Page 35 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

The kingdom is vast, too, but I find myself looking out at sea, trying to make out your father’s boats, fishermen who get to taste the salt and sun on their skin and lungs. I wish I could be like the sea—

My eyes drew shut.

I couldn’t.

I couldn't.

My mother had wishes and dreams and friendships and a family. She’d had them all. And I’d never gotten to know them. There was nothing I knew of her. I didn’t want to know this person. I was too afraid to know her. This isn’t the mother I knew. This was Serene Skygard, not my mother.

“Did your son tell you to do this?” I asked, handing her the envelopes.

She frowned. “Why would he ask me to do this?”

All that I felt a moment ago vanished, pure hatred settled coldly on my veins. “I don’t know, Driada. Why would you come into my lair right just as I was trying to figure out ways to play with him? My sympathy is divided between injured pets and a wasted death. You would have had a better chance at gaining sympathy if you’d gone down on all fours or died before I could use you against your son.” I tapped a finger on the envelopes. “Not that.”

“I thought they would have made you happy. It is the only reason why I came.”

That made me laugh a little. “Or you thought this would soak my black heart to tears.”

“At least keep them,” she said, putting the envelopes on the space between us. “You remind me of her so much. I think you would see yourself in there.”

My mother was nothing like me. And I was nothing like her. “My mother was weak. Are you calling me weak?”

“Then you do not know your mother at all.”

“No, I don’t. Your son killed her when I was barely eleven years of age. And now his mother is trying to tell me what my mother is or was. Ridiculous is not even a word to describe it.”

“I shouldn’t have come.”

“No, but we can make the best out of a situation. Stay for dinner,” I said when she was about to stand.

She stood a little hesitant. “My sons must be waiting for me to join them.”

That was before you chose to come here. “Stay.”

“Are you asking or threatening?”

My smile was easy. “Why would I threaten you, Driada?”

“Yes, Ada,” Alaric said, coming inside the room and almost jogging to her side, shooting me a look of disbelief. “Stay for dinner.”

The old man had kept staring at me all throughout the meal and had given me that ‘I know what you are trying to do’ look one to many eye rolling times.

“So,” I said, lowering my fork over the most unappetizing meal I’d ever eaten. “Do you have any other family in Adriata?”

Alaric grumbled, “Kid.”

Driada rested a gentle hand on his arm. “It is fine, Ric. There is no harm in knowing. No,” she said to me. “My mother passed away shortly after I lost my second child. Father said it was grief and then grief for my mother took him too. I was an only child, and my parents were both orphans.”

“You had another babe after little Mal?” Alaric asked.

Her smile was sad, but still so warm and gentle. “Stillborn.”

My guardian sighed. “Bet your husband gave you grief for that.”

She laughed a little, a small glaze coating her eyes. “No, he was relieved. It was a daughter. He wanted no daughters. Kilian was the most upset. Mal was too young to even understand. I don’t think anyone even remembers her anymore.”

Kilian would, some part of me wanted to say.