54. Fifty-Four

Fifty-Four

Andrues chuckled at the gasp I let out as we stepped into the stables. How did I not realize how massive she was? Nithra was coiled in the back corner of the four walls, her bandaged wings tucked closely into her sides. Her eyes slid open at the sound of us and she lifted her head from the hay.

I stopped as her golden eyes watched me. Andrues jogged over to her, checking the bandages before rubbing underneath her jaw. Nithra nuzzled her head into his side as he grinned up at her.

It’s about time you came to see me, child . Her voice echoed between my ears. Are you healed?

I nodded in response, looking up at her wide-eyed. I thought I had imagined it; thought it had just been the adrenaline—the fear—making me hear things. But here she was, talking to me again.

“Andrues . . .” I said slowly, taking a cautious step forward. “Does . . . does she talk to you?”

“Well all animals talk,” he said blissfully unaware of the voice in my head. “You just have to learn to speak their language. Watch their movements and reactions.”

“No, I mean . . . does she talk to you?”

He met my stare with furrowed brows. “What do you mean?”

“Her voice. I can hear it in my head.”

Nithra huffed as Andrues’s eyes snapped to her, then back at me. She uncoiled herself from the ground, stretching to her full size as she shook the hay from her wings.

Gods. She was enormous.

“You . . . it’s you,” Andrues breathed. Shock laced his words as he stepped aside to give Nithra room to extend her wings.

“What’s me?” I hissed at him.

I told you, child. You have God blood running through those veins , Nithra responded.

“I-I don’t understand. What do you mean?” My mind raced.

She was wrong.

She had to be wrong. I was no God.

Andrues eyes darted between our half-verbal conversation.

Ask your matron , Nithra hissed. Then, not giving me a second to respond—to think—she darted for the opening and shot into the skies. I turned to see Andrues gaping at me, staring like I was some creature he had never seen before.

“Take me to Asrai. Now.”

I pushed open the double doors to Asrai’s chambers. The wood clashing loudly against the marble walls.

She really should have locked those .

I stormed through her quarters, searching every room, only to find her sitting on the balcony, sipping a cup of tea as she smiled up at me.

“I was wondering when you’d come to see me,” Asrai said coolly, lifting the teacup to her lips. I stalked over to her, bracing both my palms on the table and leaned towards her.

“Why the hell is my dragon telling me I have God blood running through my veins? And why,” I seethed, “is she telling me to ask you about it.”

She clicked her tongue at me, setting down the cup. “Well, well.” She raised a brow. “I see your journey stomped the meekness out of you.”

I pushed from the table, folding my arms across my chest. “I asked you a question,” I hissed, glowering down at her.

“Sit, and we will talk.” She motioned to the seat across from her. I straightened, lifting my chin. “Sit down, Hyacinth.” It was a command, not a request. I hesitated, sliding my gaze over the chair before reluctantly pulling it away from the table and sitting.

“Who am I, Asrai?”

Her gaze lingered on me as she poured herself a second cup of tea. She poured another glass and pushed it over to me.

“Your mother—”

“You knew my mother?”

Her eyes shot to mine, lifting a hand to quiet me. “If you want this story, you will refrain from interrupting me.”

I nodded and she continued.

“Your mother was my closest friend, and the love of my life. She was my Mate.” Asrai cleared the emotion rising in her throat and leaned back into her chair, casting her gaze over the rolling hills beyond us. “Before the Great War, the Gods would visit our realms. They would walk among us; teach us new ways to cultivate our lands and wield our magic to continue growing and learning as a people. When I was sixteen, they came to visit Redelvtum and brought their daughter, Elianca—your mother—with them. Eli and I became fast friends that first summer they stayed with us. And when it came time for them to go back to Idradora, The Celestial Realm, I knew that I had fallen in love with her. It was another ten years before I saw her again . . . but I thought of her every single day. When she did come back, it was on behalf of her parents, as an adviser to the Deity. She was in training, learning the ways of the realms so that one day, when her parents released their immortality, she would be ready to step into their role. Though we still had to answer to our parents, because of who they were, by the time we reunited, we were hell-bent on finding a way to be together. So we made a plan, and I told my parents I wanted to become a teacher, so I could move through the realms without becoming a traveler.

