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Dark eyes met hers over the rim. “Earth Realm and Azlandia are twin worlds. Two planets interconnected, each dependent on the other.”

“For what?”

“A variety of things.”

“You can do better than that, Westvane. More…” She flicked her fingers, making a ‘gimme’ motion with her hand. “How are we dependent?”

“Think of Earth and Azlandia as conjoined twins.”

“Two bodies sharing one heart type of thing?”

Westvane nodded. “Exactly.”

“So theEcotone…” Fiddling with the label she peeled from the bottle, she folded it in half. “It sits between worlds, like a passageway, allowing people to cross the divide.”

“If it stays open.”

“The queen closed it?”

“Twenty-seven years ago. After she killed the last Door Master.”

“She missed one.”

He raised his glass, saluting her. “Lyonesse has been hunting and killing your family for years.”

“And the last Door Master was —”

“Your mother.”

“Mywhat?”

The news flashed through her.

Her chest started to burn.

Something cracked inside her, slicing her open. Pain streamed through the fissure. Prickles of heat rolled across the tops of her shoulders, then down her arms. Her vision sheeted white as iridescent glow circled the center of her palms, spilling onto the tabletop.

Hermother.

A woman she couldn’t remember. A woman meant to love her. A woman who hadn’t been given the chance. She’d never hugged Truly. Never put her to bed or tucked her in. Never read her stories from thick, leather-bound picture books. Never kissed her child or wiped away tears, ensuring all the bad things became better. Truly had spent years yearning, wondering, longing to understand why she’d been left on the steps of a church.

Why she’d been abandoned.

Why no one loved her enough to stay.

Why she’d always felt so empty and alone.

Westvane set his glass down… slowly. “Calm, Truly.”

“Calm?” Pinpoints of blue light sparkling around her, she started to hyperventilate. Too hot. No air. Nothing but suffocating weight sitting on her chest. “You want me to… to —”

“Breathe through it.”

“I c-can’t.”

Shifting forward in his chair, he prepared to move. “You have to, Truly. If you lose control, you could kill me. You will be left alone, without the answers you seek.”

“I’m going to —”