Nobody’s listening to us now. The clan leaders have returned to their seats, although they shoot me glances every now and then. Even Baelen is deliberately giving Senturi and me space. I get right to the point. “What did you stop your granddaughter from saying?”
“There’s more to Elyria’s story. But I’m afraid it would only cloud your rule for it to be public knowledge. Also, it’s for Elyria to tell you, not me.”
When I read the Queen’s journal, I read about Elyria’s mother, Bethesda. She had written about a truth that she didn’t want Elyria to find out. Whatever it was, I’m guessing Elyria discovered it.
“If Elyria gave me her soul, where does that leave her? I’m really worried about her, Senturi.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t see her present state, only the parts of her past that have become part of you. But I saw in your memories the moment when you severed your connection with Baelen. You also severed your connection with Elyria. Until that time, she was not separated from her essence. But now, she has no anchor. She will also experience a metamorphosis.”
“For good or bad? What will she become?”
He shrugs. “I’m sorry. As I said, I can only see the past. I can’t see her now.”
I worry at my lip. “How can I help her?”
“You already helped her when you allowed Jasper to take her away. He’s the only one who can help her now.”
“Well, if you can’t see her present, how do you know that for sure?”
He smiles, assessing me. Again, his face loses its years, becomes younger, so familiar. I gasp. I’ve seen the expression in Senturi’s eyes a hundred times on the face of one of my truest, dearest friends.
Jasper.
Jasper was the only one, other than me, who could see the Storm. She used to be invisible to everyone else—she said it was because she chose to be invisible. She was very upset when she found out that Jasper could see her despite her wishes. When we were trying to figure out how Jasper could see her, we guessed that his grandmother had fallen in love with a gargoyle, that Jasper’s father was half gargoyle.
If Senturi is Jasper’s grandfather that would explain a lot: like how Jasper is so perceptive, how he guessed all that time ago that I’d become the storm because I was trying to help someone, how he seems to know my thoughts before I do, and how he could see Elyria for what she truly is.
“And now you know another secret,” Senturi whispers. “I have long wished to have a place in my grandson’s life, but having me in his life would haveruinedhis life. Neither elves nor gargoyles look kindly on the mixing of our races.”
“You can meet him now. He needs to know his family.”
Senturi shakes his head. “I want to meet him more than anything. But Elyria needs him more than me. I can’t tell you what she is becoming but I have to leave them alone.”
He draws closer, his voice lower still. “Once she isrecovered, you must ask her why the Elven King killed her family. The answer is very important to your future.”
“I suppose you’re not going to tell me.” My hand shoots up. “Never mind. I already know the answer to that. But how can you possibly see all of this when I don’t even know it myself?”
“Because I see the true nature of all things.”
I growl. He said that already. It’s hardly an answer. Elves don’t have Sight, but some rare elves are Visionaries—they have the ability to see past our world, as far as the surface of the Earth, and to predict multiple future possibilities. But they can’t see the inner workings of another person’s mind like Senturi can. I’m about to demand a better answer from him when the door bursts open behind me.
Roar stands inside it, his wings spread. “Lady Storm! Come quickly!”
“What is it, Roar?”
His enormous chest rises and falls rapidly. His wings shudder around his body. “It’s our wives.”
