A breath left Ezer’s lips.
‘I called out to you for years,’ Styerra said. ‘But you didn’t hear me. I thought my job as spirit guide fruitless. Until Stefon gave you the ring.’
Realization dawned on Ezer.
‘It’s you,’ she said. ‘You’re the whisper on the wind.’
‘Not the wind.’ Styerra laughed softly. ‘It doesn’t have a voice, deargirl, but I most certainly do. I protected you. Truly protected you, the way only amothercould.’
And then she flickered again and gasped.
Ezer watched her body begin to fade, like she was truly a ghost.
‘I’ve held on for years. As long as I could. But I grow weary, and my strength …’ Another flicker. ‘Each day, it wanes. The stronger you become, the less you will have need of me, until eventually … this labyrinth will be gone. There will be no voice on the wind. You will have only the birds. Only the magic that lies dormant within you, waiting to be unleashed.’
‘But what is it?’ Ezer asked. ‘Please. You to have to help me understand. I can’t do this on my own. I can’t …’
‘You have never been alone, my love,’ Styerra said, and a tear ran down her cheek, glistening as if made of starlight. ‘When you are ready … you will step into that power. And you will soar.’
‘And what if I never do?’ Ezer asked. ‘What if, my entire life, I am nothing but a stranger to myself?’
‘You know exactly who you are, Ezer. You need only accept it.’ She flickered again. ‘I must go.’
‘Not yet,’ Ezer begged her. ‘I’ll die tomorrow, without your help.’
‘No,’ Styerra said. ‘For I believe you are fated to go north. To see the Acolyte face to face, the way neither I, nor your father ever could.’ She reached out, with a wavering hand, and tried to touch Ezer’s fingertips. But they went right through her. Instead, she placed them on the book that still lay between them. The empty pages. ‘I believe you were always meant to be the one to bring our family to the truth. To see it with your own eyes and decide whether you end him or join him. Whether you side with the Acolyte. Or fight for the Five.’
‘But—’
‘The symbols,’ Styerra said. ‘Keep your mind open to them, and they will show you the way.’ Her body was fading too fast, the cottage walls now visible through her. ‘I never had the chance to say it, not with words. But I will now, as my final parting gift. I love you, Ezer. My daughter. My heart.’
And just like that …
She was gone.
Ezer woke to the sound of rumbling.
It was still the middle of the night, the war raging beyond the wards.
Six was curled up beside her, fast asleep. One of her paws was warm and soft beneath Ezer’s head, a fine pillow she was now certain she couldn’t sleep without. The other was wrapped over Ezer’s stomach …
Like she was one of Six’s beloved treasures, a thing to be held and kept close.
‘It was my mother, all along,’ Ezer whispered. ‘The voice on the wind.’
Ezer had sought answers all her life. And now that she had them … she somehow felt even more lost. Like she’d been floating, and now she was falling.
‘Who am I, Six?’ Ezer whispered into the dark. ‘Whatam I?’
Because despite what Styerra had said –you know exactly who you are– she didn’t. And she feared she didn’t have time to discover it. Not with the journey tomorrow.
‘I’m afraid,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know if you chose me because ofme.Or if you had to, because of my magic. Perhaps you never even had a choice.’
Six winked open an eye.
And then a vision fluttered into Ezer’s mind.
It was the night Six escaped. She leapt through the Eagle’s Nest, hopping from tree to tree.
