My mother isn’t looking at the green. Her eyes are on the painting.
“There’s something off about that painting, Aaron.” She studies it, like the answer’s hiding in the brushwork if she stares long enough. “I can’t place it. But I don’t like it.”
I cross the room to her with a book in my hand, and halfway there I release it. It doesn’t fall—it drifts along beside me at shoulder height, pages riffling. Samara gasps, delighted.
“Send it to Tiana,” she says.
The book floats over to Tiana, and she shoots me a flat look even as she plucks it out of the air and opens it. I stop at mymother’s shoulder, both of us facing the gold frame and the flawless young man inside it.
“It does look alive, doesn’t it?” I say.
My mother turns to me instead, fixing me with a look. “Hmmm. Aaron.” She folds her arms, and I already know what’s coming. “What exactly happened to Eric, anyway?”
I shrug. “I dealt with it.”
She holds my eyes, hunting for the rest of it, but she’s not going to find it in my face. Behind me in the canvas, the man who made me goes right on smiling at nothing.
Ellie comes through the door with an armful of scrolls and dips her head to the room. My mother’s gaze cuts to her, but she’s got the grace not to say whatever she’s thinking. Ellie sets the scrolls down and slips back out without a sound.
“My brother’s a king.” Samara beams at me, bouncing on her heels. “I tell everybody that at the Academy. Everybody.”
My mother drags her attention off the painting one more time, unconvinced, but she drops it. Tiana’s crossing the room with the book open, and the look on her face has changed.
“I got more on Henry.” Tiana stops in front of me. “And it’s not good. He’s been planning something big, Aaron. Bigger than we thought.”
My mother goes to her and pulls the book straight out of Tiana’s hands. She scans the page, her mouth flattening. “It’s damn near the same playbook Aya Bailey ran.” She groans.
Kiara steps in. “The worst part is what he’s holding. He’s got Blackwood magic and the first Blackwood spell book.” She looks up at me. “Can’t you just summon it back? With everything you can do now?”
“I tried.” I shake my head. The magic answered me on everything else, every wall and window I rebuilt out of the ash, but it went dead the moment I reached for that book. “I’m still bound by the law, same as the Baileys were. A thing given freelyonly comes back freely. It has to be handed to a Blackwood, willingly, or it doesn’t move at all.”
Nobody has an answer for that, but there’s nothing any of us can do about Henry today. Today’s not his.
“I appreciate the visit, all of you. But you know what today is.”
Samara claps her hands. “You finally get to be with Mara again.” The bounce goes out of her. “I’ve barely seen her. She stayed close to her pride the entire time. Never came out for any of us.”
My mother frowns at that, then swallows whatever she meant to say and goes another direction. “You know I’m still angry with you about Seth.”
“Ma.” Tiana doesn’t even look up. “Don’t start.”
My mother huffs. I breathe through the old grief before I answer her—she deserves an honest answer, not a defensive one. “I’m not keeping his magic. Mother Fate won’t let me, and I wouldn’t if she would.” I meet her eyes. “Whatever road Seth has to walk now, it’s his alone. None of us get a say in it. Not even me, Ma.”
She turns back to the book without answering, but her shoulders ease, and that’s as close to peace as she’ll give me today. I’ll take it.
“I’ve gotta go get my mate.”
Tiana looks up, the hard set finally gone out of her face, and smiles at me. “Then go get her. We’re not going anywhere.”
My mother lifts her head and grins at me. “Go, baby.”
I smile at her and cross to Ellie at the door. “Make sure the room’s ready. I want to show Mara the nursery first thing.”
Ellie bows her head. “Yes, my lord.”
“Damn, Ellie.” I scrub a hand down my face. “Six months in and we’re still on this.”
“They’re getting what they wanted.” My mother keeps her eyes on the book. “A king. Stop trying to take that from them, Aaron.”
