Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
Letters and Lockets
Back at the Order, I called Elena to my room. Even though the letter had only my name on the outside, it affected Elena as much as it did me, so she deserved to be there when I opened it.
Elena had grown up a great deal recently, but although she was much stronger and braver than a typical fourteen-year-old, she still had a tender heart. She teared up as I recounted my meeting with Mrs. Yarrow.
“I miss her so much,” Elena said with brimming eyes. “But how could she have kept a letter from our parents from us for so long?”
“I don’t fully understand, but she said it was our parents’ wish that she give it to me when I turned twenty-one,” I said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Let’s read it together and see if it answers any of our questions.”
The parchment was dry and fragile, and I worried it would disintegrate if I opened it too hastily.
So with delicate hands and my sharpest knife, I cut along the top and gingerly extracted the contents.
The parchment inside was in better shape than the envelope but still brittle.
Elena looked on, her face pinched with worry and anticipation.
With the letter in my hand, I paused, unable to digest the enormity of the moment. Then I opened each fold as though my very life depended on preserving this object. A sea of faded glyphs covered the page.
“It’s just a bunch of scribbles,” Elena said, crestfallen.
But I recognized the writing immediately. It was the code used by the clock tenders. Although a handful of symbols were foreign to me, I knew enough to guess their meaning.
As I deciphered the message, I read it out loud, and Elena looked on, amazed that I could make sense of it.
“Our dearest Cassian, if you are reading this letter, the worst has happened, and we are no longer with you. You may feel surprise, grief, and perhaps even anger upon learning that this letter was kept from you for so long, but please know that we made our plans from a place of love and necessity.”
My voice cracked, and I fought back growing emotions. Tears streamed down Elena’s face as I continued to read.
“There is much we need to tell both you and your sister about your place in this world, but we cannot risk putting it in this letter. You must return to Meadowrun, the farm where we raised you, and go to the special place. There, if you make a wish, you will find the answers.”
Our place in the world? What mysteries might it unlock?
I continued. “We love you and your sister dearly. You are our entire world. Mother and Father.” I gasped out the final words. Tears flowed as the ghosts of our parents’ words hung in the air. And yet the letter raised more questions than it answered.
“The well in the forest by our old house, right?” Elena asked. “That’s the special place where we made wishes. That has to be it.”
“I think you’re right,” I said, surprised that she remembered the well so clearly. She had been only four years old the last time we’d been there.
“What did they mean about our place in the world?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, although a bit of unease crept through me as I remembered how Edric had been unable to find anything about our lineage.
“Can we leave tomorrow?” she said.
I longed to do just that—pack our bags and head out immediately—but I knew it was too dangerous for us to go right away.
“It’s only a few more days until we’re supposed to leave,” I said. “We can make a detour on the way to the Northlands.”
She nodded, but she did so with downcast eyes and a frown.
“Hey Elena, remember when we were kids, we had a place we were supposed to meet in case anything bad happened?”
She nodded again, looking even more glum. “The grain silo.”
“If we get separated on our journey, let’s agree to meet at the wishing well. Okay?”
“Is something bad going to happen?” she asked.
“Nothing that I know of,” I said. “But it’s good to have a plan.”
I tried my best to project confidence, but after this mysterious letter, I wondered if learning about our past was something we would eventually regret.
Later that night, I was alone in my room with my thoughts when Darion came to visit. He was in the habit of staying most nights, and I appreciated the company, the comfort, and the…other things. Tonight was no different.
After tender lovemaking, we lay wrapped in each other’s arms. Between this blossoming affection and my parents’ letter, I felt particularly open and vulnerable.
So I told him about the letter. After I recited it, he beamed. “Cas, that’s amazing!”
“It stirred up a lot of memories,” I said.
“I can’t imagine getting a letter from my mother. I sometimes try to guess what she was like. I dream about her, although that’s foolish because I never even knew her.”
Hearing Darion mention his mother was genuinely surprising. This was only the second time he ever had.
“It’s never foolish to dream of your mother.”
Darion smiled at that. He traced his fingers along my shoulder, then across my chest, running them over the chain of my mother’s locket.
Up until then, I had taken it off every time we’d been together.
I wasn’t sure why, or why I’d chosen to leave it on this time.
Perhaps I was finally ready to share that part of me.
“What’s this?” he said, turning the locket over in his hand. It made me feel far more exposed than anything else we’d done together. But I let him do it because I wanted him to know all of me, the good and the bad.
“It belonged to my mother,” I said.
Darion’s eyebrows knitted with sadness. “I’ve never seen you wear it before.”
“I know,” I said, my voice cracking, barely holding back tears.
He could tell how important this was. The care in his expression was palpable. “Tell me.”
“She gave it to me as she and my father lay dying, murdered because they were Emberborn. She told me to keep Elena safe, that it was my job to protect her now. I promised her I would.”
Darion stared, letting the weight of my words sink in. Then he let out a long breath.
“I’m so sorry,” he said as tears leaked down his face. “I’ve always known you loved your sister dearly and wanted to protect her above all else. But now I know the depth of it, why it’s such an important part of you.”
I laughed with no humor, my lips trembling as I spoke. “It’s a pretty big thing for an eleven-year-old to absorb.”
Darion looked pained. “No child should have to live with that burden. No adult should have to carry it alone. I’ll help you carry it. I’ll help protect Elena. I’ll help you find who did this and make them pay.”
“But I already know who did it,” I said.
“You do?” Darion said.
“I saw him with my own two eyes. It was Orlik Leonom.”
Darion’s eyes burned with a rage I’d never seen before. But there was something else behind the rage. Something deeper.
He looked directly at me. “I promise you this, Cassian Nightbrook: I won’t rest until you get justice.”