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“Here’s how this will go,” Beryl said. “I will present you with two choices. You will get to decide which is the lesser of two evils.”
The offer made my stomach flip. Ness glanced back at me. We shared a look. Hers held a warning. No matter what Beryl offered, I had to make the right decision or Ness would never forgive me.
I reached and touched the scar across my throat.You owe me.
It was a shitty card to pull, but I’d nearly died for Ness’s war. She could have patience for me during my own. I felt like a horrible person, but it was almost as if Beryl had killed my ability to empathize when she had Delphine skewer me like a kebab.
I didn’t want to be this person. I wanted my compassion and empathy back. Was there any spell or potion that would turn me into the person that I used to be? When I felt the ghostly memory of Alvin’s hands squeezing my throat again, I knew that there was no turning back.
I would have to be a monster in order to stop a monster.
Beryl snapped her fingers again. Janessa flinched and yelped again. Beside her, another portal opened, and a woman fumbled out. She didn’t fall to her knees, though. The woman steadied herself and raised her head so that she could turn a deathly glare towards Beryl.
The similarity between the two was startling. While one had long black hair that hung like a silken curtain, the other had golden hair cascading in waves down her back. But their faces were almost the same.
“Mother?” My voice broke.
Ness did a double take. I could feel my friend stiffen beside me. We both knew that Beryl had just played the card hidden up her sleeve, and now everyone expected me to make the wrong decision.
“You may choose one person to leave here with,” Beryl said.
My fae mother slowly turned to look at me. She took me in slowly. While I expected her attention to linger on my hair, she paid it little attention. Instead, a look of love and hope widened her eyes and parted her lips. She gripped the white skirts of her dress like she might run over to me, but she stayed where she was.
My mother was alive.
That…that’s what I’d felt when I reached into the court to bury a piece of my arcana here. The power that had brushed against mine had been my fae mother’s. Beryl had somehow hidden her from us this whole time.
My heart pounded a frantic beat. Now I knew that Beryl had both of my mothers hostage. Though I knew that this couldn’t be quite right, I couldn’t help but hope that I would be able to leave here today with both of them.
“Where is Mom?” I asked Beryl as plainly as I could so as to not give away the intense emotion swirling inside my chest.
Beryl smiled smugly and looked to Janessa still cowering on the floor beside my fae mother. Janessa flinched and whimpered. She stole a glance in Beryl’s direction. Some sort of unspoken conversation happened before Janessa blurted out:
“She’s dead!”
The world fell out from beneath my feet.
When had that happened? Why hadn’t I been there? I was capable of so much. I’d died and birthed myself anew, but I couldn’t save my mom from Beryl’s machinations.
“When can I go home?” Janessa screamed.
“Daughter,” my fae mother whispered.
The room tilted as more voices joined in. I reached out for Rhoan, but he wasn’t there. I’d had to leave him back at the castle so that he didn’t draw attention. My heart clenched, and my knees quaked.
Ness sidled up to me and grabbed my arm harder than she should have. In a low growl, she said, “You have to make the right decision.”
I jerked my arm away from her grasp and stepped forward. Fate had no right to keep kicking me like this. I was done with being manipulated. Beryl wasn’t going to play with my emotions anymore.
“Janessa is coming home with us tonight,” I announced.
Looking to my fae mother, I tried to apologize. Before I could even form the words on my lips, her body melted and splashed to the floor. No scream split the air. It happened soundlessly, which left me even more shaken than if she’d screamed.
Beryl sighed with annoyance and rolled her eyes. When she waved her hand, Janessa stood. The terror that’d been gripping Janessa suddenly fell away.
My jaw nearly hit the floor when I realized that this had all been a ploy. The glamour over Janessa rippled and fell away to reveal a grinning Faust. He flashed his sharp, silver-tipped canines at us while I clenched my fists at my sides.
“Was…” Ness paused, hesitant. “Was that even your mother?”
