My mother stepped toward me and opened her arms. I met her eagerly, and for the first time in my life, I felt the true embrace of a mother.Mymother.
It was everything I could have wanted. An entire lifetime of love and affection in one moment. A silvery tear dropped from her eye and landed in my hair, and I could feel the magic in it sending a tingling sensation down my spine. My whole body radiated with the bond between us. Mother and daughter. Fae Queen to Fae Queen. A bond that could never be broken.
We hadn’t broken, despite centuries apart. She had lived lifetimes ago, and I was just beginning mine. And yet, we’d recognized one another here as if no time had passed. Here, in her arms, I felt like I was where I’d always belonged.
I stood with my heart feeling broken and whole all at once. A heart I hadn’t realized had been shattered slowly over the last twenty-some years of my human existence. Where each day, a cruel hammer hadtap-tap-tappedat the icy exterior.
But in this moment, I felt whole and warm. My heart no longer frozen shards. I felt untouchable and confident and loved.
A second silvery tear hit my hair, sent a spark down my spine, and then the tears flowed freely from both of us. And it was through those tears that I felt pulled from the warmth and comfort of The Glade, my spirit deposited back into the cold and unfeeling underworld. Fear and despair clawed at me. I already wanted to go back.
I saw him the moment I returned to the underworld. The hooded man had returned to my cell, and he stood inside this time, looking around for me. As I materialized, his eyes widened.
Without waiting for him to gather his bearings, I stepped forward and yanked the hood from his head. The second I laid eyes on him, the memories came crashing back. I sucked in a breath that rattled my whole ghostly form as my brain latched on to his name, and I realized, I did know him. I knew him and all of his curious stares, his glimmering eyes hidden in the shadows of his cloak. His voice had been disguised as a spirit, his person had been disguised as a scientist. The ultimate traitor.
“Dr. Lewis?” I gaped.
“Impossible.” Dr. Lewis spun in a circle as if inspecting my cell for leaks. “Where have you been?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I said, and then I glanced through the still-open portal where my mother’s eyes shone through on the other side.
“Now,” she instructed.
I reached out, grabbed the scientist by the cloak and pushed him through the rapidly shrinking portal. I heard her voice one last time before the portal closed.
“I will always love you, Alessia. You are mine.”
Then the portal snapped shut, swallowing the Harbinger whole. The next second, I felt myself evaporating—melting into nonexistence. When I woke, I was a pile of bones and skin.Mybones and skin. I was back in the realm of the living; my soul had been returned to my body. Feeling at peace, I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.
twelve
“Alessia.Alessia.”
The voice finally registered, and as it drew me out of a deep and dreamless slumber, I had the impression the person speaking my name had probably said it more than once. Many, many times, judging by the urgency of it.
I took a few deep breaths to steady myself before opening my eyes to center myself, to start to process all that had happened since I’d gone into the underworld. I needed to ground myself and, frankly, figure out exactly where I was and what had happened in my absence.
As I came to, I felt the beat of my racing heart. Never had I been so relieved to feel the thump of that heartbeat, pulsing warm blood through my veins. The thrum of it in my ears. I wasback.
It took a few beats longer for me to feel the rest of it: that collective surge of emotions in my chest that, as I sucked in a sharp breath at the sensation of it, I realized was the collective emotions of my court. A heartbeat that belonged to The Isle. I felt connected back into the court as if someone had plugged meinto an outlet, and after being in the dark for far too long, the light had mercifully been flicked back on.
I was willing to bet I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Indeed, there was a collective gasp around the room when it happened, and that was when I opened my eyes.
I recognized the room, though it took a moment to piece everything together. I was in the castle, in the bedroom where I’d spent the night with Silas before going to the underworld, in the room where I’d prepared for my coronation with Lily.
There were beeps and movement around me; the room had been transformed from a cozy bedroom into a makeshift medical space. Faces flooded around me, some I didn’t recognize: Rangers, medics, healers. Then the familiar ones: Lily at my side, Liza at the foot of my bed, Millie’s freckles near the door. And as always, watching silently, was Silas.
“Welcome back,” Lily said with a smile. “We’ve missed you.”
But I only had eyes for Silas. His face was drawn and pale, and he appeared speechless at the fact that I was awake. His eyes were fixed on me as if he couldn’t believe I was real. His hand was on his chest, but he wasn’t the only one in that pose. Millie and Liza and Lily, and even several of the Rangers, held their chest like we’d shared a collective moment of defibrillation. The moment I’d reconnected with my court had been a ripple felt across the island.
“Was it all real?” I asked softly, not sure if it was a question or a statement. “Everything?”
I tried to sit up, but I felt weak, disoriented. My spirit wasn’t quite used to being in a body again. I gathered quickly that it would take a few moments for me to feel truly human again, a statement that I’d never understood before until now.
When I looked out the window, it was dark. I did a double-take at the window. “It’s nighttime already? How long have I been gone?”
“Night?” Concern flashed through Lily’s eyes. “Yes, it’s night.”
