A/N: Welcome back! I just wanted to say that the first three chapters of this generation won’t seem very connected to one another, but I promise it’s all leading up to a big event later! They all come together I swear XD Anyway, that’s all. Enjoy the chapter!

Homework is stupid. All it does is reinforce the crap we learn in class, all of which is untrue. I know the truth. My dad told me everything about our history, and about all three planes. No one in school teaches us about violet eyes or teleportation.

I’m one of two people in this world who can teleport.

“Karissa, you need to start doing better in school.” My stepmom barreled into the room, her perfectly straight hair flapping behind her. She was waving a neatly folded piece of paper in the air. “A C average? Really?”

Ah. My report card. “School is dumb,” I replied.

“It’s important. You will never get a good job if you have bad grades.”

“So? It doesn’t matter. I’ll be the Princess anyway.” When she began to talk again, I sighed and turned up the TV volume.

In response, Lily walked over to the TV and muted it. “Intelligence is a valuable thing. Your father only spotted me because I was hard-working.”

“Intelligence and hard-working aren’t the same thing!” I threw my hands up and flung myself off the couch. “I do work hard on things that actually matter. But this?” I gestured towards the report card. “They don’t even teach us the truth. And if I already know the truth, why should I bother learning their lies?”

From the kitchen table, I heard Mackenzie muttering, “What’s the truth then?”

Now, at this point I would have just gone upstairs and fetched my dad to tell them everything, but he was working. As usual. He always had some top-secret project or another he had to finish ‘with absolutely no interruptions,’ except Mackenzie. She was allowed to visit him.

“Go ask dad, since you’re so special!” I snapped at her.

“Karissa, you know your father and I love you both equally-” Lily began.

“You know you’re not even my real mom, so it doesn’t even matter.”

Two seconds later, my boots were thumping against the wet pavement. I knew the way to real mom’s house by heart. Ever since my dad first told me about my real mom and my twin, I had wanted to meet them. I stole their address from a letter in my dad’s desk and snuck away to it. But my mom was never there. Her and her new husband were always out partying and on dates.

But one good thing came out of it. Duncan. He wasn’t allowed to leave the house, so he was always there to greet me and just chill.

It was the same tonight.

“Let me guess, mom’s out at a party,” I said in greeting as he opened the door.

“How did you know…” Duncan gave me a grim smile and stepped back into the hallway. A bright light clicked on, casting a ghostly white glow on our faces. I took one look at him and screamed.

“What happened?!”

Duncan made his way over the couch and sprawled out on it, his bloodshot eyes never looking directly at me as he spoke. “Nothing. Fell down the stairs.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. I’ve been here a hundred times, Duncan, I know you don’t have any stairs.” When he didn’t answer, I peered at him closer and muttered, “You do remember that, right?”

“Stop looking at me like that!” he snarled back. “I’m not smoking anything, I’m not on anything, so don’t bother asking. Just because mom ain’t around to watch me every second doesn’t mean I’ll turn into a drugged-up delinquent.”

“I was just making sure you’re okay.”

“Okay? When I’m Prince I’ll never be okay. I have to get used to this now-” He pointed at the cuts and bruises across his face. “-so it doesn’t hurt as much later on. My dad is prepping me for any torture I might face in the future.”

He was actually proud of the cuts. “That’s not preparation, that’s abuse!” I was nearly screaming at him now. How could he not understand?!

“It’s for my own good. I might be tired and sore now, but one day it will all pay off.”

“How can you say that’s a good thing?! Our real dad would never, ever prepare you to be Prince like that.”

“And that’s why he suffered so much when the werewolves got him. He was not prepared.” Duncan just shrugged. He heaved himself off the couch and for a second I thought he was going to force me out of the house, but instead he just plopped down in a chair a few feet away.

Something was nagging at me now. I sunk down on the coffee table facing him. “You said… You said you would be the Prince. But I’m older.”

“So?” He gave me such a blank stare it looked like part of him was missing.

“The eldest inherits the palace… So I would be Princess.”

“But you won’t because you’re a girl.”

Leaning forward, I braced my elbows on my knees and clasped my hands under my mouth.

“The rule goes to the eldest male in the family. We have a patriarchy.” Those words. They were like a punch to the gut. Unfair. So unfair.

“No. No, you’re lying. Dad would have told me.”

“Really?” Duncan rested one foot on his knee and leaned back in the chair, already assuming an air of snobbish authority. “He can lie to you, Kar. He’s not the saint you think he is.”

I felt like I was quoting my english teacher with what I said next. “Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how he dealt with them that matters.”

“You think leaving his wife and splitting up his children was the right thing for him to do?” He smirked.

“I… Dad’s doing the best he can. Even when he’s not always around.” I knew he loved us. He had to.

“Then why does he never visit me?” A storm passed over his face, clouding his eyes and turning the sides of his bruised mouth into a scowl. “If he really cared about us both equally, he’d visit me. He would train me. But you were always the favorite because you looked more like him!”

“What?”

Duncan slammed his hand on the armrest as he growled, “Don’t you dare deny it. He hates looking at me because I look like mom. I remind him of what he lost.”

“That’s so stupid! He took me because I was older and he thought I’d be the Princess someday, that’s all.”

“Right,” Duncan muttered, his mind already somewhere else. He leaned forward and gazed into the fire, the flames reflecting off his glazed eyes. “But he made his choice. And someday, when I’m stronger, I’m going to give him what he deserves for choosing the wrong kid.”