“And he didn’t… recognize you? Your mother must have been… like you, right? And your father was an elf?”
“Extremely tall?” She laughs. “Actually, no. Her Skeldaryn traits were not prominent. She looked… like a normal-sized human.”
“Really? I didn’t know such a thing existed. Everyone thinks the humans have been extinct for hundreds of years… so what did he think your mother was?”
“When he first found her… he was intrigued by her. She was elf-shaped but didn’t have the ears. She told him she was a witch. And that was the wrong move, because after that, he kept her. He wanted a witch for himself, I guess.” She’s quiet for a moment. “I barely even knew her…”
“I’m sorry.” I look back and meet her gaze so she knows I mean it. “I didn’t know my mother either.”
“Well, we have more in common than you know.”
I pause, studying her. “What does that mean?”
When she doesn’t answer, my heart begins to race, and my blood feels colder. “Who is your father, Rhydra?”
She straightens her strong, prominent shoulders and holds my gaze. “King Nerion Celenor.”
Her expression doesn’t waver, and I know she’s telling the truth. Or at least, what she believes to be the truth.
“How is that possible?” I whisper.
“Your father is what, a little over one hundred? He met my mother almost forty years ago. Then she escaped once she found out she was with child.”
“He didn’t try to find her?”
“Oh, he did. It’s how she died when I was just a girl.” She looks off in the distance. “I don’t know if he knew about me, but like I said, my mother was only part Skeldaryn, mixed with human, I would guess. I was right under his nose and he had no idea. He never would have believed his first heir was a large, part Skeldaryn woman. My mother knew what she was, but she never told him.”
“Wow.” I shake my head in disbelief. “Wait. So, you’re part elf… Do you have any powers we don’t know about? Water wielding?”
She shakes her head in dismay. “Not a drop, unfortunately. It seems the Skeldaryn heritage decided to skip my mother but present itself prominently in me.”
“Maybe you were meant to wield the power of air…”
She shrugs.
“So my father… our father… hunted your mother down and killed her?”
“Yes. Well, he sent soldiers. Couldn’t even be bothered to do it himself. I was gone at the market that day…”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Now you know.”
“Why are you telling me now?”
“I don’t know.”
“And that’s why you want to clear the veil before you kill him… to see him defeated, scared, vulnerable?”
“Exactly. It’s not enough to simply kill him.”
I study her more closely, and I feel like a fool. It’s true, nothing about her seems elf-like. She doesn’t even have the ears, but… “You have his eyes.” The realization hits me like a powerful wave that has the potential to drown me if I let it.
I shake my head in disbelief. The revelation only feeds the flame of my hatred for him even more.
“So…” I hesitate. “We’re sisters…”
Her chest jumps as she smirks and lets out a puff of air through her nose.
