“You were beaten?”
“Yes.”
Phantom pain laced across his face and Matthias shook the memories from his mind, not wanting to remember the way his father raised his hand to strike him over the years.
“I am so sorry. I didn’t know,” Hadassah whispered with tears in her eyes.
Matthias shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a part of life.”
“No, no, it isn’t . . . it shouldn’t be, and I wish it had been different for you. I wished for nothing more than to keep you from him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Pain filled the air and Matthias held his breath in anticipation of what his mother might say.
“Because he ripped you from my arms when you were only a few hours old and . . . and then I died,” Hadassah revealed as she took a sip of her tea.
Matthias studied his mother’s face. It seemed as if she had been transported back in time to that tragic day. Her pale-blue wings hung low, and grey-blue eyes seemed to dull with exhaustion. He slowly reached across the table and gently squeezed her hand, breaking her from the trance. “Tell me everything.”
Hadassah let a tear spill over and fall down her cheek. “Are you sure you want to know it all?”
“Every single detail.”
“Please know that this was not how I imagined my life or yours. I came from a wealthy family. My father ran the local newspaper in The Grey and my mother was a socialite. All the women would beg to attend her tea parties and evening balls. She was a vision—your grandmother. I was the eldest of three children. I have a younger brother and sister—your aunty and uncle, who will be so excited to hear that I have found you.” Hadassah sniffed as she wiped a tear away.
“I was a good girl, I did my schooling, learnt how to be a lady, and helped take care of my younger siblings. I wanted to be everything my mother was. Father adored her and together they were the best parents a girl could wish for. My childhood was a dream, but as I grew older, I wanted more . . . I wanted adventure outside of the walls of my home. My father encouraged it, my mother not so much, but she didn’t hold me back. I made friends with some girls in the village and as we grew together into young adults, we spent some evenings at the local dance halls, laughing and making memories.”
Hadassah dabbed at her eyes with a small cloth as she continued. “One evening, my friends and I arrived together on foot to a dance. There was a man so handsome that he stole the breath right out of my lungs with eyes the colour of blue summer skies. He swept me off my feet the entire evening. When the night ended, he asked if he could walk me home and foolishly, I said yes. We’d made it halfway when he became handsy and wasn’t taking my light, rejecting commentary as a no and became even more demanding. I tried to run, but he was too strong. Everything became a blur when he shoved me down in an alleyway and—and after he finished, he simply laughed and told me that . . . That I should begrateful. I was only nineteen.”
Hadassah’s eyes misted over again, and Matthias felt his chest tighten with pain and anger. He hated his father for how he treated him, but at this moment, he hated him even more than he ever thought he could.
His mother continued on. “I was so scared and so embarrassed that I ran the entire way home and kept it from my mother as longas I could. But she suspected something when my monthlys didn’t show and I had to be honest with her. She held me and cried with me. When my father found out, he searched high and low for the man, but never found him. Seeing a woman’s swollen belly without a father in the picture was frowned upon, so I spent the rest of my pregnancy at home. As you grew and started to move, I fell in love with you. I knew that regardless of how you came about, you were going to be loved by so many.”
Matthias looked to the ground, not wanting her to see the tears welled in his eyes at the thought.
“You were born in the darkest hour of the night. Mother stayed by my side through it all, but you were stubborn and took hours to arrive. I’d lost a lot of blood and grew weak, but I did it. You finally arrived and I couldn’t have been happier. You were perfect in every way, ten little fingers and ten little toes, soft brown fuzz on your head and the bluest eyes I had ever seen. The birthmark behind your ear glowed and formed the most beautiful shape of a sun as you took your first breaths, but what shocked me and my parents the most were your wings. They were bright-blue and soft to the touch. No one in The Grey had wings and I don’t remember the male having them either. As my mind scrambled to explain the phenomenon, I put it down to the possibility that your father was not of my realm.”
Matthias’s eyes widened.
“You were unlike anything we’d ever seen, born of spirit and human.” Hadassah whispered.
“How . . .?” Matthias said in bewilderment.
Hadassah shook her head. “There was never an explanation until I arrived in Lucius, but before then, the doctor sent my parents from the room and tried to stop the bleeding. When all seemed well, I was finally alone with you, but I was so tired. I must have drifted off at some point because I didn’t hear my bedroom window opening. I only woke when I felt you being ripped from my arms. Yellow eyes gleamed over me and I screamed for help, but the man leapt from the window. I tried to run for you, but I barely made it to the edge of the window. You were gone . . .”
Nausea crept its way into Matthias’s stomach. Yellow eyes . . .
His mother continued on. “By the time my parents found me, the bleeding was bad again. I cried out for you. I tried to beg them to find you, but I’d lost so much blood. My mother could do nothing but hold me.” her voice trembled as she took a sip of her tea.
“When I woke at the Gates of Lucius, the king had already heard rumours of the blue-winged baby. He came to speak with me. That’s when I learned exactly who your father was.”
Matthias sat at the table, his mind reeling. In all honesty, he wanted to leap from the table, winnow into Oscuro and tear his father limb from limb. How could this creature call himself a man? How dare he keep this loving woman before him a secret? The prince had spent his whole life thinking she didn’t want him as a baby, and now he questioned everything.
“So, you wanted me?” he whispered.
Hadassah rose from her chair and swiftly moved to the prince’s side. “More than life itself,” she sobbed as she pulled him into her embrace.
It was all Matthias needed for the emotion he’d held back his entire life to spring forth. The truth broke him open, and he sobbed into his mother’s chest, his solid arms wrapping around her waist. Hadassah cried alongside him and together they allowed a small piece of the pain in their hearts to heal.
