Page 60 of When Day Breaks

"Lucyn-I mean, Your Highness." She sheepishly rubs the back of her neck as she clears her throat. "There's a lot here, a lot we have to unpack. But I'm willing to look past it if we can agree to work together on this." She crosses her arms over her leather jacket.

I eye up the rest of her outfit, black jeans, black shirt, black jacket, black boots. Almost identical to what I chose to wear today, as if we're on a top secret mission. Except my boots go to my knees where hers are more of a combat style. And my shirt is a ribbed turtleneck while hers is more of a loose-fitted t-shirt. Her onyx-colored hair is wrapped in a tight, sleek bun that sits right at the top of her head whereas my snowy strands lay in a braid off to one side of my shoulders.

I catch a glimpse of a tattoo that peeks out from under the sleeve of her jacket. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it before. It’s a single word inked out in some kind of fancy mix of print and cursive. I don’t want to stare too long but from here, it looks like it spells outwomen. It intrigues me and I want to ask her about it, but I decide to let it go knowing that it isn’t really of importance.

There are similarities in us all while we stand out from each other in the same breath. A sister I've always wanted and I might have ruined our relationship before it even truly began. But I know that just as Rivian has to work to build back what could have been with me, I have to do the same with her. So, I nod in agreement which is good enough for her.

She turns on her heel and swings her other foot out in front of her to face the door.

"Ready to go visit Mom, little sis?" She offers and I see a slight smirk curl against her naturally pink lips, where mine are colored a bright red.

I smile back at her and open the door. "As ready as I'll ever be." And in no less than a minute, we're off to the kingdom of Valor Cove.

It's a few hours later when we arrive in Vermont, a place I didn't think I'd ever step foot in again. Granted I found myself there in a fit of anger, motivated by my new vampirism and the jealous rage I felt when that bird-chick came in to taunt me and my husband. But here we are again, driving through the once gorgeous hills and rich houses reminding me all too well that the beauty on the outside does not guarantee beauty on the inside.

I thought that if we could havemanifestedhere, it would shorten the time we spent driving but I forgot that my sister doesn't always play by vampire rules. She suggested we take the drive—she was speeding most of the time—in order to let our minds relax for a few hours before we scramble it with more family drama, she said.

I appreciated her offer, because the drive definitely soothed me over for a while; the winds blew through the cracks in the windows and the soft rock that Troian listened to settled into the silence. It was bliss. But as we turn off the highway and find ourselves on a dirt road—one I've never seen before—in the middle of nowhere, I can tell we're nearly there.

It's strange that my mother decided to hide away in a Society so close to my hometown. The town she gave birth to me in. Or at least not far from it.

Fallen Meadows is the town I went to school in, the same school where I got belittled everyday by my now deceased ex step-sisters. I'd only killed one of them that night but I know that Rivian finished the job and made it look like some kind of double murder-suicide to save my ass. Whatever the case, this town was home—is still home—to a lot of painful memories. Memories I kept bottled up, not quite tightly sealed, and now, I feel the pain flood me knowing that my mother was here all along. Or at least some of the time.

Was she here to keep an eye on me? Did she watch me from the shadows too? If so, how could she watch what I went through day in and day out without stepping in somehow?

I feel the car slow as the crunch of gravel sounds beneath the tires. I look ahead at the window and see . . . nothing.

"Cloaked," Troian says. "Just like Hollows Trace." I guess I never thought that all Societies remain hidden from plain sight just the same.

"How are we getting in without getting detected?" I wonder.

"Well, normally, visitation between societies has never been a problem, so it's not a big secret that we know where all the Nocturnes compounds are. Normally, all we'd have to do is name drop the person we're visiting and they'd let us in. We just have to follow their rules." Troian grins and something tells me that she doesn't always like to follow the rules. “I was at a party not far from here the night my brother saved you,” she adds as she looks around and so many things go through my mind. Like how small of a world this really is, and how mysterious.

To think that she could have been anywhere that night or that Rivian could have been too busy to come find his sister. Would he have never found me? Learned who I was and used me for…

I have to stop thinking about that. What’s done is done.

I look over to Troy to see her scoping out her surroundings.

When we had the little family meeting the other day, I had realized she was the only one who didn't speak up or have a secret to spill. The only thing remotely scandalous I know about her is that she's been hooking up with—or has hooked up with—Rivian's ex-fiancé,

Ugh. The word sounds hideous coming out of my mouth.

Maybe this is a chance to find out if Troy has any hidden agendas of her own.Or maybe you should mind your own business and focus on the task at hand,I tell myself.

"Travois used to visit our mom,” she disrupts my thoughts. “Or at least I thought until he confessed that he hadn't been?" She rubs her temples. "Ugh, my head is starting to spin again," she singsongs in a frustrated tone in which I giggle at.

Troy shoots daggers at me with her stern eyes and I hold my hand up in defense, palms face out as I push into the back of the seat. "Sorry," I defend myself before she continues her explanation.

"Each kingdom has an access code, one for each Royal of the kingdom. Which, I guess our mom is or was a Royal?" she questions herself. "I can't be sure anymore what's what but regardless, Ameliana had given him her code to use whenever he wanted access."

"An access code?" My eyebrows dip in confusion and she just waves me off.

"I'm sure you'll get yours soon. But what I'm getting at is, I was able to talk Trav into giving me the access code. So I'm thinking we can either use it and try our best to sneak undetected past the gate guards or…" she trails off, pointing her eyes to the ceiling of the car and twisting her lips to the side.

"Or what?" I urge her.

"Nope. That's the option. That's our only choice." She shrugs her shoulders and I scoff. “We have to enter through the gate to make entry or the cloak stays unlifted to our eyes,” she adds as she squints her eyes forward. “Once the gate is open and we pass through, we’re free tomanifestthe shit over to the castle.”

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