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Everything that had happened these last two moons was meant to keep me away—prevent me from getting my happily ever after—but there it was. I won.
“Elowyn!” an unusual, disembodied voice rang inside my head.
I looked around, my eyebrows knitting tightly together looking for the source, when I spotted Sugarfoot across the field in her usual spot under the shade tree. She reared on her hind legs, kicking her hooves through the air as she neighed loud enough for the entire countryside to hear. “Elowyn, you’re home!”
I slapped a hand over my mouth, allowing the tears to well over and flow down my cheeks, fighting the verge of completely losing it right there. My Sugarfoot. Her white coat shone in the sun, looking as healthy as ever.
“I’m here, girl!” I yelled back.
My legs carried me faster than they ever had before—the wind drying my damp face—until I finally reached her. I threw my arms around her neck and clung to her, letting out a squeal of happiness. Sugarfoot nudged me with her nose in a fit of excitement, nickering and snorting as I ran my hands through her coarse mane, laughing through the tears.
Stars, I had missed her so much.
Zephyr was wonderful, but nothing could ever compare to my girl. I never wanted to leave her again.
She neighed loudly. “I missed you so much. I thought you weren’t ever coming back! We’ve been worried sick!”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” I kissed the tip of her snout and reached into my vest, pulling out the vial of nightingale—the deep purple liquid like a melted jewel. “But it wasn’t for nothing. I got this.”
Sugarfoot’s eyes widened. “Oh yay, you got it! I knew you could do it!” She twirled in a circle, her tail bouncing with each movement, and I laughed. Stars, it was good to be home.
“You’ll never believe what I endured to get it, either.” I wiped the lingering tears from my eyes, my cheeks hurting from smiling so hard. “I have so much to tell you.”
“I never doubted you for a second, Elowyn. You are your father’s daughter, after all.”
Your father’s daughter.
One simple comment had me tumbling back down from the clouds, disorientated and in a haze. Not that I was surprised Sugarfoot knew my father. However, it was unsettling that everyone knew but me.
My hand dropped to my side, wiping my palms down my tattered pants, and looked down—my clothes matching the disarray of emotions coursing through me.
“Zephyr?” Sugarfoot asked, but her question wasn’t directed at me.
Confused, I turned to find Talon on the back of a rearing Zephyr, trying to calm her as she galloped straight at us. He leaped off her back just as she and Sugarfoot collided, frolicking and playing like they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Talon approached and folded his arms across his chest while he relished in their moment. “Sugarfoot was part of your father’s fleet,” he said after a moment. “When he learned Deirdre was pregnant, he gave her Sugarfoot to help make her travels to their meeting spot easier.”
My brows shot up. “She was my father’s too?”
He nodded.
I looked back at the two long-lost friends enjoying their reunion, and warmth filled my chest. It was perfect—everything was—yet a sadness tugged at my heart despite it. I felt guilty for surviving. For having hope. A deep festering shame threatened to pour from my eyes as I thought about Calandra and Breana and the life they’d never get to experience.
I sniffled, wiping my running nose with my sleeve. I’d imagined returning home a million times, yet nothing could’ve prepared me for how emotional I’d be. Conflicted.
The cottage door creaked open behind me, stealing my attention to find my mother on the stoop. My legs trembled underneath me, threatening to give out, but Talon held onto my waist, keeping me steady.
Her brown eyes were bright as they locked onto mine—she’d wasted away to nothing. Even worse than I’d left her. The sleep gown that covered her was more like a sack, and it hung on her shoulders. A mixture of guilt and relief, sadness and joy surged through me as I started toward her.
Praying she’d understand. Forgive me.
The tears I blinked away moments ago leaked down my face freely, along with a shrill of delight that scratched the back of my throat.
Mother.
She was beaming with happiness as she started down the stairs, her bony knees knocking together with each weak step. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. Weeks’ worth of doubt weighed me down like lead as life moved slowly around me.
The scent of her floral perfume hung thick in the air—the tips of our fingers brushing—when an arrow penetrated her stomach, and her knees cracked against the ground.
