At first I thought it was the Great Queen, until I looked closer and realizedit was my reflection.
“Sammia,” the visage said in a voice the same as mine. “You have made it to the World of Creation and the Great Origin. What I most feared has come to pass.”
Excuse me, what?“Who the hell is Sammia?”
The visage smiled, and it was creepy to see myself like this. It wasn’t really a reflection since there was no reversal of image. This was how everyone else saw me, right down to my long flowing hair, large emerald eyes, and skin that hovered between golden brown and bronze. In the image, I looked strong and sure, filled with the sort of confidence and power I’d never demonstrated in real life.
This version of me had not been abandoned as a child, shuffled between packs, always different and alone. This version of me didn’t know the pain I’d experience, and for that, I was a little resentful.
“You are Sammia,” she replied. “I am Sammia. We are one and the same, only I’m a memory that has been stored for you to learn when needed.”
I was dead, but this conversation was still weirder.
“A memory,” I shot back derisively. “Of what?”
“Of your life before.”
Simple statement, not so simple meaning.
“What question do I ask to get the most straightforward answer?” I finally said, done with the cryptic bullshit.
“I have only the answers that were left in this memory,” the other me said. “And we are running out of time, so let us hurry.”
Fine by me. “Okay, so I was Sammia before my memories were taken by the Great Queen?”
I was smart enough to try and assemble the pieces of the puzzle, but the whole was still missing.
An extended pause. “I hated removing our memories,” she finally whispered.
The sorrow in her tone almost broke me.
Wait! Seriously…
“Youhated removing our memories?” I said slowly, as more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “The queen didn’t spell us?”
She drifted closer until I could make out the deeper green flecks in her… our eyes.
“You are the Great Queen,” she said.
The words made sense, but my brain rejected it immediately. “No,” I snorted, laughter spilling from me. “I mean, come on… the Great Queen is like thousands or more years old. She’s the most powerful fae that ever lived. I’m a damn shifter who’s not quite three decades old.”
You’ve got the wrong person, sister.
Why was myother freakier selfmessing with me like this? Like, come on.
“I know it doesn’t make sense to you yet,” the dumber Sam said, “but you don’t have all the pieces.” It annoyed me that she somehow knew I’d been thinking in puzzle analogies. “There’s a reason that we made the decision to hide on Earth, and everything was going along just fine until our mate showed up.”
Len’s face flashed across my mind. “What did Len have to do with any of this?” I asked.
The ache whenever I thought about him was growing stronger, the longing enough to destroy me if I wasn’t already dead.
“He showed up. He finally found us and ruined everything.”
“Stop it,” I snapped back. Was there anything more ridiculous than arguing with yourself like this? “Len has ruined nothing. He’s been a victim in this entire shit show. Thanks to your stupid spell, we both missed out on time with our daughter, with Tabby.”
The memory version of me faltered. Shorted out for a beat. “We have no daughter,” it said, when it reappeared again. “That does not compute with our memories.”
That had me pausing. “You don’t know about Tabitha?”
