Her face said it wasn’t great, but she’d show up. If she didn’t, she’d lose her manor and any protection she might have against my father and the king.
Ellery turned away and waved her hand to open a portal. When nothing happened, her shoulders slumped.
She was exhausted and starved. She’d opened a portal to get here but was too weakened to create another to leave.
When she tried again, nothing happened. She didn’t look at us as, without a word, she started into the forest without any weapons that I could see.
Compassion tugged at me; I hated feeling any empathy for this woman. However, I wasn’t a cold-blooded monster like my father.
I couldn’t open a portal into her manor but could return her to her front yard. While I waved my hand, I pictured her front yard, and a portal opened before me.
“Ellery!” I called after her. “This will take you home.”
She looked back and hesitated like she was debating whether to use the portal I’d created. In the end, exhaustion must have beat out her pride as she trudged back toward us.
“Thank you,” she muttered before walking into it.
I waited a few seconds before closing the opening. Once it shut, Tucker came to stand beside me.
“You could have given her a few days to recover,” he said.
“She won’t have time to recover once we go to war against Ivan and the aristocrats.”
“She’s been through Hell, Ryker.”
“And it’s only going to get worse.”
CHAPTERFORTY-THREE
Ellery
My mother wasnothappy with me. For the first time in my life, she was so livid and disappointed in me that she couldn’t look at me, let alone speak to me.
I didn’t think I could take one more beating to my heart and keep going, but I was wrong. I didn’t have any other options.
Feeling deflated, angry at myself, and more alone than ever, I somehow managed to wake up the next morning and drag myself into the day. No matter how horrible it was, at least one good thing had come from it… all my secrets and lies with her and Ryker were out.
I had nothing left to hide.
My motherreallydidn’t like that Ryker knew everything I could do. I’d told her he wouldn’t turn me in, and I believed it. I wasn’t so sure she did.
She took the knowledge we would lose the manor better than I thought. I was pretty sure she’d already accepted that fate, maybe before she was taken to the palace… probably before I had.
She didnottake learning I was the Hooded Robber well at all. The disappointment in her eyes left me deflated.
Scarlet’s family wasn’t exactly thrilled either, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at Mr. Fletcher after we revealed everything to them. Scarlet and I would have preferred to keep the secret, but they had to know everything to stay safe… well, everything except my lightning-bearer status and ability to control the weathers.
I kept that from all of them, even Scarlet. I didn’t feel good about it, and I trusted them, but the more amsirah who knew, the more likely it was my secret could get out.
Despite being completely exhausted and finally having her home, I didn’t sleep well. I’d spent the night tossing and turning over my choices and my possible future outcomes.
Most of them ended in death.
It was pointless to worry about a future I couldn’t foresee, but everything was changing so fast, and so much could go so wrong that it was impossiblenotto worry about it.
I’d suggested we go live in the woods now, where the duke couldn’t find us, but my mother insisted on staying. She wasn’t ready to leave but said she would when the time came.
I hoped we were safely away from here before it was too late. Judging the right time to leave was a tightrope walk; I was sure I’d fall off the thing.
