Rhea swayed before slowly sinking to sit on the edge of the bed, her face slipping into a shade past pale. Her shoulders hunched as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dammit, Mama, you just couldn’t leave it alone.”
The words were not quiet enough to escape Cass’s ears. “Leave what alone?”
Rhea dropped her hand, opened her eyes, and pinned them on Cass, frustration and fear swirling in their depths. “What purpose does it serve to show you that?”
Even though there was a chance the question wasn’t intended for her, that glimpse of fear pricked Cass’s curiosity. “Maybe she wanted me to know.”
Red suffused Rhea’s face, and she looked away. She tugged at the blanket then smoothed it out, agitated. “Know what exactly?”
The knee-jerk reaction to snap back rode Cass hard, and she opened her mouth to retread old roads, only to close it. She studied her mother, taking in the shoulders braced for a blow, the set jaw, and the fidgeting hands, all of it screaming guilt and grief. Two things she never associated with Rhea. Raging and railing at her mother might make her feel better, but in the end, what would it change?
The answer was simple: Nothing.
Sofia was in danger. Her yaya was gone. Thena was still dead. And Cass? She was still an outsider in her own family. Hell, her mother could barely stand to be in the same room with her. At least now, thanks to Yaya, she knew the reason why—a shitty one to be sure, but it had to count for something, right?
Rhea lifted her head and asked again, “What did she want you to know?”
“That you’re human.”
Rhea blinked, her face softening as her lips curved into a sad, bitter twist. “Oh, sweetheart, I’ve never been anything but.” The unexpected endearment stunned Cass, but Rhea wasn’t done rocking her daughter’s world. “I know you don’t believe me, but I never blamed you.”
There was no way to stop Cass’s disbelieving snort. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“You know, as thrilled as I am that you’ve inherited a great deal from our family, the holding-grudges thing, I could do without.”
The subtle parental reprimand deducted years from Cass’s age, and she shot back, “Can you blame me?”
“Yes.” Her mother didn’t even take a breath before nailing her with that agreement.
Cass rocked back. She was still trying to figure out how to respond, when Rhea apparently decided it was time to air out all their nasty laundry.
“You were never one to forgive easily. If someone hurt you, they had to work to get you to listen. Your sisters were the exception, but not me. You girls were so close, so protective of each other, and I adored that.” Rhea brushed a hand over Sofia’s hair. “Until you all turned it on me.” She faced Cass with no mask in sight, just raw, unfiltered emotion—pain, frustration, and through it all, a terrible kind of love. “I understand now. Then?” She shook her head. “I couldn’t see it. Didn’t understand how that bond would turn you and Thena against me just when I needed you both to trust me. My mistake was doing everything in my power to steer you both off the path Cora warned me about, and by doing so, I all but guaranteed it was the only one left for you both to take. And Sofia, she would follow her sisters anywhere. It made me desperate because without Cora, I had no way to know if my decisions were the right ones. It didn’t matter how many outcomes I tried—I couldn’t get things to change.”
As her mother shared, Cass returned to the chair, sinking down to perch on the edge, her hands fisted in her lap. She tried to put herself in Rhea’s shoes. It wasn’t easy getting free of the emotional quicksand and finding that pitiless point where she could observe without influencing, but she managed.
“And when you realized Thena was a Harbinger?”
Her mother held her gaze without flinching. “I thought together, you two could change the future so all three of my girls would survive.”
So much of this would hurt later, but while they were actually talking, Cass clung to her impartiality with a desperation that wasn’t pretty. “Then why didn’t you listen when I warned you about what would happen to Thena? Why didn’t you ignore the board and go after her?”
“We did.” Rhea’s admission sent fissures through Cass’s heart, but her mother was far from done. “Your father and I, we sent in a friend—a powerful friend—to get her out, to save her. He failed. We failed.” Guilt seeped through her voice and pores, staining the air. “I knew better, but I was determined to cut Fate off. I was an Alcmene. We’re Her instruments, and if anyone could thwart Her, it would be us.” She lifted a hand and softly corrected, “Not us—me. Because these were my daughters, my precious ones, and I’d served the family faithfully.” Rhea’s arrogance was back, hotter than before. “I made the hard choices, ensured that the essential pieces were in place so my girls wouldn’t have to walk Her path. Cultivated the favors I would need, manipulated the alliances that would provide critical resources, all because they deserved a future, even if that future didn’t include me.” She paused, her temper draining away like water. “It was risky, but if it meant the three of you would be alive, even if you hated me, it would be worth it. You, Sofia, and Thena, you were my everything. I did what I thought best to protect each of you, and in the end, I lost all of you.”
There was so much there, so many heavy things to address, that Cass had no idea where to start.
But Rhea wasn’t finished. “I was a mess after Cora died. I was so angry, so determined to outrun Fate, that I ignored Mama’s warnings. Told her I knew what I was doing. She tried so hard to make me listen but…” Rhea shook her head and looked away. She took a couple of broken breaths as she gazed down at Sofia, her voice softening as if she was talking to herself. “I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t fight back—why she wouldn’t help me fight Cora’s vision.”
Cass knew why. “Because fighting it makes it worse.”
“So I learned.”
The resignation in Rhea’s voice widened the cracks in Cass’s heart as she finally saw the full picture. Why her parents and Yaya had argued so much. Rhea’s relentless pressure on Cass and Thena to master their magic. Why Rhea and Elias were so focused on deepening their connections to the Arcane Families. All of Rhea’s choices spread out in front of Cass like a crystal spiderweb, each inexorable thread leading from one decision to the next, an impossible construct meant to protect the daughters sitting at the heart of it. Instead, it had become a trap of her own making because Fate had other plans, and She was the queen of grudges.
Cass’s heart broke. “Oh, Mom.”
Rhea met her gaze, a toxic look of remorse and self-recrimination swimming in her eyes, as she brushed her fingers over Sofia’s hair. “And now I have to wonder which decision led to this. What did I set in motion?”
Chapter 16