“Every year, on the first full moon of summer, we would meet at the edge of a different realm—teaching magic in schools, training warriors, and spending every second together. But, summer always turned to winter and the warmth I felt in her presence faded into freezing pain when we returned to our realms.”

Asrai paused, letting out a breath and taking a sip of tea. I could see the tightness in her face as she spoke, reliving the memories that haunted and warmed her soul all at once.

“We did this for a hundred years, both knowing that we would never be allowed to build a life together . . . but neither of us willing to accept it. I will never forget the last summer we spent together before the Great War. We had built a house for ourselves at the edge of each realm. A place where we didn’t have to hide. A place where, for a moment, we could live the life we so desperately wished we could have together.”

A quiet gasp escaped my lips.

The safe houses at the edge of each realm that Asrai had given Wren, were the same houses Asrai had built with my mother. The realization crashed through me, tearing away all the resentment and pent up anger I held for Asrai. A tear slid down my cheek and I forced it away before she could notice.

This whole time, I had been surrounded by the memory of my mother and had no idea.

“There had been growing unease for years at the power the Travelers gained when they mated with other realms. And when the Kings and Queens of Ammord and The Silliands realized that a Traveler, with lineage from every realm, was able to access Greater Magic—without any royal blood—they began to fear them. They decided to use this knowledge to their advantage.

“After the war, the Gods did not come back to the realms. They no longer saw the light in us, or saw that we were worth their knowledge. So they shut us out, and forbade Eli from ever coming back. I did not see her again for four hundred years, but I waited for her. Every summer I would go to our home in the Iron Forest, and pray that she would come. That she would come back for me.

“I built the Academy for her—for us. The years we spent teaching together were the happiest years of my life. And I knew she would not want me to let that go, even if she could not be there to do it with me. Then, thirteen years ago, on the last day of summer, I was sitting on the steps outside that house and saw her—saw you—walking toward me out of the forest with the sun setting against your backs. I thought I was dreaming, but then she touched me, and the pain from the last four hundred years eased.

“She had come to find me eight summers before, but when she entered the realm she was ambushed and assaulted by the Drow soldiers guarding the passage. They had no idea who she was— what she was—and so she fled back to Idradora, scared of the evil the realms held after the war, and scared of the wrath she would face from the Deity for her disobedience. Once Eli found out she was pregnant, she told her parents what had happened and they came to an agreement. If you were born in the likeness of the Gods, you could stay and be raised by her in Idradora, but if you weren’t, you would not be allowed to live. In her shock and pain she agreed to it, and she held her breath the entire pregnancy, praying that you would show no signs of the Drow lineage. Then you were born, and you came into this universe a spitting image of your mother.”

I couldn’t tell if I was still breathing. I couldn’t feel my body.

“The older you became, the more signs started to show. Your ears slowly began to point, so Eli would never let you pull your hair up. Then your silver freckles began to show and she would cover them with brown paint. Two days before your eighth birthday, her mother came into her house. It was for something unimportant, just a casual drop in, and that’s when she saw you. Fresh out of the bath with your hair pulled on top of your head and your freckles glittering like stardust. She knew . . . knew the moment her mother saw you that they would kill you because of the blood that ran through your veins. So she fled, and brought you to me.

“She begged me to take you in, to keep you safe. It was never a question in my mind—I would have done anything for her. So that night I cast an enchantment over the house to shield you both from the Gods she knew were coming. She gave you one last bath, read you one last story, and held you in her arms until you fell asleep. I had never seen her in such pain until that moment. I couldn’t understand the anguish she felt; the agony of losing your child, not knowing if you would ever see them again. I stayed with her that night, and held her as she fell apart in my arms. Early in the morning of your eighth birthday, I said my goodbyes to her. The goodbye I knew would be final for us, then I tethered back to the academy as my heart broke and waited for her to drop you at our gates. I was destroyed by that loss. The loss I felt in knowing I would have to live the rest of my days without hearing that laugh of hers, or feeling the brush of her fingertips across my arm as we slept. The pain I saw in her eyes knowing she would never hold you again . . . I didn’t think my heart would ever be whole again.

