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“Stupid girl,”he snarls. “I told you never to go into that room.”
I say nothing. It’s pointless. He’ll just beat me harder.
“Your mother is dead, Finley. There’s nothing left of her in this castle. Do not defy me again.”
The doors burst open, and Dorava comes rushing in, hiking her skirts up as she crosses the cold stone floor. She doesn’t even spare me a glance. “Lucar, come quick. It’s an emergency.”
“What is it, Dorava?”
“Aderick… he was climbing a tree. He fell. His leg is broken.”
I watch as the color drains from the baron’s face. He whispers something under his breath, before turning to me. He raises the cane, his hand trembling, but he doesn’t strike me again. “This is allyourfault,” he hisses.
Then they’re gone, leaving me alone in the cold hall. And somehow, I feel terrible guilt for something I couldn’t have possibly done.
“Corvan, what are you doing to me?” I whisper, suddenly back in my own skin; acutely aware of his gloved fingers curled around mine, at the way he looks at me, with fire in his eyes.
“I’m doing only thing I could think of,” he says at last, and there’s a tiny crack in his voice. “I interrogated your father before I ordered him to leave. He told me the truth about you. About who your mother is.”
“Is?” The ground falls away from beneath me. “Why did you say it like that?”
“Because I have reason to believe that she might still live.”
My heart clenches. My father’s cruel words echo in my mind. If she despised father, then surely she would despise me, for I amhischild, after all. “So she left me, then.”
“She didn’t leave you,” Corvan retorts fiercely. “I believe she was trying to protect you by whatever means possible.”
Hope flickers in my chest, but it’s too cautious to ignite.
“Finley, your mother isn’t an ordinary mortal. You have some of that in you. Ofher.That’s why I’m bringing you to the people that know about magic.The Khaturian shamans might be able to explain why you reacted the way you did to my blood.”
What if I don’t want to know about it?
I don’t even know her name.
I still don’t know my own mother’s name.
“And what will you do, Corvan, when you find out what I am?” My voice trembles. The glorious day means nothing in the face of my desperation.
“I just want you to be strong,” he says softly, squeezing my hand. “But sometimes, if you don’t feel like being strong, that’s all right too, because I’ll always protect you.”
He leans forward, and I know his intention right away. I bury my face in his shoulder as he wraps his arms around me and holds me.
He just holds me.
And after a while, he whispers in my ear. “Aralya.Your mother—that’s her name. And I’m going to do everything in my power to find her.”
35
FINLEY
Corvan drops us right into the center of the bloody village.
Just like that, we’re in the middle of Niize, the mysterious heart of the Khatur.
We stand there amongst the brightly decorated houses, on a stone and gravel path that’s been cleared of snow. The scent of woodsmoke fills my nostrils. I smell baking bread and something else; something sweet and laced with exotic spices.
The wind swirls around us. Corvan puts his arm around my waist and holds me close.
