“Obviously not.” Mother cut a narrow-eyed glance at Father. I remembered that look she’d given him so often growing up. But back then, Father had been able to soften her anger by wrapping her in a hug from behind that nearly peeled her off her feet—kissing her until she could not keep a straight face any longer.
Now, Father looked too weighed down by shame to eventhinkof touching her.
“He continued the gem studies in secret,” Mother went on. “He made use of a hideout we’d tunneled for ourselves when we were young, branching right out to the edge of the glamour barrier.”
Frivolous protests bubbled at the back of my mind, eyes burning with indignation at her. All those years of reprimanding me for breaching the curfew to visit Dottage mansion, yet she had been practically doing the same thing. Hazel and I exchanged a brief, flat smile that told me she was thinking the same thing.
Father exhaled heavily, dragging a hand down his jaw, fingers scraping against the silver-flecked scruff there. It was a harsh adjustment from the regal, clean-shaven look he’d always donned in Elysia.
“I grew careless in my eagerness. I was so certain I’d crafted the spell properly. I reviewed it over a dozen times, but…” His slate-blue eyes dimmed. “Well, naturally, there was no one else besides myself I could test it on. I’d crafted it to be temporary, and then… Something went wrong. I lost my wings. What little magic remained in me wasn’t enough to power another transformation. The raw fae magic in the stones wasn’t compatible with what I was any longer. What Iam.”
Jon caught my gaze probingly. This was…complicated. Father’s existence before us confirmed that the impossible dream I’ve been chasing was very much within reach, but this devastating revelation was not the joyous way either of us expected to find solace in our search.
I refocused on Mother incredulously. “Father was missing fordays. You said you found him three nights later, said he wasdead! And Ayden… Stars, Ayden said hesawthe body. I remember! He said you both burned him.”
Lies.So many lies had woven the fabric of half my life.
“That part was half true, at least. Your mother did come searching for me. She was diligent, barely sleeping. Poor thing had circles under her eyes like she’d been punched by the time our paths crossed.” His gaze softened with immeasurable tenderness. He reached a hand toward her, brushing her side gently. Mother’s wingssnippedshut sharply at once, and she pulled her leg away.
“Tristan,” she said under her breath.
Father jerked his hand back to his lap, clearing his throat. “Sorry.”
He looked back at Hazel and me. “The night I found her likethis, your mother was rightfully startled out of her mind. She burned me in retaliation.” Father angled his head, putting the faint scarring on the left side into the glow of the firelight. “By the time she realized who I was, what I’d done… It was too late. Our not-so-peaceful reunion had garnered the attention of our least favorite Entry Watch asshole.”
“For star’s sake, Tristan,language,” Mother said, jutting her chin at Hazel, whose eyes had gone wide. She continued, “Ayden was never quite my equal in our cohort of fire affinities, but we reached a stalemate all the same. I wouldn’t let him kill your father, but I couldn’t just let him drop this truth to the council, either. If he revealed your father became a human…” She sighed, face pinching at the notion. “The three of us struck an oath. Your father would be allowed to leave peacefully, so long as he never crossed the Elysian glamour barrier. Ayden would never share the truth of what he saw, and neither would I. If I did, I would never be allowed back through the barrier to our home.”
“But…you’re sharing itnow,” I pointed out. “Does that mean you can’t go back?”
Mother raised a hand to pacify the panicked charge to my voice. “We have no reason to return now, anyway. We’re lucky that’s the only demand Ayden made of me with that oath, that he was too scared out of his wits that night to put any more danger on our family’s name than there already was. He was a loyalist to the end, simply satisfied to keep your father away for good and swear me to secrecy. All in the name of protecting Elysia.”
All the times Ayden had compared me to my father now sat differently in my memory; he had fussed over me and disciplined me harder than the other children in Elysia. Had the bitterness concealed a genuine concern that I might fall into Father’s footsteps and endanger the village and myself?
“Wasn’t there any way you could have gotten around your oath?” I blurted. “You both let me grieve for adecade. I wept for you.” I steadied my glare on Father. “How did you even find each other again, if you were banished from returning?”
Father cleared his throat as though I might not like the answer. “Like she said, Ayden missed a few crucial stipulations in an ironclad oath. He could have demanded I never contact her again—not that she particularlywantedto hear from me—but I’d salvaged a few things. A charmed bit of parchment that we’d once used to pass notes when we were first courting.”
“How long?” I demanded quietly.
Mother and Father exchanged a look at length, equally uncomfortable.
“Thewhole time?”Oath or not, I was struck by the realization that Mother had never truly lost him the same way Hazel and I had. “I was sobbing for weeks, and you were writing him letters behind our backs!”
“It wasn’t like that!” Mother said. “Communication was infrequent at best. A few times a year, I’d update him on you girls, and he’d let me know he was still alive out there somewhere. I had no intention of letting him back into our lives after what he’d done—until you were banished. Then, I…” Her voice lowered, eyes cutting toward Father with gratitude for the first time I’d seen. “I knew I needed his help to find you.”
Cliff let out a long breath, and I almost jumped out of my skin. I’d been so honed in on my own memories, unraveling the falsehoods I’d been living in for the last ten years, that I’d almost forgotten him and the others sitting around us in the parlor. Dazed and stunned as everyone looked, I was grateful that they were considerate enough to hide their shocked whispers for now.
Hazel fidgeted as though working up the courage to speak. “Father?”
“Yes, love?”
“So, does this mean…” She looked between Mother, still perched on the back of his chair, and Father, who leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees, clinging to Hazel’s every soft word. “Are you two back together again?”
“No,” Mother said.
“Possibly,” Father answered at the same time.
Mother’s scarlet locks tossed as she turned to him sharply. “Tristan—”
