the most part, the enchantments help to guide you along the Path.”
    “Um, great. What’s that?”
    “It is a Fae’s sense of place, of being,” Taeral said before Cobalt could answer, looking at him with something other than fury for once. “And a