I heard an unfamiliar voice at the door say "Brochfael?" in surprise, so I headed towards the hallway. Stood on the step outside was a man I didn't recognise. He had long, black hair, with the occasional strand of gray. His locks were half tied up at the back of his head and the remainder rested loosely on the shoulders of a long, brown, leather coat. A close cropped beard accentuated his angular jaw and heavy-set eyebrows sat above his piercingly cold, blue eyes. The slight lines on his face deepened into a frown when he noticed me standing in the hall. I bristled at his reaction to my presence. Broch was talking to the man in a quiet voice and then I noticed Kalen appear behind the stranger at my door. Suddenly, I saw the similarity between the faces and knew this man was someone from Kalen's family. A petty scowl settled onto my features, but I did my best to smooth them.

Making my way closer to the door, I addressed the stranger directly, "Can I help you?" The guy just ignored me and irritation bubbled underneath my skin.

"Ana, this is my father, Caydran," Kalen responded awkwardly. I was a little taken aback - Caydran only looked to be in his mid thirties. However, I said nothing, waiting for Kalen's dad to say something, but the silence stretched on awkwardly as everyone stood in the doorway. "May we come in?" Kalen eventually asked. Petulantly, I nodded and walked back into the kitchen, trying to ignore my irritation at Caydran's rudeness.

Miranda and Gabriel were stood at the door from the kitchen to the front room and, when Caydran followed the others into the kitchen, they both looked momentarily surprised before Gabriel bowed his head towards Caydran slowly. I watched this wordless communication with interest - clearly Caydran was someone important in the Fae world. In my world he was simply a rude guy with good hair. When everyone was finally in my thankfully-quite-large kitchen, Broch turned to Caydran and Kalen.

"Why are you here?" Broch asked with an authority in his voice that I found out of place.

"Kalen told me this human was experiencing some strange side-effects to being around fae so much," Caydran said, looking at me with a cool, analytical gaze. I bristled again at his words and manner - who the hell did this guy think he was?

"Kalen, what did you tell your father about Anastasia?" Broch demanded. I glanced at Miranda and Gabriel, feeling uncomfortable being discussed without being invited to comment.

Kalen reported that he'd told his dad about last night, me escaping the unseelie in the woods, the attack in my home and then that he thought he'd seen my eyes reflect his. The way he said it made it sound like I was some weak, damsel in distress, and my already simmering anger began to boil.

"Only that's not how it happened is it Kalen?" I interjected coldly before anyone else could get a word in. Everyone but Caydran stared at me in surprise - Caydran's look was more distasteful than anything else. Kalen had the decency to blush slightly but, as he did, I remembered Broch explaining glamours to me and wondered if it reflected how he felt, or how he thought he should react in human form.

"Brochfael, I must ask you the truth of these events," Caydran said, ignoring me again.

"I believe..."

"I am here," I said, waving at Caydran, "If you want to know the truth of these events, I was there. It happened to me."

He finally looked me in the eye and I could see the dislike behind his mask of handsome features. After a pause, he said, "As a human, you are hardly a reliable witness."

I turned to Kalen. "Your dad's a prick," I said coldly.

I wanted to get out of there, but the front room and hallway were blocked by the many, many people in my house, so I span on my heel and walked out of the back door.

A dozen, better expletives to describe Kalen's dad ran through my head once I'd stepped into the dark garden. As I stormed over to the wrought iron bench by the flowerbeds, I stomped my bare feet into the cold grass. Slumping down onto the bench, I felt a slight burning sensation where the skin on the back of my thighs had touched the metal. I jumped up with a hiss of pain and twisted my body to try and see where I'd been burnt. Someone must have put some acid on the bench - what the hell?! The boiling, bubbling emotional barrier that had been containing my anger split open and I felt an increasingly familiar pulse flow behind my eyes like water building behind a dam. The pain seemed less than earlier and, as I stared up into the sky, I realised the moon seemed brighter than it had only moments before.

I heard a rustle in the tree at the end of the garden and tensed. A slender figure carefully dropped down between the branches and I felt a wicked smile stretch over my face. I wasn't even bothered by the black claws that were extending over the end of my fingers whilst I stalked closer to him. As he stepped out of the shadows and under the rays of the moon, I could see a flattened nose that ended in an unnatural point. Red eyes watched me, analysed me, while I examined the greyish tinge to his skin and unusual marks that seemed to be etched black along his cheeks and down over his forearms. A forked tongue flicked out from between coal lips and seemed to taste my scent on the air like a snake.

"Let me guess, you're an Unseelie here to tie me up and take me away to Zeph?" I asked with a sly smile stretching over my face. My muscles were itching for a fight and my anger pulled their fibers even tighter. A look of uncertainty crossed his face as he nodded.

I launched myself at him.

Swiping at his chest with my freshly extended claws, I felt them rip through flesh. Without giving him a chance to fight back, I followed this attack with a vicious punch to the stomach. He stumbled and I brought a rounded kick up to his right shoulder, throwing him sideways and bouncing him off the fence with a loud clatter. He seemed to regain his wits and threw a couple of punches at me, but I blocked most. Strategically I let one through, sucking breath in when his fist connected with my side. However, he'd over-reached, so I brought my knee up forcefully and it connected with his unprotected chin and throat. I dodged around his back as he spluttered for air and then kicked him down onto the grass. The back door banged open as I forced one of his hands into the small of his back, pinned it with my knee, and then yanked the other one straight out and up behind him until he grunted. Digging my claws into the flesh at his wrists to keep him subdued, I took my attention off him and looked up to see Broch, Kalen and Caydran watching me with shocked expressions.

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Author's Note (08/09/2019)

Hello guys,

I've not been spending a lot of time on Wattpad recently as I've been working again (boo), but also because I've been thinking about the way in which this story is going and how I want it to develop and ultimately end. Therefore, I will be going back through the uploads so far and making slight edits here and there to firstly, improve the grammar and take on some suggestions made by readers, but to also alter Anastasia's character ever so slightly.

I would like her to be more of a pacifist at the beginning of the book - one who is trained to fight, but doesn't automatically jump to a fight. I am also going to be editing in a little more information about Anastasia's parents and upbringing - so that its clearer why she's a pacifist.

When this editing has been done, I will upload another author's note at the BEGINNING of the next chapter (15/09/2019). This will have a condensed version of the edits I have made, like a summary, with any important info I might edit in (probably about Anastasia's background). I'm going to do this note at the beginning of the next chapter so everyone who has been following Fair Deception so far, doesn't have to go back and re-read it all. I will delete this author's note 2/3 weeks after chapter 9 has been published (around 29/09/2019 - 6/10/2019) so that it doesn't get in the way of future readers.

I'm really sorry to be doing this, especially when it's 8/9 Chapters into the book, but I don't want to keep editing and writing a book, knowing that I'm going to have to go back at the end and completely change a character. Or start writing bits in from this point on, only for you to get to the end of the book and be like 'Huh? How/Where did I miss THAT information?' and it be because the start of the book no longer matches properly with the end.

I am already writing a lot further along in the storyline (on Google Docs) than I have uploaded onto Wattpad. I'm using Wattpad to get feedback from readers, but also to motivate my editing of parts I have already written. Unfortunately, growing characters and plot-lines in this way is part of my editing process as I'm trying to flesh things out, and develop more well-rounded characters. 

Please don't hate me for this - I am Sorry for any upheaval in your reading of Fair Deception :( .