“You know I couldn’t abandon you to be executed.”
She sighs. “I know.” Her eyes leave my face to look around me. “Where is your sister?”
My lower lip trembles at the hope in her eyes. A hope I’ll have to crush either with truth or a lie. I think it’s time she knows the truth. She’ll find out tomorrow regardless.
“Amelie isn’t coming.”
Her eyes widen for a moment. “Why? Did she choose freedom...or is it something else?”
I grip the bars of the cell to stop my hands from shaking. “Shortly after we arrived in Autumn, Amelie bargained her name to a fae male in exchange for his love. I don’t know if she refused to attend because he forced her to do so, or if...”
“Or if it was her choice.” Tears glaze Mother’s eyes. “Either way, it doesn’t matter, I suppose.”
“No, I suppose not. The fact remains that she’s not coming, and Mr. Duveau will use that as means to execute us both.”
She puts a hand to her heart, but I reach through the bars to grab the other.
“I’m not going to let that happen.”
Her eyes widen with surprise. “What are you going to do?”
I glance at Aspen from the corner of my eye, wondering if he can hear us from where he stands. “Whatever it takes.”
She lifts her chin. “That’s the fire I wanted to see in you.”
Her look of pride fills me with a greater sense of accomplishment than I’ve ever felt—greater than Mr. Meeks’ praise or any compliment I’ve ever received regarding my intellect. In this moment, my mother sees me for who I am, and I finally understand that she’s seen it all along. I was the one who never saw it. I was the one who refused to acknowledge the truth.
In what may be one of the final hours of our lives, we understand each other. It makes my heart ache, wishing she’d been honest with me and Amelie from the start. Would that have changed anything?
It’s too late to wonder.
“Do you think she’s happy?” Mother asks. “Was the love she bargained for worth it?”
Again, I debate truth or lie. “I’m not sure, Ma. I wouldn’t say the cost was worth the kind of love she got in return, but only she knows for sure. And she won’t speak to me. I don’t think...I don’t think she’s the same Amelie she used to be. I think the bargain and the Bond changed her.”
Mother nods, face drooping with sorrow as her gaze falls to the floor. Then her eyes snap back to mine. “What about you? Were you happy in Faerwyvae? Or did you despise it as much as you thought you would?”
I’m taken aback by her question. This, at least, I can be truly honest about. “I hated it at first, but after a while, I came to find...something very unexpected.”
Her expression brightens, lips pulling into the ghost of a smile. “And the fae you were forced to be with? Did he treat you well?”
I can feel Aspen’s eyes burning into me from across the room, perhaps more so due to his presence through our Bond. Part of me wants to keep my lips pressed tight on this matter just to spite him, but there’s a truth I can’t keep hidden. Mother deserves to know. Maybe Aspen does too. “He was that unexpected thing.”
Tears glaze her eyes, and her voice comes out with a croak. “Did you find happiness with him?”
A lump rises in my throat, and for several moments I’m paralyzed, still wondering if Aspen is paying as close attention as I imagine he is. My words don’t seem to come, so all I give her is a subtle nod.
“Love?”
The word destroys me, crumbling my walls, dousing the anger that I’ve kept burning between me and my mate, the only thing that has prevented me from falling apart over the strain between us. My expression plummets, which seems to be answer enough for Mother. She reaches her arms around me and pulls me close. Even with the bars between us, we find a way to embrace, and I let myself cry. I cry for the words I never got to tell Aspen, words I still might not get to say. I cry for my uncertain future, for my mother’s precarious fate.
Mother’s hands smooth my hair, her soft voice hushing my tears. After a while, I manage to regain my composure, although I can’t bring myself to let go of my mother.
“What’s it like?” she asks in a whisper.
I pull away enough to see her face. “What do you mean?”
Her tone takes on an air of wistful wonder. “Faerwyvae.”
