Page 21 of Shattered Jewel

The truth is, I have no idea. My mother is paranoid enough to ensure the gun’s chamber is filled with bullets, but she’s also scared enough to leave it empty in case it’s ever used against her.

Mom stares at me, into me, with wild, untamed hatred, her eyes shining with furious tears over the barrel of the gun.

“Fifty-fifty,” I say to Sasha, who deserves nothing but honesty.

“Fuck.” Sasha inches back a step, her hands raised. “How good is her aim?”

I’m too focused on my mother to answer. Her finger tenses on the trigger, knuckles blanching white.

“I know who you are,” she snarls. “And you’re not my daughter. You’re not going to do to her what you did to my son. I’ll make sure of it.”

Sasha trembles, a choked sob escaping her throat. “Please, don’t, Mrs. Wraithwood.”

I raise my hands slowly, palms out. “Mom, listen to me. You don’t want to do this.”

“I am not your mother!”

“You are.” The sob finally comes, swelling in my throat before releasing with a painful keen. “You’re Caroline Wraithwood, your son was Maverick, and I’m your daughter, Elara.”

Her eyes, manic and darting, turn dull and lifeless with a single blink. “My son is gone.”

I nod despite Sasha frantically warning, “Don’t say anything to upset her!”

“But I’m still here. I’m alive, with you,” I plead, my hands raised, fingers shaking. “Maverick’s with Dad now, and you and I have each other. You’ll always have me, Mom.”

With a single jerk of her chin, her paranoia returns. “You’re not her! You were in here, in black, and now you’ve shapeshifted because I saw you trying to hide. I saw you despite your attempts to deceive me, you fucking devil. And now you beg me? Make me think you’re Elara? Liar. Liar, liar, LIAR!”

“Change tactics,” Sasha pleads to me. “Change them real quick, El.”

But I’m at a loss for words as my mother raises the gun higher, its barrel aligned with my chest.

“Mom,” I sputter out, desperate and yanking at any memory I can to prove to her I’m real, “I heard you. I heard what you said to me when you thought I was asleep, when you snuck into my room when I was eight, remember?”

She pauses, her roaming stare locking onto mine.

Drawing on the memory, I say, “You’d just come home from your first gala since Dad died. It was so hard for you, you said, so impossible to do without him even though eight years had passed and you should be better by now. But then you …” I swallow against the swelling in my throat. “You said how you remembered who was waiting for you at home. Your reason for surviving, for enduring for as long as you have. Me. I was your last piece of Darian Wraithwood, and I was so small, your baby, his baby, and I needed you. You couldn’t leave me, and I helped you keep going. Do you remember that? How could I know that if I wasn’t truly Elara?”

Mom’s grip loosens on the trigger. “Elara?” she whispers.

“Yes, Mom.” I nod, tears streaming down my face while I keep my hands up. “It’s me. I’m here.”

Her gaze darts to Sasha, then back to me. “You’re... you’re not one of them? You’re not here to take me? Not like your father?”

The mention of my father in her harrowing question sends a jolt through me. “What do you mean like Dad?”

Mom’s eyes fill with an eerie, distant look. “He was born into it, groomed for it.”

Sasha and I exchange shocked expressions. Her arms must ache as much as mine, the way we’re holding them aloft, not daring to lower them.

“Dad was part of the Cimmerian Court?” My question comes out in a hushed murmur.

“Mavvy.” Mom’s hoarse voice is barely audible, yet it commands my full attention. “He knew... knew too much. Tried to shield us all.”

My heart clenches at my mother’s words, the weight of Maverick’s actions suddenly pressing down upon me. What did he uncover, and why had he felt compelled to protect us at such a cost?

“Hidden truths,” Caroline continues, her gaze piercing through the haze of her delusions. “In the walls, beneath the floors, in the heart of our houses.”

I exchange another look with Sasha, seeing my own confusion reflecting back. The Cimmerian Court, my father, my brother, the ruby Heart…

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