“And then, she dropped you in front of the academy gates, wrapped so tightly in a quilt that we had spent a summer making together, with the stone that encapsulated our love wrapped around your neck. And when the gatekeeper brought you to my office and I looked into your eyes—Eli’s eyes—I knew that I would never break my promise to her. I would love you like my own child. I would keep you safe.”

Asrai wiped away the tears that had slipped down her cheeks. I had never seen her cry until now.

“Every day I waited for you to remember who you were. To remember your mother. But you never did. By the time you were ten I had come to the conclusion she had taken your memories so you would be kept safe for as long as possible. So you wouldn’t have to live with the ghost of her, or the secret of what your magic was.

“The day the attack happened on the academy, I finally understood the pain I saw in her eyes the day she had to leave you. I finally understood the anguish of losing a child. I have done my best to keep you safe and I have made mistakes along the way, but one thing I do know, Hyacinth, is that your mother would be so proud of the woman you have become.” She looked at me now, her dark mahogany eyes watching as tears fell over the freckles scattered across my cheeks.

“I-I look like her?”

She reached across the table, squeezing my hand as she said, “Yes, you are your mother’s daughter. You have her heart, her strength, love, passion . . . You have her eyes”

I stared at her, wiping my cheeks as the words settled into me. All these years spent wondering who I was, where I came from . . . I never could have imagined this would be my story, my beginning. She loved me. She didn’t abandon me.

She wanted me.

I pulled the necklace that felt heavy around my neck slowly from underneath my shirt. Holding it in my fingers as I looked back at her.

“What do you mean about this stone?” I asked, pulling it over my head and setting it on the table between us. “When I was held prisoner in The Silliands, the High Priest called it an ‘artifact.’”

Asrai stared down at it as she slowly slid her fingers over the milky gem. She exhaled a small breath before looking back up at me. “It has our magic in it—mine and your mothers,” she said softly, glancing back down at it with a longing glance.

“You can hold it,” I said, pushing it toward her. She smiled up at me, bowing her head in a grateful nod as she placed it in the palm of her hand.

“There are few things still in the realms that have been touched by the hands of the Gods . . . you and this necklace are two of the few things left that hold their power. The magic you used at the academy to kill that Tragus, that was Higher Magic. Only the Gods have that kind of power.”

I nodded, sorting through the stream of questions now crashing into my mind. “That day at the academy, before we left, you told us you didn’t know who the child was. And you also said you asked the House of High and the War Council about me. If you already knew it was me, why didn’t you tell any of us then? Why didn’t you tell the High Priest and Priestesses?”

“When Wren came to me with the information that other realms suspected you were in Redelvtum I went to the House of High to see how much they really knew. When they would not speak to the rumors, I knew they believed you were there. I felt it in my gut. The feeling of your magic is palpable, there is no denying what it is.

“I hoped, because The Stories spoke of a child in its prophecy, that they were working under the notion that you were indeed still a child. I hoped I could get you out safely on your Choice Day, before your power was strong enough that they came looking.”

She held the stone up to the sky, letting the sun reflect through it as the insides swirled like white clouds on a summer’s day.

“And as for not telling your friends, that was not my place. The world you have lived in has ripped almost every decision from your hands. I was not willing to take another choice from you.”

My brows furrowed as a final question slid from my lips. “What am I supposed to do now?”

Asrai pulled her eyes from the stone, placing it back into my hand as she slid my fingers closed around it. “Only you can answer that question.” She took one last glance at the necklace before pulling her hand away from mine and sitting back in her chair. A headache pounded at the base of my neck as I spiraled into my consciousness.

Minute after minute passed until a bell from the cathedral rang in the distance, pulling me out of my silent trance. I looked up at her again as I stood, extending my hand to hers.

“Will you keep this safe for me?” I asked, opening my palm back up to her. “If I am being hunted, it seems safest to keep it separate from me.”

She stared at it for a few moments before looking back up at me. “I will not let it leave my body,” she said, pulling it from my hand.

“Thank you . . . for telling me about my mother.”

Asrai smiled softly up at me as I turned for the door.