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She vanished into the light. The energy contracted into me with a jolt. Its burning ran all the way through my chest, prickling but not outrightpainful.
The haze in my eyes started to clear—but I couldn’t see the guys standing around me. Within the fading light, another visionappeared.
My mother strode into the room. My heart leapt, but then I noticed that she looked just as she had in my other vision of her from seven years ago. The same clothes, the same age. This was the past, not thepresent.
Her hair was rumpled and her cheeks smudged, but her eyes gleamed with determination. Her gaze settled on the crystal—the image of it that had reappeared as part of thisvision.
“There,” she whispered, as if hesitant to disturb the peace of this space. She stepped toward the pedestal—toward the spot where I stood beyond it. I swallowed hard, clenching my hand against the impulse to reach out toher.
She couldn’t see me. This had all already happened. But she seemed soclose.
Mom extended her hands toward the crystal. Her fingers were just about to close around it when something made her head jerk around. I hadn’t heard anything, but the vision didn’t seem to contain any sound at all. Just the rush of energy pulsing past myears.
All at once, a crowd of other figures poured into the room as if straight out of the walls. At least a dozen slim, shimmering fae. One of them rushed between Mom and the pedestal. He shoved her backward with a spark of magic. His lips moved, but I couldn’t make out thewords.
Mom said something back—something angry, from the flash in her eyes. One of the other fae shook his head. A fae woman stepped forward with a sweep of her arm toward thedoorway.
My mother’s jaw tightened. I felt her starting to shift before her body had even twitched with the beginnings of the transformation. But the fae felt it too. At the same time, several of them, all around her, hurled glinting blasts of magic ather.
The blasts hit Mom with a burst of sparks. She staggered, faltering in her attempt to shift. With her arms raised defensively, she whirled around, but the fae were already whipping more of their glittering magic toward her. It smacked into her body, driving her to herknees.
A cry caught in my throat. My legs burned to run to her, as if I could help. I tried to shift them, and my feet stuck to the floor. There was nothing I could do but stand here and watch this piece of history playout.
Mom wasn’t beaten yet. She pushed herself to her feet and lunged at one of the fae. Her face started to transform, scales dappling her skin, a flicker of dragon fire darting from hermouth.
The fae woman winced, but there were too many others. Before Mom could shift any farther, they caught her in another crashing wave ofmagic.
She fell again, this time onto her side. Her chest shuddered as she tried to breathe. Her lips moved with more words I couldn’t hear. Then the fae man who’d blocked her way to the pedestal stepped closer. He clapped his hands and threw a spike of shimmering energy straight at Mom’shead.
She crumpled, her body slumping against the floor. I choked on a sob. The fae looked at each other, a resolved expression crossing all their faces. One by one, they raised their hands over Mom’s form. One stream of light, and then another, and then another, poured down ather.
The edges of her body shimmered, and then slowly started to disintegrate. My stomach turned. I couldn’t stand still any longer. It didn’t matter that this horrible moment was already done and over, seven years past. Ihadto stopthis.
The muscles in my legs bunched to wrench my feet from the floor with every shred of strength in me, to run to her—but my joints locked. A vise seemed to clamp around mylungs.
You must watch,a faint voice echoed in the back of my head.Watch andwitness.
So I did. I watched, my eyes getting hotter and hotter, as the fae’s magic ate away at my mother’s body. I longed to look away, to not have to see this slow destruction, but at the same time it did feel as if it was my duty to witness it. To acknowledge what had become of my mother—and who had done it toher.
When her body had completely faded away, the fae stepped back. The man who seemed to lead them had his mouth set in a grim line, but he brushed his hands together as if this had been nothing more than a brief bit of work. They wisped away into the wallsagain.
The vision fell away from me. The room came back into focus. My legs wobbled, and I clutched at the pedestal to keep mybalance.
Marco and Aaron, still close by, each clasped one of my shoulders. Their presence steadied me, but my eyes were already full of tears. I inhaled with ahitch.
“What happened?” Nate said, moving from the doorway. “For a few minutes there, you looked like you were in anotherworld.”
“I saw what happened here seven years ago,” I said. My voice came out hoarse. I cleared my throat and forced out the rest of the words. “They killed her. The fae killed mymother.”
Chapter 11
Ren
Aaron’s eyeswidened at my declaration. Marco squeezed my shoulder tighter, but I didn’t want comfort right now. I wantedanswers.
I pulled away from him, striding to the wall. One of the walls the fae had emerged from in my vision. I swiped my arm across my teary eyes and raised my voice in a ragged shout. “You! Fae! Where are you? Stop lurking around and come out of there. Own up to what you did, you fucking assholes. Don’t you dare hide away and pretend you don’tknow—”
My voice cut off with a growl of frustration. I lashed out at the rock, my dragon’s talons already protruding from my fingers. They gouged the wall, but I didn’t get any satisfaction from that act of destruction. The fae hadn’t emerged. Fucking cowards. More than a dozen of them ganging up on one woman, battering her until she couldn’t evenstand...
