Chapter 15 #2
Cass carefully lifted the mirror out, set the box aside, and then undid the clasp.
There were tiny nicks here and there on the lid, indicating the passage of years, but the two interior mirrors remained clear.
Cass lifted the case and blew a gentle breath over the lower mirror, fogging its surface, before she realized what she was doing.
She lowered it and reached for the hem of her skirt, only to stop when the condensation shifted and moved.
Mesmerized, Cass stared into the mirror.
The mist rose, closing around her until there was nothing left of Sofia or the bedroom.
She moved through the thickening haze as if pulled by an invisible thread.
The quiet was deafening as if the world was wrapped in cotton.
It wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t bright either.
There was enough light to see a few feet around her, but something moved to her left, its shadow drifting along the wall of mist. She went a few more steps and realized the light was getting brighter.
Just then, the familiar sound of wings cut through the muffled silence.
Ahead of her, an owl burst from the mist and disappeared into the brightening haze. She switched to a run to follow it.
“Wait!” Her voice cut through the strangely muffled world, and the mist snapped apart as if a switch had been thrown.
The abrupt scenery change made her stumble, and she caught her balance against a doorjamb that appeared out of nowhere.
But what kept her in place was the two women standing in a nursery, caught in the midst of an emotional storm.
A much younger Rhea, looking pale and frightened, cradled an infant protectively against her chest as she stood in front of the aunt Cass only knew through photos.
A younger version of her grandmother stood with them.
“Take it back, Cora!”
Cora was equally pale, her expression both anguished and resolute. “I would if I could, but you know that’s not how this works, Rhea.”
“Fine. Then we figure out how to change this.”
Cora was shaking her head. “Every path I take shows the same thing.”
Rhea turned away, which left her facing Cass and Iris. The baby stirred, a small hand reaching out to grasp Rhea’s pendant. Her mother made a soft shushing sound.
“I’ve got you, Sofie.” She bent her head and pressed her lips to Sofia’s head.
The naked pain on her mother’s face froze Cass in place. It was raw and uncensored, leaving no room for doubt that this was a tormented woman. “Mom.”
But Rhea couldn’t hear her because this was a captured memory, locked into the mirror by Iris. Rhea gazed down at her youngest daughter, her fear swallowed by a ruthless determination that was much more familiar to Cass.
“No.” Rhea’s denial was quiet but unrelenting. “I won’t allow it.”
Iris flinched. “You can’t outrun the Fates, Rhea.”
Rhea looked at her mother, obstinate determination clear in her face. “Fuck the Fates, Mama. These are my babies she’s talking about, and I’ll do whatever I must to keep them safe.”
Cass recognized the sorrow that darkened both Iris and Cora’s gazes—not just because one sister was breaking the other’s heart but also because both knew there was no manipulating the Fates’ plans. Any attempt would only lead to more heartache.
Cora started to reach out. “Rhea, you can’t—”
“Don’t!” Rhea bit out, a flush sweeping through her face as fear was a living fire in her eyes.
She kept Sofia cradled close. “Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do.
” The tension between the sisters clogged the air, and Sofia started to fuss.
Rhea rocked her, softening her tone even as frustration kept her anger alive.
“If there’s no escaping this, why tell me in the first place? ”
“Because you need to know,” Cora replied, resigned.
“That’s not an answer, Cora!” Rhea snapped.
“Would you rather I didn’t say anything?” Frustration edged out Cora’s compassion as she matched her sister’s temper.
“It’d be better than this,” Rhea snarled. “You can’t tell me which daughter, you can’t tell me how, you can’t tell me when. All you give me is some vague warning that one daughter will cost me another.”
Cora endured Rhea’s accusations, her hands fisted at her sides, and said nothing.
“You’re a damn Oracle, so tell me how to fix this.”
There was so much pain in Rhea’s voice that it left Cass feeling bloodied and bruised. And considering the tears falling down Cora’s face, she shared that feeling. Both Oracles knew the cruel truth, and in an eerie tandem, they said, “You can’t.”
“Can’t what, Cassandra?”
Cass looked up and met her mother’s gaze, disconcerted as the past and present collided. The world around her shifted back to her parents’ guest room. Rhea stood on the other side of the bed where Sofia lay, a frown joining the tired lines on her face. “Cassandra, are you okay?”
Cass shook her head, trying to come back from the past and sync with the present.
“Sorry, Mom. Give me a second.” The emotional echoes of what she’d witnessed clung tightly, and she barely registered Rhea’s shock at the informal address.
“I was just…” She went to wave her hand, forgetting she still held the pocket mirror.
Shaking her head, she closed the antique compact, put it in the box, then set it and the letter aside.
“Must have fallen asleep.” She got to her feet, grabbed her glasses, and set them in place, their familiar weight dislodging the lingering hold of the past. “Everything okay?”
Rhea gently straightened the light cover on Sofia, her gaze lingering on the box. “What did you see?”
Still rattled by the past, Cass adjusted her glasses and fought the urge to squirm. “What?”
“The mirror,” Rhea said, angling her head toward it. “What did Mother want you to see?”
A tone of accusation had slipped into Rhea’s question, setting Cass’s teeth on edge, but she struggled past her fundamental rejection of whatever her mother asked her to do and aimed for a mature response. “Why don’t we discuss this later?”
Rhea didn’t take the hint. “What did you see, Cassandra?”
The haughty demand set Cass’s back up. Fuck being mature. “You, Sofia, Yaya, and Cora.”
Rhea swayed before slowly sinking to sit on the edge of the bed, her face slipping into a shade past pale. Her shoulders hunched as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dammit, Mama, you just couldn’t leave it alone.”
The words were not quiet enough to escape Cass’s ears. “Leave what alone?”
