“You have lovely friends, Emma. I’m glad to see you’re getting along so well at the university,” Mom said. But her eyebrows were pinched together, and thin lines had formed around her mouth. Something was on her mind.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s some things we need to talk about,” Mom said slowly. “If your friends don’t mind. I don’t want to drag you away.”
The three of them shook their heads, and I said, “We can talk, Mom.”
Mom took my hand. She led me across the cafe to a small table on a secluded side of the store behind a bookshelf, obscuring us from view.
She lowered her voice. “I’ve thought about it, and I think it’s time you knew about my past. People will talk now that I’m back, you see, and I want you to get the story straight from me.”
“Talk about what?” This was coming out of nowhere.
Mom took a deep breath. “I’ve heard you’ve been talking to Prince Ethan.”
“Yes.” What did this have to do with her past?
“Well you see, long ago, I had a close relationship with his father. King Lycus.”
“What kind of relationship?” I could see where this was heading, and I didn’t like it.
“Emma, I ended up bonding totwoshifters,” Mom explained. “Ethan’s father and… someone else.”
“You bonded to two different people? Like, two mates? Is that even possible?” My mouth dropped open.
“It’s exceptionally rare,” Mom said. “But yes. It can happen.”
My thoughts were going a million miles a minute. Did the same thing that happened to my mom happen to me, too? After all, I had feelings for both the Phantom and Ethan. It was the only thing that made sense.
Then I thought something really gross. Did that mean my dad was actually Ethan’s dad, too? Holy crap, I hoped that wasn’t true. We’d almost kissed, and I’d had some…inappropriate dreamsabout him lately. I didn’t want to be involved in some freaky incest shit.
“Mom, please don’t tell me Ethan’s my half-brother.” I was totally going to puke.
Mom shook her head. “No, Emma. I never slept with the king. You’re not related to the prince at all. But your father… he’s theothershifter I bonded with. His name was Anastazy Ignacy. He’s your biological father.”
I was floored. It was like Mom took a hammer and hit me over the head with it. My thoughts were slow and sluggish. “But… I thought you told me you didn’t know my father. That it was a one-night stand.”
“It was a lie, meant to protect you,” Mom said. “I thought you were better off not knowing.”
An emotion I didn’t understand took root and grew inside my heart. Hope. There were hundreds of possibilities. I could finally meet the father I never knew, and gain a missing piece of myself I thought I never had.
“Does he still live in Dolinska? Does he know who I am? Can you introduce me to him?” My words got jumbled up, they came out so fast. I wanted to leave. I wanted to leave right now and go see him.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Mom said. Her voice was tight. “He’s no longer alive.”
Crushing disappointment flattened me from above. Years of hopes and dreams shattered into a million fragments inside my soul. I didn’t know something like this could still hurt. Or that I had so many hopes about one day meeting the man who’d made me.
I stuffed down the tears that threatened to spill over and forced words out from a strangled throat. “What happened to him?”
Tears beaded Mom’s eyes. I couldn’t imagine the pain she was going through— losing her mate like that. It had to be hell. “He was murdered by the Black Claw.”
I was so shocked I couldn’t even speak. I didn’t want to believe her. It was too horrible.
Mom cleared her throat, though a tear dripped down her cheek. “Long ago, when I was only a few years older than you, I was engaged to King Lycus. Our wedding was set to take place upon our graduation from Arcane University. I loved Lycus. He was my closest friend. We went through the King’s Contest together, and won. I put him on that throne. But I betrayed him, because I was having an affair in secret.”
Mom wiped the tear away. “Anastazy and I weren’t supposed to happen. I was promised to the king, but we shared a bond I couldn’t deny, no matter how hard I tried. I’d bonded with both of them, but I chose Anastazy. We ended up getting pregnant with you, and by then, I knew there was no turning back. I didn’t want to break Lycus’s heart and humiliate him in front of the public, so Anastazy decided we should run away together.”
Mom put her face in her hands and rubbed her eyes. “But the night we were to leave, the Black Claw came for me. They had received a prophecy of a girl who would resurrect the Dark God Droga, a baby I carried in my womb. They wanted to kidnap me, and hold me prisoner until you were born, then sacrifice you in order to bring the prophecy full circle. Anastazy wouldn’t let that happen. He died protecting the both of us.”
