My mother roared and tore me from my thoughts. Then, instantly, she stopped heaving on the chains that connected them both to a glass pillar. The irate woman’s eyes softened, even for a split second, and I looked back in time as if I were fresh in the moment.
I was nine again, sitting along the vibrant coral in the ocean’s depths. The warmth of my mother’s arm across my back seeped into my skin, reminding me of tender hugs. Reminding me of a time I didn’t have to fear for my life—or Evelyn’s.
My sister slowly lowered her head onto my shoulder as we looked out across the Silver Stream, the gray long-fin luminastrum that migrated toward the Ruschal Isles.
“I’ll race you to the air,” Evelyn whispered into my ear, careful not to allow our mother to hear.
I gave her no indication, only tore off through the water straight for the surface. I pushed my premature tail and fins hard, the tight muscles screaming in protest. Evelyn was close behind, straining to catch up.
I laughed, only fueling Evelyn’s fight. My sister reached for me, but I cackled and snorted when she completely missed.
When my entire body flew out of water, my fins began to slowly transition into my land form and then instantly switched back when I crashed back into the ocean.
My eyes adjusted back quickly, only to see my scolding mother watching with arms crossed.
“You didn’t even give me a chance this time,” she snapped, but her lips slowly began to tilt upwards in a smile. It was beautiful—the sheer happiness and love my mother carried towards my sister and I.
My mother loved me. But that’s what hurt the worst living through my parents’ addiction. Theychosepower over their children. It was a conscious choice in the beginning that spiraled out of control.
If only I knew how much my life would change the day the Ocean Mother first fueled that addiction.
The chains rammed into the ground.
Break the chains. The words replayed in my mind over and over.
Spit flew from my snarling, thrashing parents’ mouths. And I just stared.
We will find another way, darling. Leave. Your arm. The potion.Noctis’s smooth, deliberate voice filled my head in sudden urgency.
I startled. I didn’t realize I’d let the wall fall in my mind again, opening up the connection with the god. Nor did I realize he could speak to me through the Blood Tie.
Kick rocks, I attempted to send back in his direction, searching for the thread that tethered us. However, no answer was returned.
Blood splashed at my feet, dripping into my boots making the sensation between my toes wildly uncomforting. I lost blood too fast, my head whirring, and I reached out to steady myself against the closest glass pillar.
I gripped the vial potion inside my vest pocket from Neryssa. It hummed in response as if begging to be of use. I exhaled, the breaths ragged from my quivering mouth. Dizziness found me quickly. My fingers wrestled with the cork stopper separating the healing potion from lips.
Under trembling knees, I stepped closer to my mother, taking in her face. It might be the last time I ever saw her again.
Then, I shoved the vial into her cracked mouth, switching to my father next, making sure they devoured every drop—one by one, they fought against the help, but I stood firm in their recovery. I saw the moment the magic began to work. My parents’ cheeks filled in, the scabs along my mother’s arms sealed shut before my eyes, confusion replaced the insatiable hunger and frenzy.
When the chains exploded into millions of pieces, so did my parents.
CHAPTER TWENTY
All I’d ever craved was to see my parents healed—to be loved again by the beings I couldn’t see myself ever hating. I tried to hate them, but the moments between the torture, the flashes of what lay beneath the addiction, would always reel me back into their grasps. Sometimes it felt like my parents’ trauma was always meant to be mine. Like my life was destined to inherit pure heartache. If death would find me, I wanted to meet the reaper at the gates without the chains of their trauma. But as I covered my face to shield from the shards that blasted across the room, I’d lost that opportunity forever.
“Did you really think you’d beat me?”
I recognized the voice, the harshness in the tone, and my spinning head rushed with fury. My scowling gaze lifted over my tattered arm to find Noctis, his councilmen… and the brutish woman from the first trial.
“We have to get you to a healer.” Noctis spoke with clarity I couldn’t grasp in my fuzzy mind, words that ordered and shook with rage—or worry.
He grasped my face between his hands, and I nearly sank into him.
“Where are they?” I barely managed to murmur.
“Who? Your parents?” Finnegan asked. “They were never real. Only a vision we placed into your mind. Some things real, some not.”
