Page 99 of Shattered Stars

“A baby, yes. I never knew her.”

“And your father?”

“I … I’m not sure what happened to him.”

“But you know who he was?”

I have a name. I have a photo. Neither of those I am prepared to give him.

He examines my face, then reaches under the pile of papers and produces a file. He turns over the flap and twists it towards me.

“I believe this was your mother. Bronwyn Eden.”

“That wasn’t my mom’s name,” I lie. Although that last name is new. A name I’ve never heard before.

“And yet you look so very alike.”

I lean even further forward and gaze down at a picture of a young woman. A beautiful woman. A woman who looks like my aunt. Who looks like me. The photo is far bigger than the one in the locket and I can see more clearly the colors in her eyes, the texture of her hair, the smoothness of her skin.

“She was a very talented magical … uniquely talented. She possessed a powerful gift–”

“What gift?” I ask.

The chancellor smiles again. Does he suspect that I already know? “She was a great asset to the authorities.”

I glance at him. There’s an eagerness in his eyes now.

“What happened to this woman?” I ask, my fingers desperate to grasp the photo and slide it into my jacket.

The chancellor frowns and slides the folder away from me. It’s painful, physically painful to watch it go, and I have to force myself not to snatch it back. He closes the file and drops it into a waiting drawer.

“I’ve been very careful, Rhianna, to keep your parentage secret. I believe that if I revealed it, you’d be in danger.”

I bristle on my seat. “Why?”

“Like I said, her gift was unique and powerful. It gave our side an unprecedented advantage in our continuing struggle with the gangs and with the West.” He leans forward in his seat.“I wasn’t chancellor back then. But I was already on the council and chosen to work with your mother–”

“You don’t know if she was my mom,” I insist.

“–I saw the full extent of her ability.”

“What ability?” I snap in frustration.

“The ability to read the future.”

I swallow. Is that such a gift? Such a talent? Would knowing what the future was to bring, stop it from happening, make it any less painful? Because she died, didn’t she? Did she see her own death too? Did she try to stop it?

I think of those memories in my head. Of the dreams I had as a girl. Knowing what was to come never prevented it from occurring. Those men still came in the night. They still beat and abused my aunt.

I screw up my eyes, those memories rising, swirling in my head.

The future came no matter what and all those dreams did was torture me, frighten me half to death.

“Miss Blackwaters?” the chancellor says, pulling me back to the present, to this room that’s too hot and too stuffy.

“I don’t see how that was a powerful ability,” I say.

The chancellor scoffs. “We had less control over the forces in the West back then. Our country – our way of life – was threatened daily. There were frequent battles at the border that spilled into our lands. We lost lives. Many lives. Not to mention the infrastructure and resources that were destroyed too. We were at a very real risk of straying into another war.”