She nodded, as if she wasn’t surprised. “Then twenty-seven days back, everything changed. The Veil disappeared entirely. Darkness poured in, blocking out the sun like someone snuffed out a candle. Hordes of hufen have been descending on the kingdom, killing and destroying everything in their path. Narvene thinks?—”
“Narvene?” I couldn’t help myself from interrupting. The name being so casually spoken made me catch my breath.
“Garrett Narvene. Is he still there with you?”
I shook my head. “His sons.”
She grinned. “You know his sons? That’s great! Anyway, he thinks that the seven gods created the Veil as their final act before transcending to true godhood. He’s also theorized that they left the prophecy as an instruction set for us.”
“But there’s nothing in there about fixing the Veil.”
She snorted. “Zachariah is still focused on that as the only thing the Orlaith does? Kiddo, your role is so much bigger than just that.”
She opened her mouth to speak again, but a thunderous boom shook the ground beneath us. We both jumped and ran to the tent flap. Violet pushed me back, into whatever safety resided within the tent, as she poked her head out and swore.
“Stay here,” she ordered, her hand already on her sword hilt.
“No,” I protested, trying to follow her. “I can help! I have power, I can fight?—”
She spun and shoved me back inside with surprising forcefor someone with the same slim build as me. “I know you can, kiddo, but this is not your fight. This isn’t your time.” She pointed sharply at me. “Stay put.”
I watched as she disappeared into the black. How she could see where she was going, I’d never know. I stared at the sky and shivered. This couldn’t happen at home. I wouldn’t let it. She was right that this wasn’t my fight. But it was my war. I let the tent flap fall.
“Mira, come on!” a voice yelled. Violet had told me to stay inside, but that voice… My throat tightened. “Mireya!” the same voice shouted, closer now.
My blood ran cold as I pushed past the canvas opening. There, silhouetted against the unnatural darkness, were two figures.
“Always so impatient, my love,” a woman with long, blonde hair said as she approached a dark-haired warrior. He stood there fuming, arms crossed over his chest, his dark hair falling in waves over his brow. “Is there someplace we have to be, Thom?” Her voice carried a bit of teasing and his posture relaxed as she placed her arms on his chest.
Thom. Mira.
Mam. Da.
The world tilted sideways.
They were right there. I could go to them. Be with them. Finally know what a family was like.
I memorized every detail, desperate to capture what I’d only seen in portraits. Her hair hung in a thick sheet down her back, the same texture as mine but fair where mine was dark. She had my winged eyebrows, my stubborn chin. And he had the same turquoise blue eyes I saw in the mirror, the same way of holding his shoulders when thinking.
They were beautiful together—young and strong and so desperately in love.
And they were going to die.
I took another rasping breath, and somehow, she heard it. Hereyes, deep blue, met mine. She disengaged from him and made her way over. My chest felt caught in a vice and I struggled to breathe.
“Are you alright?” she asked gently.
How in the name of Erde was I to answer that?
She reached out a hand, stopping fingertips away from where my heart fluttered weakly. “May I?”
I think I nodded—I couldn’t form words—but she pressed her hand to my heart. The moment we touched, her healing channels reached out instinctively, and I felt the gentle touch of her soul channel meeting mine. It was as if I was wrapped in the softest blanket imaginable, cocooned by her love.
Her eyes flew wide, the deep blue darkening first with shock, then wonder, and finally heartbreak. “Lexa?” she whispered, as if saying my name too loudly might make me disappear.
I lost the battle for any scrap of control and launched myself at her.
She caught me in her arms, and for the first time in my memory, I was held by my mother. She was smaller than me, more delicate, but her embrace felt like coming home. She smelled like healing herbs and something floral, and when she drew my head down to her shoulder, cupping the back of my head, I felt something inside me that had been broken my whole life finally, finally, fall into place.
