Page 12

"Aren't you?" Eldric's voice was soft, almost gentle. "Even if it means learning that your beloved goddess is not what she seems?"

A chill ran down my spine, but I stood my ground. "Tell me."

Eldric nodded, then gestured towards a barely visible path. "Walk with me. The corruption cannot follow where we're going." As he walked away he added in a low voice that I could barely hear, "Neither can what it's tied to."

As we moved deeper into the forest, the air grew thick with an otherworldly mist. Eldric's voice cut through the silence. "You were born of a taboo union, Senara. A child of both moon and sun was forbidden to exist."

My breath caught. "What do you mean?"

"Your mother was moon-touched, yes. But your father..." Eldric paused, turning to face me. "He was sun-kissed."

The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet. "That's not possible. It's forbidden?—"

"And you've never done anything that's forbidden?" Eldric challenged. "Your very existence proves that people do forbidden things all the time. And it is why the Grove rejects you now. You are an anomaly, even if the goddess blessed you."

"But it let Thorn in and he's sun-kissed, besides how do you even know who my parents are?"

"We don't have time for me to spell everything out." Irritation infused his words, whether it was with me or because we couldn't have an entire conversation, I wasn't sure. "Suffice to say after our last encounter, I did some research."

"Research?" I questioned.

Eldric ignored it and instead said, "As for Thorn getting into the grove, his magic was not tainted by corruption at the time, like yours was. After your talk with the Empress, a sliver of her magic remained within you, blocking you from most of your power."

My mind reeled. If what he claimed about my parents was true, then it explained so much. But it also raised a terrifying question.

"Then is what the fae fear true? Am I some kind of... abomination?"

Eldric's masked face turned towards me sharply. "No. You are the first of your kind that has lived to adulthood since the Sundering. And that makes you infinitely precious, and infinitely dangerous."

We emerged into a small clearing. At the center stood an ancient tree, its bark gleaming a soft silver in the ethereal light. Eldric approached it, placing a hand on its trunk.

"This is a fragment of the original World Tree, from which all magic flows. It can show you the truth of your heritage, if you're brave enough to see it."

"World tree?" I echoed his words, confusion ringing in my own.

"The world tree connects all realms and lands. It is a record of everything that has come before and everything that will be, though I know of no one who can read the leaves of the future, and there are only some, like myself, who can read the leaves of the past."

I hesitated, my heart pounding. Did I truly want to know? What if the truth was worse than I could imagine?

But then I remembered Thorn and the expression in his eyes when we parted. Of Kaelyn, who had risked everything to help us. I couldn't let them down now.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. The moment my hand touched the soft, velvety bark of the tree, a surge of energy coursed through me. Images flashed before my eyes in rapid succession:

A woman with moonlight in her hair, her belly swollen with child, fleeing through a dark forest.

A man with sun-kissed skin reaching for her, desperation etched on his face as figures in golden armor held him back.

Blood soaked sheets.

A newborn's cry, quickly muffled. Whispered words: "Take care of her for us. She must never know."

A stillness that felt all too much like death, punctuated by a sob of grief.

The visions sped up, fragments of a hidden past.

A funeral in the woods by an unmarked grave with no one present but two people and a baby.

Myself as a child, the people who I thought were my parents seeing my moon mark for the first time. The fear that covered their faces as it glowed a faint silver, but with a tinge of gold around the edges that quickly faded.