Page 58

CHAPTER LVII

AISLING

Aisling stepped forward and opened her mouth.

Niamh followed shortly thereafter, grabbing her hand.

“Thank you,” she said to Aisling. Her voice was strange, mottled with emotion. “I’m proud to have trusted Ina’s judgment in you. There was a reason she chose you, Aisling. You were born for this.”

Aisling felt a lump in her throat. She tried to swallow it but it was futile, growing larger and thicker the longer she watched Niamh. They were the words she’d wished her mother had spoken to her, even once. The sentiment she’d prayed her father would feel for her. And yet, here and now, she needed none of her clann’s, her túath’s, her family’s validation. She’d earned her strength, her power, her might overtime and it was enough. It was what she’d developed along the way that she fought for now. That she’d sacrifice her life for.

Aisling nodded her head in reply for there weren’t words capable of describing how she felt in that moment. She could only hope Niamh understood and remembered.

“Will you be lonely still?” Aisling asked the Seelie queen.

“No,” Niamh replied quickly. “Not anymore.”

Aisling and Niamh exchanged smiles, prolonging the inevitable. But it was time. The moment made clear as the gateway shuddered to life with a violet boom.

Her father was here.