The Fox’s Tale

“You’re my grandfather?” Ellery repeated. “Mathair Mhor, why did you not tell me?”

“Why did you kill your father?” I hissed at Lucas.

“You should still be abed,” Esmeralda admonished.

Lucas answered me. “I killed him because he was going to kill Quinn and my mother. Can we discuss this later?”

“Who was going to kill me?” asked Quinn, with timing almost as impeccable as my mother.

“Wait a second, you’re Ellery’s grandmother? Oh my god.” Ryan piped up.

Everyone turned to look at him in disbelief. Matt lunged and put his hand over Ryan’s mouth. “We’ll be going downstairs.”

“Right now,” added Scott and the team scrambled to leave, taking a few boxes of pizza with them. Once they’d finished clattering down the stairs, Quinn shut the door behind them.

“Okay. They’re gone,” he said. “Now, who was going to kill me and when was this, cause this is the first I’ve heard of it?”

Lucas all but shook with annoyance. “My father informed me that I needed to kill the “blight” within our kingdom, and by that he meant you and my mother. I refused and he set out to do it himself, so I killed him instead. Are you all satisfied? Can my Chosen and I have a moment with our granddaughter?”

“Chosen!?” Quinn broke into a huge grin. “Oh Luc! I knew it! I knew you were sweet on her. Just wait until I tell Darcie! She’s going to shit a brick!”

He bounced on his toes and then the rest of what Lucas said registered. “Ellery’s your granddaughter? No way! Ah man, I should have seen it! She does the same thing with her eyebrow that you do.”

Quinn grinned at Ellery and Lucas who were both standing with one eyebrow raised and an expression of being absolutely done with him on their faces. “That! That’s what I was talking about,” he exclaimed, pointing at them.

“Quinn.” He turned in my direction. “We love you, but please shut up,” I groaned. He kept talking as I grabbed him by his arm and escorted him to the new set of stairs.

“Alexander, man, you have no idea what a big deal this is. Like colossally big. Huge. Gargantuan. Incorruptibles never, and I mean, like never pick a Chosen.”

“When you three are finished, would someone please get me?” I called over my shoulder before pulling the door shut behind me.

“Seriously man, picking a Chosen means your lifeblood is tied to theirs.” Quinn said as we trudged down the stairs. “For Lucas to have a Chosen, especially one as high profile as Queen Esmeralda, is dangerous as hell, man. I think the last time the High King picked a Chosen was in 800 CE or something and she was just a regular Incorruptible noblewoman. Wow.”

His words stopped me short. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Lucas is the High King of the Incorruptibles?”

“Well yeah, he’s the oldest of his dad’s kids so naturally that’s who’d be King.” Quinn broke into a grin. “I can’t believe he killed his old man for me and Mom. That’s so sweet.”

“He won’t get in trouble if that gets out will he?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“Huh? Oh, nah. Peregrine is the one who was responsible for most of the bad blood between the Unseelie and the Incorruptibles. He aligned himself with the Unseelie who want us to set up a separate realm, like the Dragons have, or Shifters. He was always stirring up trouble, you know, agitating things to force Esmeralda’s parents to break the treaty and release us from the Unseelie Realm.

“Thing is, we’ve been in their realm for so long that humans kind of took over, like everywhere, so there wouldn’t be a way for us to create our own realm again, unless we killed a bunch of people, and most Incorruptibles don’t want to do that. Way more of us were happy to hear that he had died than not. Hell, they might throw Lucas a party.”

By this point we’d reached what my friends had called the game room and Quinn headed straight for the pizza.

“Excellent, I’m starving. Are there any with anchovies?” A new box of pizza appeared and Quinn flipped the lid open. “Yes! I love Faerie houses. Thank you!” he shouted before stuffing his mouth.

After he finished eating his first slice he continued on with his rant. “Anyway, not that Incorruptibles are opposed to or bothered by killing, understand, but killing humans is both pointless and way too easy. No challenge at all.”

