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CHAPTER28
CHRISTY
Dear Cynthia,
I don’t have much time to explain why you are so very important to me and my daughter, Christy, but I hope that this letter will be enough to convince you to help us both.. To help all our families to heal, including yours.
Your mother and I grew up together. We were the best of friends and I loved her like a sister, but circumstance and hatred between men tore us apart.
When I heard of Aoife’s death, we hadn’t seen each other in years, not because we didn’t want to but because we had no choice. It hadn’t surprised me that she died protecting you in a war she couldn’t prevent. Her love for you was like the ocean, vast and deep.
She was the most beautiful soul, and I miss her every single day..
I wish, more than anything, that I could’ve been present in your life. That you and Christy could’ve grown up together and become friends just like your mother and I had. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but I hope more than anything that you will form a lasting friendship after all of this is over. I hope that old wounds between families can finally heal and that you won’t be kept apart like your mother and I were.
Ilook up at Thirteen, my eyes welling with tears, unable to articulate how unutterably sad I feel for our mothers, for the both of us for losing the women we adored so much in such terrible circumstances.
“Keep going,” she says softly.
Swiping at my tears, I carry on reading.
In this envelope you will find two letters. The first is for Christy. The second is for the men who call themselves The Masks, your old friends and my daughter’s kidnappers.
I’m asking you to give the letter to my daughter exactly two weeks after she arrives at Ardelby Castle. The second letter you must give to The Masks on the night of the show when Christy wears the pink dress.
These letters have been kept safe for fifteen years by your grandmother who, like me and Aoife, was tired of seeing the people she cared about hurt by foolish men. She gave them to you on this night for the same reason I am writing this letter, to stop more bloodshed. She was a good woman, and I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.
Again I look up from the letter, confusion giving me pause.
“My grandmother gave me these letters the night she passed away. She asked me to read the one addressed to me, but not to open the others,” Thirteen explains. “Your mother saw many things, and she has tried so hard to protect you from beyond the grave. ”
“I know,” I say, dropping my gaze back to the letter. “I know.”
You must be confused, so I hope this letter will go some way to explaining things. By now Arden Dálaigh, my nephew, will have asked you to pay your debt. I know this because I’ve seen it. Like my daughter I have the ability to see things that are yet to happen.
The Deana-dhe want revenge for my brother’s death. They want you to kill the Masks.
You can’t do that.
Not just because you are a good person and cannot, under any circumstances, darken your soul with murder. Not just because these men and my daughter’s future are inexplicably entwined. But because I’m trying to prevent history from repeating itself.
There’s been too many deaths, too much heartache, and if I can do one thing before I leave this world, it's to fix this mess our fathers and their fathers before them have inflicted on us all. Your parents' families have been at war for years, as have my family: the Dálaighs and the Brovs. Men have caused these wars, all of this pain, and it’s time for the women to take back control and end the violence once and for all. It’s what your mother wanted, what I wanted, but fate conspired against us. Your mother died trying to stop a war, and in a few years, I will die in the crossfire of another.
It wasn’t our time to fix it, but it will be yours. YoursandChristy’s.
This time the stars have aligned better than I could ever have hoped for. There’s a chance that peace can be found and lives saved if you help my daughter to fulfil her destiny, and trust me to help you to fulfil yours.
Tonight you must leave your home and revisit your old friends. Go to Ardelby Castle and find your place there. Tell them whatever you need to in order for them to allow you to stay.
You must wait until my daughter arrives and help her to fulfil her destiny. Guide her as best you can without telling her what you know. Not until the time is right. You’ll know when the time comes for honesty. Whether I like it or not, she was meant for The Masks as they were meant for her. The Dálaigh’s and the Brov’s war will end with their love, it has to, otherwise all of this will be for nothing.
My gaze tracks across the letter to Jakub’s sleeping form. He looks so vulnerable lying there, beaten and battered. Truthfully, I don’t even like this man. I feel pity for him, empathy for the child he was, and there’s a connection between us that is as confusing as it is frightening, butlove…
Could I ever really love him?
Could I love any of them?
My feelings for Leon and Konrad have begun to change, that’s true, but beingtoldI’m destined to be with someone isn’t the same as knowing it orfeelingthat love for myself. Surely, I have the right to choose? I know I don’t want them dead, but do I want their love? Can I give them mine? I’m still uncertain.
