“He was…” Claire struggles for words, staring at her hands. “Charming. Brilliant. Curious about everything. He sought me out because I carried the Scarborne bloodline, even if the magic was dormant.” She looks up, meeting my eyes. “He told me he could help me find my potential. That I just needed the right guidance.”
“But that wasn’t what he wanted,” Rhett says flatly.
“No.” Claire’s voice drops to barely a whisper. “The more we talked, the more questions he asked, the more they centered on you. Your birth. Your early years. Whether you showed any signs.” She swallows hard. “I didn’t understand at first. I thought he was just being thorough. But then…”
“Then you realized,” Theo finishes, his voice careful but knowing. His breath stirs my hair.
Claire nods. “He thought your power was sleeping inside me. That I was the Etherbearer, and you were just… collateral. A normal child born to extraordinary lineage.” Her hands clench in her lap. “But I didn’t know. The magic had been dormant for generations—I had no way of knowing if it was me, or you, or neither of us.” Her voice cracks. “All I knew was that he wanted one of us, and I couldn’t let him have you. So I thought if I left—if I went with him—he’d lose interest in you. Whether you had the power or not, I thought I was keeping you safe.”
My chest tightens. Each word lands heavier than the last.
“You left to protect me,” I repeat, my voice hollow.
“Yes. I gambled everything on the chance that even if the power was yours, he’d follow me long enough for you to hide. To disappear. To have a chance.” She finally meets my eyes. “I was wrong about so many things. But I wasn’t wrong about needing to keep you away from him.”
“You left me with him.” I can barely get the words out past the tightness in my throat. “With Kevin. You knew what he was.”
Claire flinches. “I knew Kevin wasn’t… kind. I knew he drank, that he was rough around the edges.” She won’t meet my eyes. “But I thought that was survivable. I thought cold neglect was better than Ethos’s attention. I thought—” Her voice cracks. “I thought I was choosing the lesser evil.”
“You chose wrong,” I say flatly.
“I know.” The words are barely a whisper. “By the time I realized Ethos wasn’t going to let me go, that he had me trapped—” Her voice breaks completely. “I couldn’t check on you. Couldn’t come back. Couldn’t even send word. And I told myself you were safe because the alternative—” She stops, shaking. “What did he do to you?”
The question hangs in the air.
I don’t answer. Can’t. My throat closes around words I’ve never said out loud.
“He took my innocence before I even knew it was something to take,” I say finally, my voice barely audible.
Gray’s wolf form whines softly, the sound carrying grief. Theo’s arms tighten around me, his chest rising with a sharp breath against my back.
Claire’s face drains of color. Her hand goes to her mouth.
The anger that’s been building in my chest suddenly deflates, leaving only exhaustion behind.
“You think that makes it better?” The words come out flat. Empty. “That you didn’t know?”
“No.” Claire shakes her head, tears spilling over. “But it’s the truth. I took you to that apartment, outside magical territory, helped you vanish. No runes, no records, no Council oversight. A false life meant to hide your true lineage.” Her voice shakes. “I thought if I disappeared, Ethos would follow me and leave you alone. I gambled that mundane cruelty was survivable. That it was better than what Ethos would do if he found you.”
“But it didn’t work,” Stellan says, his tone lethal. “Did it?”
“No.” The word is barely audible. “For generations, the Scarborne line hasn’t produced an Etherbearer. The magic lay dormant—until you.” She looks at me, and I see the weight of centuries in her expression. “The power skipped me entirely. It chose you.”
“So it was never you,” I whisper.
“No,” Claire admits. “He thought it was. By the time he realized the truth, he already had me so far under his control that I couldn’t fight him. Couldn’t get away.” Her voice shakes. “And by then, I couldn’t warn you either.”
Rhett shifts forward, his voice rough. “What did he do to you?”
Claire’s expression goes distant, haunted. “He drained me. Tried to siphon Ether from a source that never existed.” She touches her chest absently, like the phantom pain is still there. “He’d feed for weeks, years, searching for magic that wasn’t there. And when he finally understood what I was—what I wasn’t—it was too late for both of us.”
The description makes my skin crawl. I know exactly what that feels like—the slow, inexorable pull of Ethos feeding, searching, taking. The way it leaves you hollow and desperate and willing to do anything to make it stop.
I lean back against Theo instinctively, needing the solid warmth of him. His arms adjust around me, holding me closer.
“How long?” I ask quietly.
“Years.” Claire’s voice breaks. “Until the void creatures found me. The fox and the snake—they led me through the dark, showed me a mirror I’d never seen before.” She touches her chest absently. “Theyhelped me escape. Led me through, and I came out here. In Auren’s home.”
