Page 238 of The Gods Order

“Are they mad I’m here? Did this go against your punishment?”

“They haven’t expressed anything about that yet.”

My teeth grind together, but I keep my comments about that to myself.

Neither of us attempts to fill the silence. We shift between looking at each other and looking at the stars. There’s still so much I really want to ask, but now I’m afraid to, in case she tells me something that’ll somehow get her in trouble.

I continue to glance around the Eye of the Veil, both in awe and rage.

This is truly a cage.

It’s crazy to stand witness in one of the most beautiful and magical places in the realm while simultaneously knowing it was created just so my mother could see and be seen easier by the Valories.

I want to get her out of here.

I want her to only come here if she wants to come here.

“When your father told you our truth and then informed me that you were coming here to see me, Valories, I ran through so many conversations in my mind. All the things I wanted to say. Everything I wanted to apologize for…”

She clears her throat and closes her eyes as she collects herself. Her fingers rest against her lips and I study her while she thinks of the words she wants to say.

“I asked him not to tell you who I really was,” she says as she finally meets my gaze. “I wanted that to be a truth I got to share with you. I told myself when you got here, I wasn’t going to focus on the emotions of everything because you had just heard it from him. This was my one chance to be both honest and informative for you. We don’t have much time together, and I wanted to use it wisely.”

I nod. This, more than another emotional explosion, was what I needed, if I’m being honest.

“Thank you for everything you told me. A lot of things make a lot more sense.”

“Good,” she says, twisting her fingers together in front of her. “I know the boys and your father are outside. It feels selfish to ask and I hate to keep them waiting, but…would you like to stay here with me for just a little while? Maybe watch the sunrise with me?”

The sunrise.

I don’t answer her with words. My breathless laugh and watery smile say it all. I close the distance between us and take her outstretched hand. The two of us sit together in the center of her dais.

The hours that follow become some of my favorite memories.

Moments that are just for me. Us.

She doesn’t share another revelation or some hidden truth waiting to be uncovered. Instead, she gives me something greater.

I cling to every story she tells. The moment she first laid eyes on my dad. How he was so serious, dutiful, and patient with her. She called herself ignorant and I didn’t like that at all. There’s a difference between being sheltered—trapped—and ignorant.

She told me my dad always pretended not to smile when she purposely pushed every one of his boundaries. It made me think about how Creed enjoys my sass more than he admits.

The few times they were allowed to travel together before I was ever a thought. The tiny habits of his I somehow inherited without ever realizing.

She tells me stories about myself, too. About the way I’d curl my fingers around hers whenever she’d sing. How I hated sleeping unless Dad walked the floor with me. How I laughed before I ever spoke.

I memorize every word.

Every smile. Every laugh. Every second.

There isn’t enough time to make up for the last twenty years. But for these few precious hours…

I stop mourning everything we lost and simply cherish everything I’ve found. Eventually, our conversation gives way to comfortable silence and, together, we watch darkness surrender to dawn.

One by one, the stars fade away.

Golden light spills over the distant mountains, washing across the valley below until the entire realm glows beneath us.