49. Aurelia

Chapter 49

Aurelia

" A re you alright?" I ask Eugene.

He blinks at me through his goggles, still vibrating with adrenaline and terror. I stroke the front of his neck, cradling him in my arms and sending my healing power through his throat. He's rubbed it raw with his constant crowing to save us tonight. I understand why Savage brought him, but still, it's unfair on the poor creature to be expected to hold back a force like that . I feel sick to my stomach for multiple reasons I don't want to think about just now.

That thing that just chased us. That just tried to kill us. The fact that Lyle, Savage, and Scythe were not running away from it to save themselves, but to save me . I think I've known, always known?—

It doesn't matter. It doesn't fucking matter because all of it means that we are now in an unknown part of the underground system that is holding my mum.

Tears prick the back of my eyes. I knew it would be hard. But this hard? I could never have imagined what waited for us down here.

Mum, where the hell is he keeping you?

I close my eyes, letting Eugene's slowing heart ground me. It calms my breathing, centres my nerves and my poor bleeding heart. Even the incessant burning in my neck fades away as I simply listen.

This had been my home. My once place of peace. I only have a few memories of her. But I know we'd laughed together on this property, baked together, eaten together. She'd braided my hair. Taught me how to ride my tricycle.

Something old and tired stirs in my heart. My mother's face, her quiet energy, her Boneweaver power and the way it stirred around her. Kept close to her skin, like the secret it was, but always there. It's not something anyone can just take away from us.

Something flares in me, like fire but alive . When I open my eyes, a glimmering thread appears in the dusty air—faint, but there. Real and living. It stretches out into the shadows of the hallway beyond.

Phoenixes don't just see bonds between mates. And what is more sacred a bond than that of a child to her mother?

"Mum," I breathe in awe.

I surge forward, following that golden thread like the lifeline it is.

My mates call for me, but I'm stuck on this path now. The one that will lead me to her.