Page 6 of Returned to the Vissigroth (The Vissigroths of Leander #6)

"I know," I agreed. Unless Thalia had a hidden twin somewhere, this was impossible.

"Let me meet with her first," Korran suggested, and I laughed.

"I think I can defend myself against a seffy."

He shook his head, "I don't doubt that for a second, but this looks like an elaborate plan and?—"

I waved him off and marched to the cargo hold, where the exit was located. Sometimes, Korran fussed over nothing, just like an old seffy. He was a few rotations older than me; maybe it was time for him to retire.

By the time I arrived, the Veyrion had landed, and dragoons were already stationed in the storage compartment, building an honor guard for me to walk through.

The ramp was lowered, and more dragoons stood on either side of it, lining all the way out and up the stairs.

I started down the ramp when, suddenly, a vision appeared at the castle entrance. A vision of what couldn't possibly be.

Long, curled red hair cascaded down her back; her white dress, the same she had worn in the shrine, was smudged with dirt.

Her skin was so pale it was nearly translucent.

Her eyes, her beautiful emerald eyes, were wide and frantic when she rushed forward.

Next to me, Korran exhaled sharply and loudly.

I stood frozen to the spot, staring at her, taking her in.

My mind was telling me that this couldn't be true, whereas my heart jubilated. I’d knelt for rotations at Daphne’s shrine under cold moonlight, whispering prayers and reliving our memories.

How could she stand before me alive? But it was her, there was no doubt in my mind.

Nobody had eyes like hers. That shade of green, the darker halo surrounding the iris, and the yellow freckles inside.

They were unique. All humans had strange eyes, but I had never seen another with eyes like hers. None other than Thalia.

Guards rushed forward, grabbed her arms roughly to keep her back. Their momentum set me in motion.

"Let her pass!" I ordered, striding forward. Toward the seffy who had been dead for too many rotations.

She struggled in the guards' hold, but the moment I gave the command, they let her go and she rushed forward, toward me, and then… she shot past me, as if Grandyr's ghost were after her, nimble as a shadow, and vanished into the ship's bowels.

I vaulted up the ramp after her, my heartbeat pounding like war drums in my ears.

“Daphne!” I bellowed, but she ran, swift and silent, weaving through the narrow corridors lined with matte-black panels and humming conduits. I followed her scent of nicta and pine, chasing her to our old quarters.

"Daphne!" I called again, but she didn't stop.

A loud shriek outside diverted my attention.

Unsure of what to do, I halted, listened to cries of "Grandyr!

" from the castle grounds I had just left.

It sounded as if Grandyr had returned in his dragon form.

As much as I wanted to see him, this wasn't a choice for me.

I ran after Daphne, who had long since reached our quarters.

The guards, assuming she was Vissy Thalia, let her pass, and I found her standing in the center of the main room, looking wildly at me.

My emotions got the better of me, and with a choked cry, I pulled her into my arms. Gods, it felt right.

So right. Her warm body pressed into mine, molded into mine, like it always had, like she had never left.

I didn't know how it was possible, but it was her.

Alive. Here. I kissed her forehead, laughter bubbled inside my chest, but it never got to see the light of day, because with a shriek of fear, she pushed against me.

There was no recognition in her eyes when she looked at me, only fear.

"Let go of me," she demanded.

Frozen for the second time within a short span, I stared at her. Blinding pain shot through me at the realization that she had no idea who I was.

"Do you know who I am? Who you are?" I asked.

Ney , my soul screamed inside me, ney . The gods couldn't be this cruel, could they? To bring back my mate only to have her not recognize me?

She pushed harder against me, and I let go. My arms fell uselessly to my side when she stepped back, staring at me, wide-eyed. Staring at me like I was a stranger.

I repeated my question, "Do you know who I am? Who you are?"

"I am Vissy Thalia," she said, and the way she was stubbornly stretching her chin forward nearly made me smile. Daphne always did that when she felt cornered. She would never allow anybody to see her vulnerable side. Only me. Only because I knew her tells.

