She only had the audacity to look bemused. “Perhaps it wasfate,Bane.”
Fate my ass.
My wings rippled beneath my skin as I turned my back on them.
“This conversation is over,” I said.
“Bane... wait...” Delaney called out, but I did not stop. I could not stop, would not stop, until Violet was safe inmyarms, in the walls of Blackthorn Academy once more.
CHAPTER24
Violet
I wasn’tsure what to expect when I’d boarded Queen Amaranth’s carriage, but I was not expecting to findhersitting on the other side. She looked just as I remembered her, in my vision. Pale skin, with deep, blue eyes, long, illustrious hair the color of bright magenta zinnias.
Though in front of me she was dressed in regalia that screamed royalty; long sleeves of ivory and silver, her crown of silver branches and flowers—pink and purple flowers—sitting atop her head like a halo.
“Twenty years,” she said as she laid eyes on me. “Twenty years I hoped, I prayed that the Gods would bring you back to me,” she said, her voice soft and clear like a bell.
And suddenly there was no anxiety, no panic.
Nothing.
Only tears came to my eyes as I reverted to a child, staring at a woman I both knew and had no idea who she truly was.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice catching in my throat as I sat next to her. The carriage took off without warning, nearly upturning me. I didn’t understand why we had to travel this way, when I’d learned how to travel through mirrors—and I had traveled to the Forest of Lir via mirror before, but perhaps this was standard practice for royal court.
My mother—Queen Amaranth—caught me in her lap as I took my spill, and the moment her fingers touched my skin, I was brought back to all those years ago.
Her arms holding me in the carriage as we traveled to the sea.
Her hand holding mine as we danced under the light of the moon.
Her telling me to run.
“I ran like you told me to,” I said as the tears welling up in my eyes began finding their way out without warning.
She smoothed my hair, her touch loving, and warm, her hands shaking.
“I know,” she sighed, her breath shaky as well.
“I waited for you to come find me,” I said as I shut my eyes, trying to force the tears to stop, but they just kept coming.
“The dark fairies took our home. We were forced to leave. I did everything I could, searched high and low... I even tried to access our shared bond, through our signature...”
But she couldn’t find me.
Because I’d left the realm altogether.
I stepped over that river, and I lost most of my magic.
I became human.
She helped me to sit as she looked at me, trailing her fingers over my cheeks as she brushed away my tears.
“Look at you, my Violet. You are beautiful,” she said as tears streamed down her face.
My magic surfaced naturally, responding to her touch. Like with Bane, it knew she was a part of me. It knew she was home.
