Page 66 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I didn’t have time to puzzle over its meaning, because a moment later the paper erupted into full flame and reduced to ashes. I panicked for a second, wondering if I could remember the path it showed me. But the image had burned itself into my mind. I got up and ran.

I cameto the first wall in a matter of minutes. The flame had just gone through it, so I attempted to do the same, thinking it was some sort of illusion.

My nose cracked against the stone, and I fell back. I almost laughed out loud, wiping the blood from my face for the second time that morning. I pushed myself back up and felt the wall with one hand, my torch still in the other. One of the stones felt hollow to my touch, thinner, and I pushed it in. The wall turned, as if on an axle in the middle. It revealed an opening, and I ran through. Two lefts, one right, and another left. And then I faced a dead-end once more.

I pressed my ear to the dark brick. If the map directed me correctly, the holding cells were on the other side. Muffled sounds echoed through the cracks. I ran my fingers around the wall pieces, and one of the bricks wiggled in its place. Slowly, I drew it out, and set it on the floor, willing my breath to quiet. Distant words came into focus.

“You know, I tire of your visits, sister,” Jana’s voice said. I peeked through, attempting to see to whom she spoke, but the lack of light obscured the curved passage. Even with my Fae sight, they were too far away.

“You forfeited calling me that long ago, Janathia. You will address me properly,” the other voice said and my insides turned cold.

Jana cried out in response. “Yes, Rexi,” she breathed, her voice dripping with resentment and pain.

My jaw loosened.Sister? That would make Jana my?—

“You are a pathetic excuse for a Nebbiolon. Did you really think I wouldn’t know you went for Terra? A traitor, that is what you are,” the Rexi said.

Aunt.I pressed my lips together, continuing to suppress the sound of my breathing.

“You may have been fine to let the Drakkarians and Viri feud for centuries over her disappearance, killing countless innocent in the process, but I was not,” Jana shot back.

“I was protecting the queendom, you simpleton,” the Rexi spat in rage, sounding more unhinged than I thought I’d ever hear her. “Yes, I am a mother, but I am a queen first. I could have killed Terra, you know. There were many who believed that to be the only way to protect Nebbiolo from her.”

Though I’d already stopped moving, her words stilled my heart. The Rexi worried about her queendom’s protection.From me.The image of flying debris that had almost killed Dane danced in my head. Was my power what she truly feared?

“But I sent her away,” the Rexi continued. “To protect my people, our people. To protecther. I had to fake her death—the Elders wouldn’t have rested any other way. And you, you ruined that! Many more, of our own kind for that matter,her included, will suffer because of your actions.”

Jana made a huffing sound, as if she wasn’t buying the story her sister sold. “And what about Viturius? What ofhim? Do you think of him at all? Or is he simply collateral damage to you?”

I furrowed my brow at the mention of my birth father.

The Rexi was silent a moment. “We both know it wasn’t me who killed Viturius. That burden is on you, dear sister.”

With that, footsteps on the cold, wet stone grew faint with distance. Then, no sound remained, save for soft weeping from Jana.

I didn’t haveendless time before Olea would return to find me, but I waited as long as I could, both to ensure the Rexi had gone, and to give myself a moment to process the information their conversation revealed. Jana was my aunt. She was family. I didn’t know if that knowledge made me trust her more instinctually, or more furious at the lies she spun to her own blood.And what about the ‘danger’ I supposedly posed to the Nebbiolon people?I gazed at my fingertips, wondering what wreckage the Rexi thought my hands would cause.

I found the wall lever and pulled it, the gentle scrape of stone against stone echoing through the halls. The cells were not empty, but neither did they house true life. The prisoners were largely immobile in their chains, unaware of me as I passed them. And then, I came upon Jana’s cell.

She sat on the ground, covered in filth. Her back pressed into the wall, her hands and feet bound in silver to suppress her magic. And while I’d been harboring anger and resentment towards her, it melted away seeing her like that.

“Jana,” I whispered, placing a hand on the bar of her cell.

“Terra.” She blinked her eyes open and looked at me. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough.”

“I suppose you feel betrayed,” she murmured, looking toward the other end of the cell.

“You lied to me.” My cool voice bounced off dripping stone walls. “You told me my mother died. You swore you didn’t speak falsely to me.”

“Terra, the mother that bore you, the mother that swelled with you inside her—she is dead. She has been for some time. Ididnotlie about that. But,” her voice hitched. “But she is dead because I killed her.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”

She cleared her throat. “I suppose I should start at the beginning.” She exhaled in preparation, pausing a moment. “Your mother, several decades my junior, was a brilliant Witch growing up. Siphoned so young, so full of life?—”

“What is a Siphon? I keep hearing that word.”

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