"You are Vissy Daphne," I corrected, "and I am the Vissigroth of Hoerst. Mallack. Your husband." I intentionally used the human phrase for our status, unsure if it would hold more meaning than mate to her.

"Husband?" she repeated, tilting her head, before she shook it. "Ney. I would know. I would remember if I were mated."

With all my might, I fought against the temptation to pull her back into my arms. It wasn't that I wanted my cock to rein free, although that was there too, but more than anything, I just wanted to hear and feel the beat of her heart against my chest again. Something I had missed for too long.

"I am your husband, your mate," I assured her. "Mallack." And then, nearly pleading, "Look at me, don't you remember?"

She did look at me, but the recognition I was hoping for did not shine through her eyes. They were as confused but set as before. "I need to speak to Myccael."

My heart painfully twisted inside my chest. Did she know? But how? I hadn't told her. I hadn't been to her shrine since I found out that Thalia, our true daughter, had been swapped with Myccael right when they were born.

In the beginning, I would visit her shrine three or four times a cycle.

That tapered off to three or four times a moon phase, but never less.

I would sit at her shrine for hours and tell her about everything that was happening in Hoerst, a fight I had with Myccael, or a drought, anything.

I never stopped. Not until… until Thalia returned to us.

Too much had happened since, that I just hadn't had the time…

or maybe I had been too much of a coward to go back there and tell her that she had been right, and I had been wrong.

From the moment we knew she was pregnant, Daphne had been convinced she was carrying a girl.

The first seffy vissy the Fourteen Planets have ever seen , she said.

And I indulged her. Because what was the harm when she was certain she was carrying a girl?

I should have known better. I should have known that, despite the common knowledge that vissigroths only fathered males, my vissy was right.

Knew better. Bound by the sacred bond between mother and child, she knew more than I ever did.

Unable to stop myself, I blurted out, "Daphne, you were right.

So right. I'm sorry." Her expression mirrored only confusion. I looked down into her mesmerizing eyes—eyes I never thought I’d see again.

They were as green as Hoerst in the spring, framed by a darker ring that made the brightness at their core almost otherworldly.

Around the strange human pupils, faint golden tendrils branched outward, fracturing the intense hue like sunlight through leaves.

A dark thought entered me. "Do you know who Myccael is?" I had to clear my throat in between words; this situation was too unreal.

My gut twisted when her expression clouded, mirroring the same kind of melancholy she had experienced ever since Myccael's/Thalia's birth. The melancholy I knew that had killed her. Fear reached for my heart in an iron grip. I could not lose her again. Not ever again.

She started to fade after Myccael's birth.

Claiming again and again that he wasn't her baby.

That somebody had taken her baby girl. The pain was as sharp now as it had been then.

Healers were called, as well as human seffies—midwives.

All of them assured me that Daphne was just not herself right then because of the birth, that what they called hormones , were playing havoc with her system, distorting her reality.

And fool me, believed them. Trusted them.

As a result, I failed the one person I should have never failed. My mate.

Despite Daphne's claim that Myccael wasn't our son, she loved him.

Took care of him as if he were her own. But so many times I caught her staring into nothingness that, in time, it seemed almost normal.

She lived, she breathed, she cared for Myccael and me, she even laughed now and then, but I watched her soul slowly dying, and there was not a thing I could do about it.

I had never felt that helpless in my entire life.

I pleaded with her not to leave me, and she had only smiled, saying, I would never leave you .

Now I wondered if she came back to apologize to Myccael, for not loving him enough, for yearning for the baby girl she knew in her heart was taken from her. Was that why she was here?

"Do you know who Myccael is?" I carefully repeated my question, readying myself to tell her about Thalia

She shook her head. "I need to talk to him. He needs to stop the magrail." I wasn't sure what I had expected her to say, but not this. Beseechingly, she looked at me, "Will you help me?"

That question was easy. "I'll always help you, Daphne. Always."