Chapter 29 · Mom Walks Out Under Blood Moon

My mother's hand is in Silas's.

That's the first thing I see. Not her face. Not the way she's standing there like she didn't die six years ago. Just her fingers wrapped around his, casual, like they've done this a thousand times.

The bond slams into me so hard I can't breathe. Ronan's shock hits first, then his rage, then something darker underneath that I don't have a name for. I feel it all through the vow we just made, the one that locked us together with blood and bone and words I can't take back.

"Mom?"

My voice comes out small. I hate that. I hate how young I sound, how much I want her to explain, to tell me this is some kind of trick Silas pulled, that she's been trapped all this time and he's the one who kept her here.

But she looks at me, and her eyes are black.

Not moon-touched black. Not the silver-edged darkness I remember from when she used to read to me before bed. Just empty. Flat. Like someone scraped out everything that made her my mother and left a shell that knows how to smile.

"Mara," she says.