I reached out, stilling the hand that had performed what I could only imagine was the beginning of some kind of spell. Whether it was to defend herself or attack I couldn’t be sure, but she glanced down at my hand that held hers and twisted her head to the side, her brow furrowing as she studied me.
“I will burn what remains of the Resistance to the ground to find her. The order came from Mab herself, and you know as well as any that I am bound to complete that order. No matter what it takes, Imelda,” Caldris explained, making Imelda heave a sigh.
She nodded once as I released her, turning to look over her shoulder. “Fallon,” she called, summoning a woman forward. I recognized her from the common cavern that first night we’d arrived in the tunnels and seen her in passing for a few brief moments in the time we’d spent here afterwards. She was a few years older than I, her dark hair gleaming as it hung down past her shoulders. One side was twisted into two braids that pulled away from her face and clung to her skull, revealing the deep line of a single scar that started at the center of her forehead and slashed through her eyebrow. It reappeared on her cheek, fading into the line of her jaw. Her eyes were wide-set and hazel, dark compared to her pale skin. Imelda put a hand on each of the woman’s shoulders, pulling her forward to stand before her.
“This is her?” Caldris asked, tilting his head to the side as he studied her, perhaps searching for any hint of recognition of his tormentor’s bloodline within her. I wasn’t certain how lineage worked with reincarnation; how someone could still be Mab’s daughter after centuries of living and dying and being reborn to new parents. That kind of power had to be etched upon our souls, carrying through our lives in some way.
“I don’t know,” Imelda admitted, her fingers grasping Fallon more tightly. Fallon’s lips turned down into a frown, whatever truth Imelda planned to share something she wasn’t entirely aware of.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Caldris asked, his irritation leaking into his voice as he studied the witch.
“There were two children, two girls brought to us for protection the night the Veil was formed. Fallon is one of them and could very well be the daughter you seek,” Imelda admitted, hanging her head.
Caldris stilled at my side, his body tensing with the words Imelda spoke. I only knew he’d believed Mab’s daughter to be with the Resistance because it was the entire reason for his deception and infiltrating their numbers in the first place. What could possibly interest the witches in the way Mab’s daughter could? “Two children?” he asked, tipping his head to the side as he considered the words. His shock was evident in the silence that followed.
I cleared my throat, breaking it. “How do you know? That was lifetimes ago.” I studied the woman standing in front of me. She stared back at me, as interested in me as I was in her.
“She bears the witch’s mark,” Imelda said, reaching down to take Fallon’s hand in hers. She raised it, showing me the white crescent moon that appeared to be burned into Fallon’s skin—a magical brand.
“It is a mark that each clan of witches has the ability to place upon the souls of the people they are tasked with protecting,” Caldris explained, his body remaining tight at my side. “It is not done often, but each clan can only produce the one mark. So the girls would both share the same one, if what Imelda says is true. If the girls were both in the Void at the same time, there would be no telling which was which by the time they were reborn.”
“But where is the other girl?” I asked, looking from him to Imelda. Our ability to return to Alfheimr, to stop in Catancia and complete our bond before we could rally against Mab, depended on him finding her daughter to complete his duty to her.
“I do not know,” Imelda said with a sigh. She pursed her lips, as if the truth pained her as much as it pained us to hear it. “She was taken from the Resistance by her guardian three lifetimes ago. He must have shielded her from view and disguised her witch’s mark. We’ve tried to find her but have been unsuccessful. She could be anywhere by now.”
Caldris groaned, dropping his head forward. “The other girl. What was she that was so significant she needed protecting? Was she the child of one of Mab’s enemies?”
“I don’t know that either. That information was guarded by the elders. We knew that one of them was the child of Mab and that someone would come for her one day, but only the elders know the truth of the other and what her purpose will be in all of this,” Imelda answered, turning her attention to where the Wild Hunt watched from the sides of the cavern.
“Then bring me your elders.”
“One is dead at the hands of the other. The other,” she said, her gaze connecting with Caldris’s, “is the guardian who stole the other child.”
“Of course it was,” Caldris said, his anger palpable as it filled the cavern surrounding us. “You had better hope she is Mab’s daughter and not the mystery being, for all our sakes. Mab will show you the meaning of pain if she thinks you have some knowledge of her daughter and do not share it. We leave in an hour. Both of you take the time to say your goodbyes and pack your belongings,” Caldris said, the order resonating between them. Imelda nodded, the motion followed by Fallon’s as she moved to an older couple waiting on the sidelines.
Her family, I realized.
Fallon glared back at Caldris, an odd sort of resignation in her gaze. Whatever she did or didn’t know about herself, it was clear that she’d always known the day would come when she would need to leave her human family behind. Our eyes met briefly, nothing but a fleeting moment of connection that seemed to arc between us. It was over as quickly as it began, with Fallon tearing her eyes away from mine and stepping into her father’s embrace.
I squeezed my eyes closed, heartache pulsing through me. I knew what it was to leave our family behind, to be forced to go on a journey that we neither chose or wanted.
It was misery, and I was a part of it now.
25
ESTRELLA
The Fae Marked had already been shuffled out through the tunnels, led to the surface so they could be loaded into carts and undoubtedly shackled when they reached the surface. I appreciated that Holt and the Wild Hunt spared their friends and family from the sight of them in chains before they left.
I moved through the passage toward the surface, unable to function with the knowledge that had been thrown at me so quickly. Imelda had known the truth, and as she walked alongside me while Holt and Caldris discussed their plans for the coming days, I didn’t know if I should be appalled by that. “Why didn’t you warn anyone?” I asked her, falling into step with her as she maneuvered away from Fallon.
I had no doubt the other woman would feel the same, that she’d long to know why someone she appeared to be very close with hadn’t moved to protect her in the slightest.
“I chose peace over knowledge,” Imelda said, her voice soft as it carried between us. The end of the tunnels loomed up ahead, and the first riders of the Wild Hunt stepped out into the winter sunshine to leave the center of the Resistance behind us. There was too much at stake to think of it as a good thing, the missed opportunities for alliances making something inside of me ache.