But something in me feels locked in. Committed. Like a door just closed behind me and I’m not sorry to hear it shut.
I’m done running.
Not for the mission. Not for duty. Not because I’m trapped.
For them.
I pull back just enough to look at Finnian’s face. His amber eyes are hollow. Haunted. But when they meet mine, something flickers there.
Hope.
I grab his hand. Look at Kestra and Tiana.
“Let’s go get my mother.”
Kestra nods once. Turns back into the darkness.
This time as I follow my gut twists. It’s all so easy to get out of here. Almost too easy. Maybe that’s what causes my heart to gallop in my chest. My mouth to run dry.
And as we turn a familiar bend with a hole in the wall Kestra pauses, turning to me. I look back, seeing Tiana holding up Finnian and my chest crushes.
“We aren’t getting my mom, are we?”
She doesn’t have to answer for me to know what she will say. It’s written on every single line of her face.
“No.” And there is so much emotion in that answer that I have to rapidly blink and look away. “A true queen knows when to play her hand.” She steps close to me, her voice lowered. I can’t look at her and choose to look through the hole in the wall.
My mom sleeps on a bed in a row of them. Amongst other human women.
“My mom bound a god once.” I choke on the words, looking back to see Finnian’s eyes on me. Watching and listening. We don’t have time for this. I know that but not saying goodbye in some way feels wrong.
Kestra grips my hand, holding tight.
“My mom and her sisters absorbed his powers. She didn’t get much out of it. But she can sing. Her voice,” my own cracks.
“If we take her now? My father will know.”
“He set up a trap for me, didn’t he?”
“She will die the moment she tries to leave.”
I gulp down air, remembering how to let my emotions roll thought me.
“I swear to you, Ashlynne Moonshadow of the Wild Court.” Kestra holds both her hands in mine. “Upon my return to the Unseelie Court as queen, I will free your mother.”
I gasp as the binding burns through my wrist. Not blood red like Kieran’s, but purple and blue like a bruise. But a life debt all the same.
I look at my mother through the wall, one last time. Sleeping peacefully.
How many nights did she watch me sleep? Breathe. And now I need to leave her here so she can live another day.
“Let’s go,” I say and turn away.
Leaving my mother to the whims of the Unseelie Court.
17
Ash
