CHAPTER 29 RAYA #2
“Since the Council started conducting all of its sensitive business in the castle,” I say. “They’re only for elders and the heads of guild.”
“Which could have come in handy except—no offence, Ray—but your parents are the last two Shades in Sarotuza who’d ever willingly let three Hues into their house, let alone allow them to use their secret portals.
” Akari points out the glaring flaw in my plan.
“They don’t even let you use their secret portals. ”
Nor am I ever likely to earn that privilege now that they’ve watched me leave the court chamber in chains.
“I still have to try, Kiri,” I tell her. And, more than anything else, that’s what convinces her to relent. Because she knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would never involve them in this unless I truly believed that it was life or death.
Persuading the others is easier once she’s on board, since the Hues don’t have any better ideas and Saleen has no intention of letting Akari accompany me alone.
It’s kind of sweet, actually, even if I’ve not quite forgiven her for all the needless pain her secrets caused.
Though I guess I’m not really one to talk, in that regard, nor can I claim the moral high ground.
I kept my own share of secrets these past few days.
Hells, I’ve still not told Akari the most damning of the gory details.
If she can forgive Saleen, then she’ll forgive you.
I’m fully aware that it won’t be that simple, that nothing will be simple if the future gets its way.
Right now, we’re all being held together by necessity, but come morning—if we’re still alive—the true consequences of this alliance will emerge, and none of us can predict what they’ll be.
You’ve got to survive this first. The moment my parents’ house slips into view, my organs fist into a tight ball. The lights are on in their towers, which means they’re home from the guild but still at work, sifting through the fickle threads of fate.
Maybe they’ll be happy to see you . . . the hopeful side of me wants to see them, too, to show them I’m okay, that I’ve escaped the Council’s corrupt brand of justice.
But the other side—the cynical side that watched my father rail against my shame instead of for my freedom—would rather jump off a cliff than see them both again.
When forced to make the choice, I turn towards my mother’s study.
“Just give me a minute with her first, okay?” I tell the others, then with a steel of my shoulders, I wisp through the door.
“Mother?”
It takes her a long second to clear the future from her eyes, to double take and realize that I’m really here.
“Raya!” She lurches up from the sea of cushions lining the tower floor.
“By my colors, did the tribunal let you go?” She pulls me into a brief and rigid hug.
“The fates wouldn’t give me a clear vision of your trial, but I knew the elders would see sense eventually.
Your father and I were just livid at the councilman—though you didn’t exactly do yourself any favors.
What were you thinking with all that nonsense about a son?
That was cruel and disrespectful, Raya. Why would you risk your standing with the guild in such a way? ”
“I—”
“No matter—”
. . . Guess that was more of a rhetorical question.
“—what’s important is that they’ve released you, quickly and quietly, without making too big of a fuss. That’s good. That means we can still salvage your reputation.”
Her priorities cut me deeper than I expect, sending a blunt ache shooting through my ribcage.
Just a few bells ago, she watched her daughter get hauled off for interrogation, accused of working with a Hue and murdering a Shade.
But instead of haunting that court chamber like a vengeful ghost—instead of protesting the councilman’s decision with every fiber of her being—here she is, worrying about the scandal.
“They didn’t release me.” I break the news with a sigh. “I escaped.”
“Escaped?” Her face puckers in horror. “Why would you go and do a foolish thing like that? This will only make the matter harder to resolve!”
“It wasn’t going to get resolved, Mother.” My throat begins to tighten, the cruel sting of salt pulsing beneath my lids. “The councilman was never going to set me free after I learned about his son, don’t you get that?”
“Get what, Raya? That you’re convinced Lars has a son that doesn’t exist? That if you continue down this path you’ll destroy your future for good?”
“I am trying to save the future!” The words explode out of me like a storm.
“I asked an open question and it showed me my death, and your death, and the death of the Gray, and I’ve been trying to stop that from happening ever since, and if you would just listen to me for one minute so that I could explai—”
“You asked an open question?” Her incredulity fast hardens to rage, her voice sharpening to a deadly spear. “How could you be so stupid, Raya? How could you throw away everything your father and I have—”
“Sorry, Ray, time’s up.” Akari doesn’t wisp into the study gently, she bursts in with an overblown flair. “Hi, Mrs Wryvern, I hope we’re not interrupting, but we’ve got a future to save and we need your portal.”
My mother’s jaw practically detaches as Akari’s joined by Saleen and three illegal Hues whose eyes give them away. In the shadows but sporting no spiked rim? That’s proof of a crime right there. Now she knows exactly what kind of treason I’ve been brewing.
“Raya, what have you done?”
“Everything the future asked of me.” I force my head up and my spine straight, shaking off the bite of her disappointment. “Now, if you don’t mind, we have to go stop a cataclysm that you and your entire guild couldn’t see.”
“You will do no such—”
“Quiet.” Saleen silences her with a flash of Red, clearing the way for me to issue a command of my own.
“If you love me at all—if you’ve ever cared about me as your daughter rather than your legacy—then you’ll pass along this message,” I say, ignoring the indignity paling her to chalk.
“Tell the elders that the Divine Meridian means to poison our magics. Tell them that he’s a void and that he’s holding the Church initiates in the castle.
Then tell them that I’ve seen what he means to do because I’m fate-touched now and walking a fundamental path.
And if they have a problem with any of that, tell them to take it up with Councilman Denata, since he’s the one the Meridian is pissed at. Can you do that?”
Another flick of Saleen’s power compels my mother to answer, though the yes she grits through her teeth is reluctant and hard won. And noncommittal. I’m perfectly aware that the way I built my question could lead to more than one outcome, that I left her a way to weasel out of following through.
If you love me. I have no earthly idea if I’d meant it as a test or if—as always—my phrasing is just bad.
I guess you’ll find out. There are so many unknowns in this moment that I don’t see the point in putting it right.
We don’t even know if I’m right yet, for starters, or if the elders are sitting on enough knowledge to understand my message—it’s possible that too much truth has been lost to the whims of time.
Though if I’m being honest, the real reason I don’t want to stay and fix it is that I can’t stand to look at her anymore—to feel the way she’s looking at me, the way she will look at me if I force her to take my side.
I need to get the hells out of this tower.
Immediately. This second. Right the fuck now.
Because I’d much rather portal into a castle and face a madman than watch my mother grapple with the choice of legacy over love.
Isn’t that how Adriel became so twisted in the first place?
Because a man with color decided not to live with the shame of having a child he thought had none?
So instead of fixing my question, I lead us towards the door to her portal and ignore the throbbing pain in my heart. When Ezzo brushes his hand against mine in offer, I take it.