Chapter 27 My Mother
I hurried back to my room, my thoughts splintered by what had just happened.
The taste of him still lingered, moonveil heat and danger setting my lips on fire.
With each step, shame and exhilaration tangled, making me stumble.
I couldn’t return to the library. Shakari would see everything in my eyes, and this feeling, this secret, needed to be buried so deep that not even the river beneath Elarion could unearth it.
I had just committed the original offense, the gods of Sun and Moon would curse me with madness. I had kissed a Moonveil.
My pulse hammered as I reached my dorm, anxiety flaring as I pushed open the door. I longed to collapse and block out the ache spiraling in my body, an ache for the wrong side, the wrong male. Regret and longing twisted together, weighing every breath.
But the room wasn’t empty.
A shadow sat by the window, outlined by the first sliver of moonlight bleeding through the glass.
I froze.
The scent struck me before I saw her. It was sharp mint, cold and unmistakable.
Terror fluttered wild under my ribs, shaking my core.
Only something disastrous would bring my mother, Queen Beatrix, to my room unannounced, in the middle of the night.
My mind spun: had she seen what I had done? My skin prickled with dread.
Maybe she knew exactly what I had just done.
“Good evening, Thea,” she said, her features surfacing from shadow into pale moonlight.
She looked... wrong. The exhaustion etched into her face hollowed her golden eyes, her smile brittle.
Her magic, which usually blazed around her, now flickered weakly.
No ceremonial gown tonight; just white pants and a soft gold shirt, as if she’d been caught off guard by her own vulnerability.
“Mother?” I whispered. “What are you doing here? How did you get into my room?” No one simply appeared in the middle of the night at Elarion. Not without clearance, not without tripping half a dozen wards.
She waved away the question. “Being Queen has perks. I can portal anywhere.”
“You look tired,” I said. Her sunlit eyes were now amber, her magic nearly depleted. She hadn’t even tried to hide it.
“I’ve been busy,” she said. “I have been using the Sight more than usual, searching for every possible outcome.” Her voice thinned with fatigue. “There’s more activity beyond the Veil now. I’ve used gems to amplify visions, but even they might not be enough.”
“Mother, please,” I pleaded, taking a step closer. Fear and desperation knotted inside me. “You can’t do this. You can’t keep risking yourself. Your magic has limits. If you push too far, it’ll consume you, the way it did father.”
The memory stabbed through me, my father’s power drained beyond recovery, burned out by the overuse of his magical trace.
“I’ll be all right,” she said softly. “But I had to come. I’ve been tracking the Draventh Moonveil, the one who saved you and Shakari. Watching them let me see more of your future.”
My heart jerked painfully, dread spiraling through me. For one agonizing second, I was certain she knew about the kiss.
“Yes, you knew I’d get hurt. You sent Thalen. I’m fine. I even sent thank-you letters.” I tried to laugh, desperately to change the subject.
“No, Thea.” Her voice cut clean through the air. My breath stilled.
“You figured out your power,” she said. “You know what you are. And you cannot tell anyone.”
“What do you know, Mother?” My voice was steady. No titles. No facade. Just be my mother.
She hesitated for a long, breathless moment before she finally spoke.
“There is a tradition,” she said quietly.
“It is one only known within the Solenhart bloodline. At birth, the connection between mother and child is at its strongest. As a Seer, every Solenhart queen has used that moment to glimpse their heir’s future, before the protection heirloom is placed to shield the infant's mind. It is… customary. A way to ensure there is nothing threatening your path.”
“How don’t I know this?” I asked, confused.
“There is a lot you don’t know, Thea. But we don’t have time for everything today.” She drew a slow, tired breath.
“Anyways, when I touched you when I reached into your future… I couldn’t see anything beyond your tenth year. Not death. Not darkness. Simply a void.” Her eyes softened with old fear. “Your father, your grandmother, and I spent years theorizing. We feared
disappearance, abduction to the Wastelands, or some ancient curse. But when those things didn’t happen, thanks to the protections we put in place, we looked for magical traces. But there was nothing to compare it to, this was entirely new magic.”
She stepped closer, and her voice dropped.
“I thought, at first, that you might simply be immune to my Sight. But then you blocked everyone else’s mental magic. Your mind cannot be bent, and who knows what else you’re capable of.”
I swallowed. “Soehl says it’s called mental immunity. Mind-benders cannot get in my mind.”
“Yes, not even Lorik Draventh, who is one of the most sophisticated mind-benders alive, could reach you” she said.
My chest clenched so hard it hurt. Shame and longing wrestled inside me. Did she know everything, the desperate way I had kissed him, how much I wanted him, how my body still burned for him?
I said nothing. I couldn’t. That kiss would stay buried, locked inside me until it burned itself quiet.
“Ever since he saved you, I’ve been watching his path,” she continued, moving even closer.
“I wanted to track him, to make sure you were safe, but my magic is spread too thin with the threats rising around Rionis. Still, I saw him trying to command your mind and failing. When Headmaster Marvek informed me of your placement in the Interrogation class, my concern doubled. If anyone learns what you can do…” She shook her head. “It’s too rare. Too dangerous.”
A long breath slipped out of me, relief loosening my lungs, she hadn’t seen the kiss. She hadn’t seen what really happened between us. But she might have seen him try to command me to kiss him, and that his command failed; she might wonder why it didn’t work.
But that relief crumpled when I truly looked at her. She was nearly hollow, her strength stretched to the breaking point by the Sight. For a fleeting moment, I saw only my mother fragile, unraveling, not a queen but a female whose edges were coming undone.
“Why didn’t you talk to me sooner?” I asked softly.
“As if you would’ve listened,” she said with a faint, sad smile. “After everything I’ve demanded of you? After the pressure, the expectations… the marriage negotiations?” Her smile fell, revealing the female beneath the crown. “I wasn’t sure you would hear me as your mother.”
I nodded because she wasn’t wrong. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like we were finally speaking honestly, just us. No kingdom. No legacy. No politics.
She turned slightly, as if she was preparing to leave.
“Why can’t anyone know? Why now? What’s changed?” I asked quickly. I realized too late I’d asked too much at once.
She exhaled, weary. “I can’t answer everything tonight. But I will soon. I came to warn you in person. I trust few people now.” Her gaze moved to the window, haunted. “Do the same.
Don’t trust anyone. Don’t reveal your magical trace yet. People fear what they don’t understand and there’s no record of anyone like you. We can’t predict what your immunity means.”
A portal shimmered into existence beside her, the Glass Castle gate responding to whatever silent signal she had sent. The timing was perfect. Too perfect.
She stepped toward the light, but paused, turning back to me with a look that pierced deeper than her magic ever had.
“The Draventh boy won’t expose your secret,” she said. “But Thea… for the sake of Solvir, stay away from him.”
And then she vanished into the portal, leaving the moonlit room colder than before.
Her last comment made me realize she must know exactly what Lorik Draventh had attempted to command on the Sky Terrace, even if she hadn’t seen the kiss itself. And for the first time, I intended to do as my mother told me. I was going to stay away from Lorik Draventh.