Sol tightened her grip. “I don’t care.”
“We don’t have much time, Sunshine.” Irene pulled away slightly, grabbing Sol’s face and caressing her cheeks. She smiled sadly. “You look so much like your father.”
“Mom, where am I? Am I dead?” Sol wiped at her face with the back of her hands, trying to clear the tears.
Irene wiped them for her with the edge of her dress. “Nearly. You’re somewhere in between.” She dropped the dress and grasped Sol’s hands. “I don’t have much time, Sol. I can’t be here. But when I felt you, I??—”
The air around them spiked in temperature, and Sol’s cold skin protested at the sudden heat. Her lungs, it seemed, disliked the change as well.
Sol coughed. “I don’t understand??—”
“Sol, listen to me.” Irene shook Sol slightly by the shoulders, positioning her so they met eyes. Through painful breaths, Sol looked at her. “I can only assume you being here means they found you,” Irene continued. “You can trust them. Mavka’s Jinn. Thememories they show you will be true, they will not lie to you, they owe you and all Yarrows truth.” Her mother scanned Sol’s face and body. “Where are you? Are you in Yavenharrow?”
Sol shook her head, for a moment struggling to remember where she was.
“I’m in Rimemere,” Sol said finally. Irene’s face relaxed. “With your Court?” Sol nodded.
She saw their faces in her mind. Did they know she was probably about to die at the hands of a Mind Slayer? She was so sick of near-death experiences. Sol didn’t think she’d be as lucky this time.
“Sol, you can trust them. You must remain with your Court, do you understand?” Irene shook her slightly. “Only together will you all be able to defeat this.”
Sol shook her head, an icy-hot numbness beginning to take hold of her. “Defeat what? The Jinn gate? Mom, in your letter??—"
“I’m so sorry, Sunshine. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with your magic, I tried.” Her mother looked behind her, panic suddenly gripping her features. “We are running out of time. I must go.”
Sol gripped her harder. “Please don’t. Mom, I can’t do this. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Slowly, her Mother stood and smiled down as she gently pulled her up.
“No one ever knows what they are doing. You will make a far better Queen than I ever did, Sunshine.” Irene pressed a kiss to Sol’s forehead. “I made mistakes. As a Queen, as a Mother, as a woman. And I’m sorry those mistakes seem to have followed you.”
Her Mother pressed a hand to her chest, then the other to Sol’s. As heat threatened to swallow them, her hand was a cool embrace.
“But you have the right combination of power to end things. None of us before did.”
Sol shook her head. She didn’t understand anything. She just wanted this moment forever. But she could feel the end nearing, anxiety and dread pooling in her stomach as her Mother’s image faltered. Tears swelled in Sol’s eyes.
“Mom—”
“Stay with your Court, Sol. Those three are your strongest allies.”
Sol blinked as panic engulfed her, as the air around them heated “Three?”
“The answers are in Yavenharrow, Sol. Remember that.”
Irene’s image shook and faltered, but Sol still watched her sapphire eyes gleam one last time. “I love you so much, Sunshine. You’re everything I could’ve hoped for.”
Sol sobbed. “I love you, Mom.”
Irene faded and Sol was once again thrust into overwhelming darkness. Except this time, the darkness slammed into her like a stone wall. Not a wall, she realized as her cheek throbbed with pain. But a floor.
Sol winced as her body flattened on what seemed to be a smooth, gray floor. She attempted to sit up but resorted to slowly lifting herself with her hands as her body trembled with protests. She rubbed her forehead and looked around her. And instantly froze.
No.
The house was dim, all candles and lights unlit. Sol could smell the mint and thyme, could see her mother’s studio through the ever-familiar door that was slightly ajar. She was on the floor at the foot of the stairs, stairs she had run down and up, fallen from, and danced through as a child.
Sol braced a hand on the spiral, smooth railing, and stood.
