AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shrugged. “That first wall I saw, the one that knocked you out, it had a door in it too.”
He turned skeptical eyes on me. “That’s how you were able to steal my bow.”
I jabbed my elbow into him. “Come on.”
When we stood beneath the fort once again, I hesitated, burdened with the idea circulating in my head. If I was wrong…we could die. I shook away the notion. I wasn’t ready to accept life in this forsaken place. I had to try.
Ash waited below as I shimmied up the rope, faster this time but no less awkwardly.
“Nan,” I said, hurrying to her side.
She looked up from her book, her white hair catching the sunlight. “What’s the matter, my dear?”
“We have to leave. Ash told me I can break this place apart with my magic. I think I can get us out.”
Nan’s hands pressed down into her lap. “There is something I need to tell you as well, dearest. I wanted to wait until I knew your magic was strong and fully free.”
“Free?”
Ash had said someone had locked my ability to see my magic.
Nan held my gaze as she said, “Years ago, right after your first sign of manifesting magic, I made a choice. Even though it wasn’t law yet for every mind mage to be thrown into the Labyrinth, I saw a pattern in the king’s increasingly intolerant attitude toward our magic. He wanted to eliminate us, and I couldn’t let that happen to you. I wasn’t certain if you’d manifest, and if you did, what kind of magic you would possess, but there were times I thought I felt your magic, and it felt like mind magic, which has innumerable nuances but always feels cold to me. Fire magic, of course, feels hot. I knew that if you turned out to be a mind mage, that you’d likely be thrown into this prison. So, without even telling your mother, I placed a binding enchantment on you that blinded you to your own magic.”
My stomach lurched, as if I’d fallen off the edge of the platform.
Nan closed her eyes briefly. “I’m sorry, child. I believed it would keep you away from this place. I didn’t want you to be without your magic, but I was so afraid for you. I wanted you to live freely.” Her face fell. “I was wrong. You were brought here despite my best efforts to protect you.”
“Protect me?” My voice cracked at the word. All the condescending comments, disgusted looks, and disappointed moments of my life bubbled up in my memories. “You stifled me. Made me an outcast.”
My heart roiled like bubbling wax. I loved my Nan, and yet, learning what she had done left me with a hole inside that drained away all feeling until I was a hollow shell.
Tears leaked down her cheeks. “It was out of an effort to save you. I see now it was futile. And no words can express how much it pains me to know that what I did was still not enough to keep you out of this place. Can you forgive me, my child?”
At her tears, my anger cracked and my hollow shell quickly flooded once again with care for the woman I’d always admired, always loved. I dove for her, swallowing her frail body in a careful hug.
I would never be the same because of what she did to me. But just knowing that she loved me, that her choices were intended to protect me—it was all I needed. Love came without borders, and if forgiving her was what I needed to bridge the chasm that had just opened up between us, then I would do it. I’d already lost her once, and I didn’t want to go through that again.
Her muffled words hummed in my ear. “I love you. I’m sorry I made your life more difficult.”
I pulled away from her, tears warming my own cheeks now. “I can see my magic now. It looks like silver mist.”
The corners of her mouth pressed into a proud smile. “I bet it’s beautiful, just like you.”
I laughed and wiped my tears away. “Come on, Nan, let’s get out of here.”
Her smile faded. “I’m not going anywhere, dear.”
“What?” My chest tightened.
“I’m too old to get myself down from this loft. I’m too old to traipse through a prison full of monsters.”
The pronouncement weighed on me heavier than the darkness in the tunnels.
“But I have to get out. To save Danny and Archer from whatever the king tries to do to them. I can’t let them…I won’t…”
“There, there. I know well the feeling of wanting to protect those I love at any cost.”
My throat burned as I tried to swallow. “If I can unlock part of this place, I can’t let you stay!”
