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“Mom…” Without thinking, I walked through the water, wanting to rush towards her. There was so much we needed to talk about now that I had found out the truth.
“Wait!” she warned, lifting a hand to stop me as she averted her eyes. “The last time I saw buck naked, you were only a child. I love you and want to hug the hell out of you right now, but believe me when I say, I have no desire to see yourwee-weenow that you are all grown up.”
“Oh, shit.” My hands flew to my crotch, only then remembering I had fully undressed to wash the blood off me. “Sorry!”
Her chuckles reached me while she turned around, walking deeper into the sandy beach. Jumping through the water, I hurried out of the lake to put my pants and boots on again. I found out the hard way that putting on leather pants while being completely wet was a HUSTLE. I had to jump, and wiggle, and thenother thingswiggled… It was uncomfortable.
My attention finally returned to her side of the beach, noticing the swaying magic that touched the edges of the entrance to her Heaven. The transition was smooth as I walked through it, yet the abundant peace and the tingling of magic on my body was overwhelming. Nothing like when she first called me here.
“How am I seeing you right now? I didn’t get dizzy or pass out like last time.”
A soft smile curved her lips. “That is because, the first time, I had to pull you from the world of the living into a window of my lake. You accepted my invitation then, so now I can reach you whenever necessary, without having to force you to my side.”
“Oh.”
The instant I reached her, she tugged me into her arms and hugged me tightly. So fiercely that it made my eyes sting, a wave of emotion resurfacing. God, how I missed her.
“What’s happened?” she whispered, pulling away and placing her palm above my heart. “There is such a profound heaviness in your soul. I can feel it as though it was my own.”
Releasing a burdened sigh, I shook my head. “So much, Mom, I don’t even know where to start.”
“Then, I’ll start. I’m so sorry this was the way you learned the truth, my dear boy. This is not what I wanted for you.” A tear escaped her lashes and my chest constricted.
I hugged her again. “This is not your fault, Mom. None of it,” I assured, squeezing the life out of her. She had been a victim her entire life. A victim of destiny, who dealt her such a cruel hand. A victim of her father’s greed and full-on psychosis. Of misguided magic, hatred, and loss. It was no wonder her mind let go of the present while she was alive. It was the only way to protect her from the pain she carried in her memories.
“I never wanted any of this,” she continued. “I wanted to hold you in my arms as a baby and never let go. Protect you from everything and everyone. Give you only happiness and see you achieve your dreams. That’s all a mother ever wants for their child, but you were never truly mine… Destiny claimed you, and it had other plans. You were born for greatness, Brax.”
Her words brought truth, heaviness, and pain into my being, and I didn’t know what to say. Cradling my cheeks, she glanced deeply into my eyes for what felt like several moments but was only seconds, and then placed a kiss on my forehead. Pulling my hand, she guided me to a fallen log on the sand to sit with her.
“Tell me everything.”
So, I did.
I unloaded everything that had happened since we last spoke, including the duel with Lachlan, how I had actually found out the truth about my dad, and the fight with Evie afterwards. I decided to leave out the way Raithian seemed to pull me into his mind every time he felt like it, because there was already a lot to process, and I didn’t want to freak her out.
A tear fell from her eyes as I spoke, sharing the burden with all of those involved, and learning of the losses she missed after she and Dad left to the Mirror World. I also told her about my argument with Willow when she said my dad was a coward.
I regretted that too.
Not the fact that I defended my father, because I knew who he was regardless of what they thought of him, but that it caused her so much pain to have lost her family that day, and that her loss would forever be associated with my father.
“My heart hurts for her… Those innocent lives are too high a price to pay for the salvation of this world… and yet, we must pay it.” Mom wiped another tear, taking a settling breath. “Willow was always such a strong and willful child. Unstoppable, just like her parents—Rowan and Jade. It’s a shame they never got to see her grow up. We all thought she’d be an Elevated Warrior one day.” She shook her head, new tears shining in her eyes. “I can’t believe the twins, Logan and Levi, are gone too.”
“You knew her family well?” I asked, not really knowing what life had been like back then for them.
Mom’s sleek hair glimmered under the moonlight as she nodded, almost as brightly as the water did. “Jade became a sister to me after we left the palace.” Clearing the emotion from her throat, she lifted her gaze to me. “Once we found our first refuge after the Uprising, people were weary of me.”
“They rejected you?” I asked, surprised to hear that the same people who had been so welcoming of me, a complete stranger, had once been hostile towards my mother.
Her hand rested on mine gently. “Honey, you have to understand that I was the princess, after all. Raithian’s daughter. There was no way for them to know my father’s malice had scarred my life too. Everything was so fresh for them—for us—the torture, the injustice, they didn’t really know what to think of me. If it weren’t for your father and Jade, I would have been truly alone. Actually, if it hadn’t been for Khayden, Raithian would have stolen my magic and killed me too.”
“I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“I know, Baby. I know.” Sighing, she squeezed my hand and glanced towards the water.
My gaze followed her when she smiled, and it was only then that I realized Tharion had followed me into theLake of Tranquility. He was in the water, playing?? Another Dragon lay next to him. His entire form was a greyish white, almost as large as Tharion, and equally parts gorgeous and terrifying.
