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“It doesn’t matter now, Everielle. Saving the land, replenishing the magic—none of it matters now that you’re here.”

“How do you know my full name?” The hailstones grow in size, pelting the floor and bouncing off the surrounding marble. I choose to watch them instead of braving a glance at her face. Did Kelter tell her my name? Did she force it out of him? Torture him?

She tips my chin up. “I know everything I need to know about you. And soon, I’ll have every moment too. I won’t ever have to be apart from him again.”

“From who? What are you talking about?”

“I’m your mother, Everielle.”

The hail pauses outside, ceasing to fall for a beat, as though caught on her words.

No…no. That’s not right.

My mother is not the leader of a magical realm full of people who want me dead.

My mother did not imprison and torture me.

“You’re lying.”Please be lying.

“I can give you the answers you’ve been searching for.” She sweeps her hand over my cheek, warm and soft and dreadful.

“I could never be related to you.”

She sighs and leans forward, her hand maneuvering into the high neck of her green dress, then pulls out her necklace and dangles it over her chest. It looks a lot like mine—one raw broken edge. Pale yellow instead of purple. Identical chain.

It means nothing, but I can’t look away.

“It’s the other half of your stone. I would know, I’m your mother.” She repeats that awful word, her hands riding down the front of her dress and out to her hips as she watches me fumble for a response.

“I’m from Caldera. I-I grew up there.”

“But you weren’t born there.” Not one bit of feeling feeds her features. “I knew it was you the second I saw your eyes. I remember the first time I held you, how you opened them and looked up at me. That color, that brightness—unforgettable.” She flashes her lashes, a dead stare behind them. “I can tell you why you don’t know when you were born and why your birth documents are blank except for your name. I can tell you everything.”

My body ceases to feel, struck so hard by her words that it’s no longer part of me for this moment.

“You are not a Hollow, love.”

A foul taste rises in my throat, the disgust trying to escape me.She’sthe mother I’ve searched for my whole life?

“How is this possible?” My voice falls to a whisper. “I’m not like you.” I regain feeling and slide my arm across my middle, wanting to endlessly fold myself in half until I’m not here anymore. “I take magic. That’s what I do, what Hollows do.” That’s what they told me, over and over. That’s whatElitold me.

“Hollows don’t actually take magic from plants—or anything else. And Vaile can’t either, of course.”

“Then why—”

“It’s a centuries-old lie to keep Vaile afraid of Hollows. Only the Centress carries the truth and passes it on to her successor. I have to perpetuate the lie in order to maintain the Separation. I need every Vaile to believe that Hollows from Caldera can take magic and will let it die with them, slowly depleting it. They must fear Hollows and be motivated to protect the border and produce the elixir. If I let Hollows return to Sonnet, they’ll eliminate our people. If it weren’t for the Separation, all Vaile would have been erased by now.”

“What? How? Why are you telling me all this if it’s such a secret?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. You won’t remember a word I’ve said once I take all your lovely memories away. Then I’ll have what should have been mine from the start.”

Lovely?Not quite.

“Take my memories?” That’s impossible. I scan the room, frantic for a sense of security, but reality cracks all around me “What should have been yours?”

She doesn’t answer. Her ghostly hands grab my shoulders, sending pain searing through me, reaching my insides and bubbling back up to my skin. My body transforms into a mass of agony. Her eyes close, head tilting back—the last I see before my vision goes and screams tear their way up my throat.

Darkness fills my mind as I try to hide from the pain. Visions hit me in blinding flashes.The messy, gory death of everyone I’ve ever known, the afflicted cries of torment, the life fading from their pleading eyes, a gaping hole in my heart with every loss.