Page 36

Chapter 36

Saelyn

Kissing Thevin was all I wanted to think about.

I wanted nothing more than to fall into bed, smiling at how natural it had been to reach for him, pull his hands around my waist, and taste his lips.

Too tired to explain how I loved him but feared losing him, I chose instead to just be with him. No words, no heavy burdens of wrapping our heads around how much our friendship was changing—just my lips on his. My body pressed to his, and his hands…

I took a heavy breath in an attempt to chill my heated blood and bring my heart back down from where it soared in the revelation of everything we could share in the future.

My mother shuffled to her room, exhausted, pulling at the disheveled braid she’d woven across her head and letting her long white hair flow down her back.

I hadn’t known her hair matched the Blightress . I didn’t expect to see their similarities—powerful women dressed in black with long white locks and red shades on their lips. While my mother’s eyes were almost always black, I couldn’t explain the variety of colors that came from the eyes of the Blightress .

I hurried out of my gown, stepping into a midnight blue nightgown that had been left for me. I knocked on my mother’s door and at her quiet answer, I stepped inside.

She sat at the small desk, tracing her name over the carved wooden box I knew played a song about the sun and the moon. She wiped her eyes before she turned to me, and I was surprised to see their bright emerald hue returned.

I hurried to her, falling on my knees and taking her hands. “ Mama ?” I squeezed her cold fingers, all my anger for what she hadn’t told me gone. I didn’t know where to start or what she had left to share with me, so I waited for her reply.

“ You look so much like him.” She sniffed and gave a stunted laugh, shaking her head. “ I’m sure you’re tired of hearing that, but…” She brushed the side of my face. “ I know these eyes. This hair.” Pulling a strand forward, she flattened it against my shoulder, stalling in what else she needed to say.

I bent my head in silence, struggling to find the words to ask. But I needed to know. I needed to know what happened that day my father left us. I needed to know why. I chewed on my bottom lip, the questions forming in a list in my mind.

She slipped off the chair, kneeling down to the sandstone floor with me, pulling my hands into her lap. “ Before I tell you how he left and where he is now, I —” She choked, her voice halting as she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

“ It’s alright, Mama . However long it takes, I’m listening.” I gave her an encouraging smile. “ I’m only here to listen.”

She took a long, shuddering breath, her gaze steady on me. Still green. Green as the trees of Felgren in early spring.

She lowered her hand back to mine, clearing her throat and starting, “ The first thing you must understand is that your father loves you very, very much.”