Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) Read Free

control her fledgling shapeshifting abilities.
    She sighed. “Bad news, I’m afraid. She said shapeshifters normally have only two forms, and it’s quite important that they learn to control the change when their abilities first develop. Otherwise they often have difficulties such as becoming trapped in a transitional form, or having the attributes of their various forms mix uncontrollably. The fact that I was able to find my separate forms after being stuck for so long is a good sign, but there’s no one in any of the groves who can properly teach me.”
    “So it’s faerie or nothing, then?”
    “I’m afraid so,” she admitted. “I think we could manage on our own, as long as you’re willing to keep changing me back when my form drifts. But I can’t shake the feeling that there’s some important principle of my power that I’m missing. I don’t understand why some changes stick while others don’t, and I don’t know if I can find the answer on my own. Perhaps the Conclave’s library will hold some clues.”
    “Or perhaps we should talk to a faerie?” I suggested.
    “How could I ever trust them?” She countered. “They tricked me into locking myself in that disgusting shape, and left me to be raised by those cold-blooded bastards in the Conclave. Considering what the faerie think of humans, that would be like you leaving a child with a pack of wild dogs. At best they’ll feed me half-truths meant to trick me into crippling myself. At worst they might try to kill me now that I’m not a child, and we have enough enemies as it is.”
    “What about your mother?” I asked.
    She went quiet.
    “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her,” she finally said. “Being kidnapped by a monster, and forced to bear its children? I never really blamed her, when I thought she’d wanted to be rid of me.”
    “And now that you remember what really happened?” I prompted.
    She clenched her fists. “In the Summer Court everything is about appearance. Keeping the child of her rapist to raise would have destroyed her, and I don’t know that having her monstrous daughter show up on her doorstep a decade latter is any improvement. I’m glad that the coven binding broke the glamour her brothers used to cloud my memory, but I don’t think I can bring my troubles to her.”
    “If appearances are what matter, you don’t exactly look like a monster,” I pointed out.
    She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “That’s a fair point. If I could appear at her door with a fair face and the power of a worthy heir, it might actually bolster her reputation. Her blood overcoming the taint of a monster, you see. But I’d have to be confident in my control of my form to pull that off, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Besides, if I go there I might encounter one of her brothers, and then I’d have to kill him.”
    “Heh. Not going to forgive them?”
    “They bound my glamour so I wouldn’t be able to hide my appearance!” She exclaimed. “Then they sent me to live in a castle made of cold iron, just in case the binding didn’t hold! Being a faerie child in a human citadel was bad enough, but if I’d been able to look pretty people would have overlooked it. Being a hideous beast on top of that? I’m going to kill them someday.”
    “I’ll help you,” I said seriously.
    We came to the double doors leading out of the habitat, and I set Elin down so I could wrestle one of the heavy sheets of iron out of the way. I’d made them sturdy enough that it would take siege engines to batter them open, just in case enemies ever got onto the island. Elin smoothed down her skirt and pulled up the hood of her warmth cloak in preparation for venturing outside.
    I retrieved a heavy blanket from where I’d left it in the corner, and draped it around both of us. It had a warmth enchantment of its own, which let me put an arm around Elin without worrying about frostbite. Then I pushed the door open, and we stepped