Page 45 of Crown of Wrath (Shadowed Debts #2)

Interlude 4

Brenna Morvyn holds the child, a strange thing that seems less like the High Fae her mother was and more like the world that she’d come from. A new thing. Something other. High Fae blood flows through her veins like her mother, who lies dead in the bed behind Brenna.

Elowen Vael was one of her best shadow walkers, a testament to her House. When she’d become pregnant, everyone had thought it had been a miracle. They’d believed that being in Valinar had brought back the possibility of children. Everyone had been so excited.

Brenna could feel that something was wrong, though. In Elowen. She’d become lethargic. She’d struggled to stand, to speak, to even exist. Everything took so much effort. Her powers had faded to nothing.

No one knew what it would be like to have a child in Valinar, though. No one knew what the cost would be.

Brenna knew that this was wrong. She could feel the power draining from Elowen. The child was feeding on her mother rather than drawing power from the void, as it should. She took her aside and explained what she was feeling. She told her that there was a good chance that she wouldn’t survive the pregnancy.

And Elowen decided. A life for a life. Elowen saw her daughter for seconds before the last of her power was gone. Seconds.

“It’s okay, little one,” Brenna whispers to the child. “You will want for nothing. I will give you all the love I couldn’t give my own daughter.”

The baby coos to her, and Brenna notices the strange white lines that run through the baby’s eyes. They flash with power that is different. It’s not like her mother’s, and not like any of the other shadow walkers. It’s different. It’s other .

It reminds Brenna of the mists that make up her own body. This child is not only High Fae. She is part of Valinar, just like herself.

Brenna runs her hand over the baby’s curly black hair, and she smiles. “My blood doesn’t course through your veins, but you’ll always know that I love you. One day, you’ll grow up, and you’ll meet my daughter. She’ll be a sister of your soul.”

Brenna never forgot her daughter, Maeve. Every single day that she taught Echo to wield her powers or a piece of history, she wished Maeve was sitting beside her, learning those same things. Instead of tears for what she’d given up, she was reminded of how lucky she was to have the chance to raise another.

And she looked forward to the day that her two daughters would meet.