He polished off another slice and saw the looks of dismay on my teammates’ faces.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, I’m only half Incorruptible. I don’t even need to drink blood; I just need to eat lots of foods rich in iron. Incidentally, that’s why no one thought it was possible for Incorruptibles and the Fae to reproduce, what with their whole aversion to iron. The fact that I’m alive is like the eleventh wonder of the Unseelie Realm. Hang on, maybe I’m the twelfth.”

He looked like he was counting in his head and then said “no I’m older than Rowan was, so she’d be the twelfth, and Ellery’s lucky number thirteen! My dad would be sick as a dog if he ate half of one of my meals.”

“So would I,” muttered Matt.

“I heard that!” Quinn pointed at him. “I’m still growing, and I had to bite the two Elflings and no offense, but y'all taste like grass, and I’m not talking about the fun kind.”

He shoveled another pizza slice into his mouth. “But hey, at least I didn’t have to bite Jolly Green over there. Lucas really took one for the team.”

Quinn thought about what he’d just said and burst into laughter. No one else laughed, and Quinn started to explain. “See, it’s funny because you guys are a team and-”

“Quinn, why would killing a bunch of humans be pointless?” I tried to get him back on track with what he’d been telling me.

“What? Oh. Why kill a renewable food source? Incorruptibles only need the blood, not the whole body, and not even all of it at once. It’d be like killing all the chickens for a fry up and waking up the next morning and having no eggs. I mean, if chickens had weapons and shit.

“One to maybe ten humans at a time can go missing without too much fuss, but if we wiped out, like the entire state of Ohio, they’d send the whole fucking U.S. military to nuke us to kingdom come. Not that nukes would actually kill us, but it would probably hurt like a bitch to heal from those types of burns.”

This statement gave me a serious pause. “Um, Quinn, how can an Incorruptible be killed?”

He stopped eating and narrowed his eyes at me. “You planning some shit? Because that’s not cool.”

“No, I’m not planning on killing any of you, hell, the Incorruptibles have been more helpful than anyone. I was just thinking, if poison and magic won’t work on you, and even a nuclear blast won’t kill you, how did Lucas kill his father?”

Quinn wrinkled his nose. “It’s pretty nasty, you sure you want me to tell you?”

My teammates were frantically shaking their heads no and I let it go. “Another time.”

He nodded. “Roger dodger. Anything else you want to know?”

“Tons. Like-”

“Is human blood what Incorruptibles live on?” asked Scott, who blushed when I looked at him. Of course, he was thinking of Darcie.

“Not exclusively. Incorruptibles can drink blood from just about anyone or anything. Everyone has a personal preference. It’s like having a favorite fruit or vegetable.” He winked at Scott. “Darcie likes cow’s blood the best.”

Ignoring the grimaces from most of the others Quinn went blithely on. “The amount you need to survive is dependent on how old you are. Babies live on milk and blood, little kids need some two to three times a day, teenagers once a day, adults at least once a week, unless they’re pregnant,” he shot a sly grin at Scott, “or really old.

“I’m talking way older than Lucas or even his dad was when he died. It’s only when they go too long without it that things turn hairy. A blood starved Incorruptible will drain their blood source. Suck the life right out of them.”

What Ellery had told me our first morning in the Suite came rushing back. ‘I was about to drain the life out of everyone in a fifty foot radius,’ and I staggered.

“You okay, man?” Quinn looked concerned. “Here, have the last slice.”

“No, I’m fine, I was just remembering something Ellery told me once, and it makes a lot more sense now that I know Lucas is her grandfather.”

“I can’t get over it. Lark is going to be so jealous that I am related to Ellery and she’s not.”

“Lark Summerall?” asked Grant.

“Yeah, she’s my half sister.” When Grant’s face went pale Quinn added, “relax, on my dad’s side. She’s part Seelie and part human. No blood for her. Or meat for that matter.” This seemed to perk Grant up and he settled back into the sofa. Nick, Lee, and Matt all looked at him in anticipation.

“What?” Grant looked away and muttered, “she told me once she loved horses that’s all.”

“Is Ellery really Lucas’s granddaughter?” asked Andy.

“Apparently.” We all turned to the sound of her voice.

“Ellery!” we all cried out.