The silence after Ethan’s words still hung in the air.
None of this changes how I feel about any of you.
That sentence carried more weight than anything they’d expected to hear.
Evelyn still held onto his arm gently. Everly leaned just slightly against his side, her earlier nerves softened by his steady presence.
Lilith’s eyes didn’t leave him. She studied his posture, the tone of his voice, the way he looked at everyone—not with hesitation, but quiet certainty.
After a few seconds, Liliana broke the silence with a low hum. "You know... now that you’ve heard all this, we probably owe you an apology."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"For assuming you didn’t know," Isabella said, folding her arms with a small smile. "You picked up on way more than we thought."
"Honestly, you made it easy," Ethan replied. "You didn’t act like you were hiding anything. You just... lived your lives.
Confident. Untouchable. I figured if I waited long enough, the truth would show itself."
Seraphina gave him a sideways look. "And it did, but unlike what we had thought, you had some suspicions which should have been expected with it being you."
"Yeah," he said simply. "And it didn’t change anything."
Seraphina looked at him carefully. "We’ve been wondering for a long time... what you really are."
Ethan glanced around the room. "I figured."
Lilith leaned forward slightly, arms still crossed. "You’ve always been different. Not just your strength, but the way people react to you. And the way you carry yourself."
Elowen added gently, "And your background... has always been difficult to trace. No family records. No consistent history."
Ethan nodded once. "I didn’t understand it myself until I turned eighteen."
That made everyone go still again. He could feel it. The air shifted as they all turned their full attention to him.
"I didn’t feel any different at first," he continued. "But when I turned eighteen, everything changed as I felt something awakening in me. Like something had finally settled inside me."
He paused, thoughtful. "And then I started noticing things. My stamina changed. My awareness. The way people looked at me shifted, especially people with strong bloodlines."
Liliana tilted her head slightly. "You mean they started reacting to you?"
"Yeah," Ethan said. "Like something in them recognized something in me, even if they didn’t understand it."
Isabella frowned. "And you didn’t say anything?"
"I didn’t have answers," he said simply. "I was still figuring it out. And I didn’t want to make assumptions."
Evelyn glanced up at him, eyes wide. "So you’ve known for a while?"
"I’ve known something was off," Ethan replied. "But I didn’t know what. Not until I started putting the pieces together."
Elowen’s voice was quiet but steady. "Do you know what bloodline you have now?"
Ethan nodded. "I do. But before I say it, you should know... It’s not a normal bloodline. I mean, you ladies should have tried and were unsuccessful, right?.
This is the bloodline I have right now that doesn’t get passed down."
Lilith’s gaze narrowed slightly. "Doesn’t get passed down?"
"No," Ethan said. "It doesn’t split. It doesn’t skip generations. It doesn’t pass through bloodlines. It shows up in one person at a time."
He looked around the room again. "There’s no one else who has it. And there won’t be... not until I’m gone."
The words were quiet, but they made the room feel heavier again.
"That kind of bloodline should not exist, right?" Isabella asked after a pause.
"It shouldn’t, but it does," Ethan replied. "I didn’t believe it at first. I thought maybe it was a mutation or something temporary. But... it isn’t."
"And you’ve been carrying that and then awakened it after you turned eighteen?" Liliana asked.
"Yeah," Ethan nodded. "At first, I thought it was just a weird side effect of growing up around all of you. Like I’d absorbed too much power just being near you."
Seraphina snorted quietly. "That’s not how bloodlines work."
"Yeah. I figured that out too," Ethan said with a small smile.
He shifted his weight a little in his seat. "But it explained a lot. Why I rarely get sick. Why did people respond to me strangely? Why no one ever dared get too close unless they were already pulled in."
"You must’ve had questions," Elowen said gently.
"I did," Ethan said. "But the answers didn’t matter as much to me as the people around me."
He turned to look at Lilith. "You were always there. No matter how confusing things got. So I focused on that."
Lilith said nothing. But her arms slowly uncrossed.
Ethan continued, "You all kept me grounded, even when I didn’t know what I was. That’s why I didn’t go looking for answers until I was ready."
There was something so calm in his voice that no one interrupted.
He glanced at Evelyn and Everly. "And now that you know what you are... it only makes sense for me to share it too."
Everly leaned in slightly. "Is it dangerous?"
"No," Ethan said. "Not unless I want it to be."
"Is it something... powerful?" Evelyn asked more softly.
Ethan looked thoughtful for a moment. "It’s not just power. It’s rare. Deep, unique. There’s no second version of me walking around out there. And there won’t be a new one until I’m gone."
He looked down for a second, then lifted his gaze again.
"So yeah. It’s powerful. But it’s also personal."
Elowen’s brows drew slightly. "You don’t have to say the name if you’re not ready."
"I know," Ethan said. "But I’m ready."
He let the room fall still for a beat longer.
Then, calmly, clearly, and without flinching—
"My bloodline... is that of a Mythical Incubus."
The words hung in the air.
But this time, no one reacted as they did not know what he was talking about.
Evelyn blinked. Everly looked at her sister, then back at Ethan. Isabella’s brows furrowed. Liliana tilted her head slightly, as if waiting for more.
None of them spoke.
Because none of them knew what he was talking about.
Seraphina opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again.
Even Elowen, who had seen and heard more than most in her lifetime, didn’t seem to recognize the name.
Only Lilith remained still.