The Fae World: Claire: Inheriting a Hotel (part 3)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1
Part 2

It was hard to work out how to respond. Claire ran a hand through her hair, staring at the construct of her uncle, and tried to think of something, because it seemed rude to just stand there. In the end she asked, “Why did you leave the hotel to me?”

Smiling, seeming almost grateful that she’d chosen to simply accept that he was there, he replied, “The hotel can only be run by someone with the same blood as the fae man who created it and you are the only one I knew for certain existed. I met you once, a very long time ago, so I sent you a letter, hoping that you were related closely enough for the hotel to accept you as its owner.”

“In the letter you described yourself as my great-uncle.”

The construct nodded. “When I was alive I was the oldest half-brother of your grandfather, which makes me your great-uncle.” He bit his lip, which was very strange, but Claire guessed it was probably what he would have done if he had been alive. “How much do you know about fae family trees?”

“Mum mentioned to me that she was the only child of the only son of a fae man, but I never met my grandfather and she never went into any more detail than that. I’m not certain she knew much more.”

“She probably didn’t. I came to Earth about three hundred years ago, because I was sent a letter by my aunt to tell me that she needed someone to run the hotel and I was the only family member she trusted to do it. That was long before the destruction of Kalinia and until the fae travelled here I didn’t know there was a problem. Then Willow came to me, asking for my help, and I willingly gave it because she was my Queen.” He smiled. “Even then I knew that the King wasn’t going to survive, but then from what I remember of him that wasn’t a bad thing, and his father was just as bad. Willow was different to the rest of her family.”

“When did my grandfather come to Earth?”

“The first time he came was about three years after I inherited the hotel. I’m almost certain he was having fun with the local girls, but I never knew anything for sure, so I don’t know if there was a child from any of those unions. Father said I was a bad influence on him, but really I just had too much work to do to chaperon him all the time. The second time it was just after the fae emigrated and he came to tell me he was the only one of the family to survive what happened on Kalinia. He didn’t want to be hidden behind the wards, so he asked me to give him a place here.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t say no to my brother and it wasn’t long before he got one of the local girls pregnant, even though they were warned against him by family members who’d heard stories about him from their mothers.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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I'm fascinated by the family background.