“What happened to my mother, the Red Queen? The rest of my family?”
“My love,” she breathed, a sob caught in her throat, “Iamyour mother.”
The words landed like a lightning strike, searing through me, too impossible to comprehend.
I wanted to reach for her. I wanted to push her away. My hands trembled between the two instincts, torn, unmoored, until I felt hers close around mine, warm and steady.
My life had been built on the absence of this. On the aching, empty space where a mother should have been. And now Edith stood before me, not just someone I loved but mine.
She was my mother—she always had been. But I was also furious with her, for everything she’d done.
“I’m not…I can’t—I need time.”
My breath came in ragged gasps, too many emotions colliding at once: grief for what I had lost, fury for the years stolen from me, and something fragile. Hope.
“I’m here, Rubi,” she whispered. “When you’re ready, I’ll be here.”
I nodded, stepping away from her and crossing my arms. It was meant to be something defensive, but it was more like keeping myself together, holding in all the pieces threatening to spill across the floor.
“There’s someone waiting to see you,” she said, stepping back, resigned. She gave me a sorrowful look. “You need to talk to him.”
57
The anxiety I felt at the light knocking on my door was nothing compared to the relief of actually seeing him once more.
Blake.My Pair. My equal.
Gods, he was beautiful.
Blake’s face, tight with tension, softened the moment he stepped into my room. Relief flickered across his features, unguarded, like he’d been holding his breath and could finally exhale. He sat down on my bed and pulled me into his arms with the utmost tenderness.
“I thought you were dead,” he rasped, his voice rough with emotion. I could see the torment in his eyes, the fear he’d been holding on to until this moment.
“Not dead yet, Axefire,” I breathed, tucking into him tightly. His lips pressed to my temple. His hand combing through my now-red hair.
I pulled back, suddenly self-conscious as I looked up at him. I tucked my hair back, pulling the strands from his fingers.
“It’s…I guess you know now?”
Blake smirked and nodded. “Guess I can’t call youAzureanymore, huh?” He huffed a laugh and reached for my hair again. “It’s beautiful.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“Not that it wasn’t beautiful before. You’re still my songbird. I just—” He shook his head, stumbling slightly over his words. “It looks right on you. So that’s why your favorite insult is that Red expressionscorchhole.” He grinned at me.
I bit my lip, looking away as heartbreak rose sharp and sudden, pressing at the edges of my control. “Did Edith tell you…”
Blake shook his head, brow furrowed. “No. She said it was best you explain. But, Rubi—”
“I’m not Rubi,” I interrupted. I took his hands away from my hair and face and folded them between my palms. “I mean—I mean, I am. But not as you know me.”
“You’re a Red,” he says. “I know, but—”
“Not just a Red, Blake.” I took a long, shuddering breath. “I’m royalty.”
Surprisingly, Blake’s dimple flashed as he smiled. “That’s why you always seemed so regal, hmm?” He pressed another kiss to my hand.
My heart cracked further. “No, Blake, you don’t understand. I’m the heir to the Red Phoenix throne, their crown princess.”
