11. Chapter 11 #2
Her voice was stern. She sounded almost like a mother giving a curfew to her teenage child, and the irony wasn’t lost on me.
In fact, I’d prayed to hear something like this, words born from concern and care instead of frustration and anger.
It was a gift that I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate if not for the way my life had worked out.
“When you leave The Glade, you will return briefly to the underworld,” my mother said, “and then you will be returned to your body in the realm of the living. But before you leave the underworld, you need to do one thing for me.”
“Anything.”
“The man who visits you in your cell—you must send him through the portal I’ll hold open.”
“But won’t he join you here in The Glade?”
“Yes.”
I considered for a moment, noting the look of resolve in her eye. “I see,” I finally said quietly. “Are you sure?”
“I haven’t had many chances to protect my daughter,” my mother said softly. “I would like to take this opportunity to look out for my only child while I have the chance. My face will be the last thing he sees before he is banished for an eternity.”
“That’s not true, about the protection.” My voice was a mere thread. “You’ve protected me this whole time. Without you, all would have been lost. You’re the reason Fae still exist. You saved us all.”
She cocked her head to the side, acknowledging my point, but not outright agreeing. “Just remember, when the portal is opened, send the Harbinger through it.”
I studied the look in her eyes, memorizing it. It was one I’d never seen before. One from a mother that would do anything to protect her daughter. In that moment, my heart felt like a stone hand had clutched around it and squeezed.
I wanted to rush to her, to throw my arms around her, to tell her everything would be okay.
That everything she’d done had been selfless.
That her sacrifice would be worth it once order was returned to the magical world.
But I couldn’t, because we were nothing more than spirits.
Wisps of smoke. The essence of ourselves.
I stepped toward my mother. She paused and glanced around, as if asking her sisters for permission.
The magic in the air shifted like something big was about to happen.
Water started flowing louder from the buckets in the goddesses’ hands.
Wind whispered through crevices in the cave.
Water churned and spiraled, charged with energy.
Not an evil energy, but an anxious, anticipatory one.
“They’ve agreed,” she murmured, almost to herself. “They’ve agreed to let it happen.”
Before I could ask what they’d agreed to, I felt my body solidifying, and I felt hers following suit. We weren’t in our mortal bodies, but our spirit forms became tangible. As if Lily had thrown the potion she’d made on us and frozen us in place. Except instead of freezing, we were mobile.
My mother stepped toward me and opened her arms. I met her eagerly, and for the first time in my life, I felt the true embrace of a mother. My mother.
It was everything I could have wanted. An entire lifetime of love and affection in one moment.
A silvery tear dropped from her eye and landed in my hair, and I could feel the magic in it sending a tingling sensation down my spine.
My whole body radiated with the bond between us.
Mother and daughter. Fae Queen to Fae Queen. A bond that could never be broken.
We hadn’t broken, despite centuries apart. She had lived lifetimes ago, and I was just beginning mine. And yet, we’d recognized one another here as if no time had passed. Here, in her arms, I felt like I was where I’d always belonged.
I stood with my heart feeling broken and whole all at once. A heart I hadn’t realized had been shattered slowly over the last twenty-some years of my human existence. Where each day, a cruel hammer had tap-tap-tapped at the icy exterior.
But in this moment, I felt whole and warm. My heart no longer frozen shards. I felt untouchable and confident and loved.
A second silvery tear hit my hair, sent a spark down my spine, and then the tears flowed freely from both of us.
And it was through those tears that I felt pulled from the warmth and comfort of The Glade, my spirit deposited back into the cold and unfeeling underworld.
Fear and despair clawed at me. I already wanted to go back.
I saw him the moment I returned to the underworld. The hooded man had returned to my cell, and he stood inside this time, looking around for me. As I materialized, his eyes widened.
Without waiting for him to gather his bearings, I stepped forward and yanked the hood from his head.
The second I laid eyes on him, the memories came crashing back.
I sucked in a breath that rattled my whole ghostly form as my brain latched on to his name, and I realized, I did know him.
I knew him and all of his curious stares, his glimmering eyes hidden in the shadows of his cloak.
His voice had been disguised as a spirit, his person had been disguised as a scientist. The ultimate traitor.
“Dr. Lewis?” I gaped.
“Impossible.” Dr. Lewis spun in a circle as if inspecting my cell for leaks. “Where have you been?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I said, and then I glanced through the still-open portal where my mother’s eyes shone through on the other side.
“Now,” she instructed.
I reached out, grabbed the scientist by the cloak and pushed him through the rapidly shrinking portal. I heard her voice one last time before the portal closed.
“I will always love you, Alessia. You are mine.”
Then the portal snapped shut, swallowing the Harbinger whole.
The next second, I felt myself evaporating—melting into nonexistence.
When I woke, I was a pile of bones and skin.
My bones and skin. I was back in the realm of the living; my soul had been returned to my body.
Feeling at peace, I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.