“You have avoided the conversation long enough, don’t you think?”
Cassiel crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. “That is not your concern.”
“We have all shared our reason to go to Mount Ida except you.”
“I’m going to sleep now.”
“I’ll keep pestering you all night,” she vowed.
Cassiel groaned and sat straight. “I will share my reason if you tell me what happened the night the Shadow came.”
“Done.”
He thought there would be more resistance to revealing that. He frowned as he observed Dyna’s open expression. She probably had nothing to hide.
He sighed. “I’m searching for someone.”
“Who?”
“That is all I will say.”
“You’re coming with us to Mount Ida because you’re searching for someone? But I thought the island was impossible to find.”
An icy wave sunk in his chest.
“Cassiel?”
He wrestled to contain a spiteful retort. Why was it difficult to tell her the truth? It wasn’t a real secret. He simply found it wearisome to speak of.
Dyna sighed and took out a book from her satchel. She opened it to a page in the middle and read by the low light. No matter how rude he was to her, she never changed. It was chiseling at his defenses. He wanted to trust the kindness she offered. Never had he received it from others before, and he didn’t want to lose it now.
“I’m searching for my mother,” he admitted in a whisper.
His confession weighed in the silence.
He had been only a child, but that night was clear in his memories. The moonlight illuminated the determination on his mother’s face when she had said goodbye. Her long black hair brushed his face when she bent down to kiss his cheek and place her ring in his tiny hand with a promise to return before slipping out of the kingdom’s gates.
“She was … human.” It cost him to say those words.
There was no judgment in the bond, no disgust or surprise. Dyna already knew what he was. Regardless, he couldn’t bring himself to see what her expression would tell him.
“Because of it, the Celestial society censured and despised her, no matter that she was my father’s consort. The queen would often confine us to our room when he was away tending to the Realms.” He traced his fingers over the foggy window, drawing shapes. “My mother would turn those days into a game. She said we must hide in the castle to see how long it would take for anyone to find us or how sneakily we could reach the kitchens for something to eat. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized she did this to protect me from the queen’s scorn and to make sure I was fed.”
Dyna didn’t move or speak. He continued drawing.
“When possible, we would go to my father’s study. No one would venture there. We were free to simply be, and read from his private library most of the day about the adventures of other worlds. Then my mother found tales about Mount Ida and the pirate who hid magical relics there—one had the power to grant humans the gift of flight and long life.”
The stars in the night sky took the shape of his memories, painting those days. His mother’s voice drifted through his memories as she read the story to him. As a child, he’d thought it was a wondrous place full of dreams and happiness.
He moved his finger over the pane, the image slowly taking form. “An idea grew in her mind that if she had wings of her own, the Realms would accept her, that long life would grant her more time with my father. It became an obsession. The more the queen ground my mother under her heel, the more my mother sought a new reality. She spent all her time studying every book she could find about Mount Ida until she discovered its location. She left to search for it—and never returned.”
Cassiel dropped his hand. The drawing of his mother’s face on the glass faded as it fogged once more.
“I read every one of those books a thousand times over. Whatever led her to that cursed island didn’t reveal itself to me. I could only wait for her return. After so many years, I gave up hope. Then you appeared with your map.” He met Dyna’s sad gaze. “At first, I was angry that another human was committing my mother’s same mistake, but then I realized you were the means to find her. That is why I followed you, Dyna. I need to know if—”
However many times he denied it, had avoided letting himself think of it, he knew there was little chance she lived.
Cassiel glanced at the flute peeking out from the top of his pack. “Her music was the most beautiful sound to ever be heard. A melody so enchanting, any thereafter could never compare. But she is gone, and she left nothing behind.”
