CHAPTER 38

"Robin." Julianne Icethorn was before me, her face covered by the billowing of dark hair. "You've found your way home."

I stood before the phantom of my mother, the comfort of cold snow seeping into the skin of my feet. All around us was the blanket of white, never-ending winter. The stark beauty of the sky blended so seamlessly with the ground that it felt as though the view had no beginning and no end.

"Am I dead?" I asked my mother, voice echoing whereas hers didn't.

"No, my dear boy. It is not your time to pass from one realm to the next. There is much for you to do for the realms before your time is upon you."

I thought I'd feel relief, but instead, I felt a stabbing sadness as I looked upon my mother. "Then what punishment do I face? To see you without seeing you." I wanted to reach for her but hesitated. She was so close, all I had to do was push the hair from her face and look at her features.

Somehow I knew my hand would pass through her body like fingers through mist.

"One day, we will be reunited, but your story is far from over. I need you to live. To thrive. You have an important choice before you, and I know in my heart that you are ready to make it."

"So, it worked?" I asked her, blinking as if I could see Gyah and Erix growing smaller the further I fell to the waiting ground.

"It did." Her voice crackled like the thawing of ice. "The power we left behind is yours now. I am proud of you for what you have achieved."

My heart swelled at hearing her say those words, but beneath it all, I still could not shake the deep sadness. "I forgive you. For leaving me. I blamed you for so long, but now I understand."

I didn't know why I said it, but I felt as though she needed to hear the words, just as much as I needed to say them.

The invisible winds that caused her hair to flow wildly, calmed for a moment. I caught the brief glance of obsidian eyes, darker than the night itself. Everyone was right. I was a mirror image of my mother.

"It was not an easy decision to make," Julianne Icethorn said. "I had heard whispers of the plans against the Icethorn Court's lives and felt it safer to keep you far away from me. I planned to come for you and your father, but fate found me quicker. I was coming for you, Robin. You must understand that. In another world, in another time, you would have been by my side for as long as fate allowed. You and your father. But you were my future, and to ensure you had one, I had to walk away."

"I know." A tear slipped free, cascading down my cheek. "Is this all in my head?"

"It is, but it is as real as you are. I have waited for years to see you again. Although my body is gone, perished in the ground, my soul has been waiting, longing for you to come to me. And you have. Now my soul, my power, is yours as it should have been from the beginning." Mother reached out a hand, fingers outstretched for me. "Will you claim the legacy for yourself?"

I hesitated but then reached for her. "I just wish this was different. That it happened… not like this."

"As do I, my darling boy." Her fingers wrapped around mine. The reality of her touch – the impossibility of it, had me gasping for breath. "But know that I will always be with you. Just as you have always been with me."

Another tear spilt, followed by another and another. It was how real her touch felt that brought a deep sadness to mix with the sudden happiness. Touching my mother's hand was like holding snow in my palm, waiting for it to melt away.

"Mother…"

"Yes?" Her fingers tightened, squeezing me as I, too, held onto her as if my life depended on it.

"What next? Where do I go from here?"

The wind calmed, allowing the strands of her hair to fall around her shoulders. For a brief moment, I saw her bright, red lips smiling and deep, black eyes full of pride. Then she spoke, squeezing my hand and spreading a fresh chill throughout the veins, bones and skin of my body.

"You live."