Rhea dropped her hand, opened her eyes, and pinned them on Cass, frustration and fear swirling in their depths. “What purpose does it serve to show you that?”
Even though there was a chance the question wasn’t intended for her, that glimpse of fear pricked Cass’s curiosity. “Maybe she wanted me to know.”
Red suffused Rhea’s face, and she looked away. She tugged at the blanket then smoothed it out, agitated. “Know what exactly?”
The knee-jerk reaction to snap back rode Cass hard, and she opened her mouth to retread old roads, only to close it.
She studied her mother, taking in the shoulders braced for a blow, the set jaw, and the fidgeting hands, all of it screaming guilt and grief.
Two things she never associated with Rhea.
Raging and railing at her mother might make her feel better, but in the end, what would it change?
The answer was simple: Nothing.
Sofia was in danger. Her yaya was gone. Thena was still dead.
And Cass? She was still an outsider in her own family.
Hell, her mother could barely stand to be in the same room with her.
At least now, thanks to Yaya, she knew the reason why—a shitty one to be sure, but it had to count for something, right?
Rhea lifted her head and asked again, “What did she want you to know?”
“That you’re human.”
Rhea blinked, her face softening as her lips curved into a sad, bitter twist. “Oh, sweetheart, I’ve never been anything but.” The unexpected endearment stunned Cass, but Rhea wasn’t done rocking her daughter’s world. “I know you don’t believe me, but I never blamed you.”
There was no way to stop Cass’s disbelieving snort. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“You know, as thrilled as I am that you’ve inherited a great deal from our family, the holding-grudges thing, I could do without.”
The subtle parental reprimand deducted years from Cass’s age, and she shot back, “Can you blame me?”
“Yes.” Her mother didn’t even take a breath before nailing her with that agreement.
Cass rocked back. She was still trying to figure out how to respond, when Rhea apparently decided it was time to air out all their nasty laundry.
“You were never one to forgive easily. If someone hurt you, they had to work to get you to listen. Your sisters were the exception, but not me. You girls were so close, so protective of each other, and I adored that.” Rhea brushed a hand over Sofia’s hair.
“Until you all turned it on me.” She faced Cass with no mask in sight, just raw, unfiltered emotion—pain, frustration, and through it all, a terrible kind of love.
“I understand now. Then?” She shook her head.
“I couldn’t see it. Didn’t understand how that bond would turn you and Thena against me just when I needed you both to trust me.
My mistake was doing everything in my power to steer you both off the path Cora warned me about, and by doing so, I all but guaranteed it was the only one left for you both to take.
And Sofia, she would follow her sisters anywhere.
It made me desperate because without Cora, I had no way to know if my decisions were the right ones.
It didn’t matter how many outcomes I tried—I couldn’t get things to change. ”
As her mother shared, Cass returned to the chair, sinking down to perch on the edge, her hands fisted in her lap.
She tried to put herself in Rhea’s shoes.
It wasn’t easy getting free of the emotional quicksand and finding that pitiless point where she could observe without influencing, but she managed.
“And when you realized Thena was a Harbinger?”
Her mother held her gaze without flinching. “I thought together, you two could change the future so all three of my girls would survive.”
So much of this would hurt later, but while they were actually talking, Cass clung to her impartiality with a desperation that wasn’t pretty. “Then why didn’t you listen when I warned you about what would happen to Thena? Why didn’t you ignore the board and go after her?”
“We did.” Rhea’s admission sent fissures through Cass’s heart, but her mother was far from done.
“Your father and I, we sent in a friend—a powerful friend—to get her out, to save her. He failed. We failed.” Guilt seeped through her voice and pores, staining the air.
“I knew better, but I was determined to cut Fate off. I was an Alcmene. We’re Her instruments, and if anyone could thwart Her, it would be us.
” She lifted a hand and softly corrected, “Not us—me. Because these were my daughters, my precious ones, and I’d served the family faithfully.
” Rhea’s arrogance was back, hotter than before.
“I made the hard choices, ensured that the essential pieces were in place so my girls wouldn’t have to walk Her path.
Cultivated the favors I would need, manipulated the alliances that would provide critical resources, all because they deserved a future, even if that future didn’t include me.
” She paused, her temper draining away like water.
“It was risky, but if it meant the three of you would be alive, even if you hated me, it would be worth it. You, Sofia, and Thena, you were my everything. I did what I thought best to protect each of you, and in the end, I lost all of you.”
There was so much there, so many heavy things to address, that Cass had no idea where to start.
But Rhea wasn’t finished. “I was a mess after Cora died. I was so angry, so determined to outrun Fate, that I ignored Mama’s warnings.
Told her I knew what I was doing. She tried so hard to make me listen but…
” Rhea shook her head and looked away. She took a couple of broken breaths as she gazed down at Sofia, her voice softening as if she was talking to herself.
“I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t fight back—why she wouldn’t help me fight Cora’s vision. ”
Cass knew why. “Because fighting it makes it worse.”
“So I learned.”
The resignation in Rhea’s voice widened the cracks in Cass’s heart as she finally saw the full picture.
Why her parents and Yaya had argued so much.
Rhea’s relentless pressure on Cass and Thena to master their magic.
Why Rhea and Elias were so focused on deepening their connections to the Arcane Families.
All of Rhea’s choices spread out in front of Cass like a crystal spiderweb, each inexorable thread leading from one decision to the next, an impossible construct meant to protect the daughters sitting at the heart of it.
Instead, it had become a trap of her own making because Fate had other plans, and She was the queen of grudges.
Cass’s heart broke. “Oh, Mom.”
Rhea met her gaze, a toxic look of remorse and self-recrimination swimming in her eyes, as she brushed her fingers over Sofia’s hair. “And now I have to wonder which decision led to this. What did I set in motion?”