Twenty
Adeline took me to the panteras’ land and the Abcurses all appeared a moment later, a few feet downstream beside the river that ran through their main gathering area. I ran over to them as Abil appeared behind Adeline, and we all turned toward the cave that the mortal glass was held in.
“Why is Jakan here?” I asked, glancing around at the panteras that were gathered, staring at us almost warily, though they didn’t attempt to slow our progress.
“I think we should let him tell you himself,” Abil replied, as he and Adeline suddenly stepped out of the way.
I looked past him to where a soft light was glowing. I could see Jakan’s broad back as he hunched over an inert form on the ground. I picked up speed, breaking into a jog to reach his side, my heart in my throat and dread clawing up my spine.
Please tell me it isn’t …
“Donald,” I choked out, catching sight of her face.
Her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful. Somehow, all of the waxiness was gone from her features. She looked almost the exact same as she had looked when she was alive … except when I pulled down the barrier that hid her thoughts from me, there was nothing. Darkness. An empty space. I had been guarding myself from … silence. I choked out a sob, kneeling by her other side, my accusing stare wandering up over her form to land on Jakan.
“What have you done?” I forced out, thinly veiled rage rushing through me.I trusted you.
“Calm down, Willa,” he replied soothingly, apparently unfazed by the sudden flare of my temper. “She will come back to us in a moment. It’s time.”
“What … have you done?” I repeated, though this time I was more confused than angry.
“The portion of her soul that you brought back from the imprisonment realm …” he trailed off, and touched a stone that had been hanging around my mother’s neck. I hadn’t noticed it before. “I called it back and trapped it within a semanight stone.”
“What does that mean?”
“Staviti creates his servers by torturing their souls. He damages them, slicing up their essence, knitting them back together with his own intention. Their souls are still there, but he is their glue. In a way,hebecomes their new soul. I had to remove his influence from your mother before this war began, in case he decided to utilise the servers here in his fight. She was in danger. I had to do it.”
“You…” I frowned, trying to understand what he was saying. “Removed Staviti’s influence … but that means you also removed theglue keeping her soul together.”
He held up a hand, warding off my freak-out, but then he lowered it again, gripping my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine: blue, clear, and pure.
“Yes, her soul was in pieces after I removed all traces of him. But I bound it back together with the stone: it’s the new glue.”
“It’s more than just her soul.” A voice spoke up, and Aros appeared behind Jakan, frowning, his eyes fixed to the stone. “I feel another influence there—is it yours?”
“No.” Jakan’s lips twitched. “I also extracted memories from the mortal glass. Her history:yourhistory.Ourhistory. She will awake with the memories of what she is and how she came to this place. She will remember everything. And … she will be a god. One of us.”
I stared at him over my mother’s body, this man who had returned a life to her that she hadn’t had for the entirety of the time that I had known her. Hertrueself, torn apart since Jakan had been torn from her. He had gathered her pieces and knit her back together with more care and patience than I thought anyone capable of. I suddenly launched over her body and wrapped my arms around him.
“Thank you,” I sobbed out as his hands wrapped around my back and his surprised sound echoed around the cave.
I was crying heavily as I hugged my father, and the distance between us forged by our lack of history narrowed to nothing. I hadn’t been actively holding on to doubts about him, but I actively let them go in that instant, and all I could think was how drastically my life had changed. I had been born with only Emmy, my chosen family. I had fought to survive: cursed, challenged, and blessed in equal measure until the sun-cycle I died, after which the real fight had begun. Now, there I was with the family I had possessed all along, returned to me like a blanket whose pieces had washed up onto the same shore by chance; whose pieces had been returned to me sewn into one whole fabric again.
“Willa?” a familiar voice croaked out behind me. “Jakan?”
I fell away from Jakan, crouching beside him and staring down at my mother’s face. Her expression was full of emotion—one after the other, they raced across her features. She was remembering, just like Jakan said she would. She reached out a shaking hand and I quickly grabbed it, hope and apprehension both filling me. I had given up on my mother a long time ago. She had never been interested in me and she had never spent any time caring for me the way a mother should. We had developed a very casual, distant relationship … until Staviti killed her. Something about losing her had made me crave the mother that had never actually been present in my life, and now I could almost read the history that flooded her with every passing click. She laughed, sobbed, and gasped, reaching out for Jakan with her other hand. When it all slowed down and she was able to focus on us, she seemed at a loss for words, but her touch was warm and solid, and love shone out from her eyes.
It was enough for me.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I glanced up, seeing Adeline.
“We have no more time,” she cautioned me, though I could tell that she didn’t want to break up our moment.
I nodded, but I didn’t actually make any move to stand, and I didn’t let go of my mother’s hand.
“How do you want to do this?” I asked Adeline. “Where is the mortal glass that you created?”
“It’s in Staviti’s home,” she replied. “He doesn’t get many visitors.”
