What is wonderful?
My eyes were guided down to the child I held in my arms, swaddled in a sapphire blue blanket. The newborn stared up at its mother—me—with equally blue eyes.
Vexxion?I croaked. He was beautiful with his plump, pink cheeks. He cooed at her—me—and everything inside me melted.
Why was I being shown this memory from . . .?
You’re Vexxion’s mother, Ellyn,I said.Ivenrail stole your finger bone. You took me to the cave and—
I love my son deeply. I can see you feel the same and that makes me incredibly happy. Thank you for loving him, for believing in him when he couldn’t believe in himself.
He’s everything to me.Loving him was lightning striking thesame spot repeatedly, blistering and electrifying and joyous. I wasn’t sure I could stand the overwhelming feeling.
Yes. Yes, he is, she said.I rejoice in this.
How did you see inside the cave? You were already dead.For years. It wasn’t possible.
He stole everything from me. My heart. My court. My future. But he did not steal this.She tightened her arms around the infant. Leaning forward, she kissed his forehead. Not yet. Never if the fates agree to my bargain.
What bargain?
Safety in exchange for a life.
She’d sacrificed everything she had for her son. She’d remained stoic and strong while Ivenrail killed her. He’d done everything he could to torture the information from her, but she’d held strong because she knew doing so would protect her son.
Not quite,she said softly.Yes, I sacrificed myself to keep my son alive. But I also held strong and did not give him the information he was seeking for one other, wonderful reason.
The memory I’d seen in the dungeon washed through me.
Hanging from the wall, Vexxion lifted his head. The scars he carried today were branded into his chest, a network of scarlet puckers coiling up and around his neck. Marking him forever as the king’s new toy.
“Do you know where she is?” Ivenrail asked Vexxion.
She, she, she.
“Your mother refused to tell me,” the king snarled.
“I don’t know what you mean.”Hearing Vexxion’s tortured,little boy voice gutted me all over again. He was small. Defenseless. And already incredibly strong.
Ivenrail sighed. “You might not know. It would be just like her not to tell you.”
But I did,Ellyn said, tugging me back to the current vision and away from the dungeon.My son deserved to know even if I made sure he didn’t remember.
Ivenrail’s speaking of me, correct?I asked.He was looking for me because he knew Vexxion and I could control enormous power once we were finally together.
The fates accepted my bargain,she said.Watch.
The door to this room swept open and Aunt Vera hurried inside, her face creased with age and concern. She carefully shut the door and crossed the room, stopping beside the bed, staring down at Vexxion’s mother and him. “You’re sure? I’m willing to cast the spell, but it will leave a gap in his mind.”
“Can you hide him?”
“You know I can’t.”
This didn’t make sense.
Ellyn’s soft, tortured sigh rang out. “Thank you anyway.”
Vera rubbed Ellyn’s shoulder. “I would if I could. Please know this.”
