Page 208 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

Even as I watch, the blue glow shifts. Her face appears, and the shadowy outlines of her body follow. The gentle lines of aging around her eyes crinkle into a smile. She lifts one arm, her finger pointed. Her voice is not afraid, not angry.Let me show you the way.

“Mama?” I choke. Then I stop myself, turning to Rahk. “It is a trap, isn’t it? Oh, this cursed Wood!”

Rahk steps to my side. His hand lands on my back, but when I look up at him, his face is strangely . . .awed. “I do not think it is a trap.”

Everyone in our group has gone silent.

Hope soars in my chest like never before. I turn back to the blue glow of my mother, floating at the edge of the clearing.

“I have never seen this,” he murmurs. “It has always been said that Caphryl takes slips of spirit from everyone who enters it. I never thought that meant those same spirits could . . .” He trails off. Swallows. Then continues. “Somehow, your mother found a way out of Caphyrl without a Path. This is the remnant of her spirit.”

I look back at the glowing version of my mother, my voice utterly gone. She smiles, all liquid warmth and tenderness.I have missed you so, so much. I am so glad to have found you. Please let me take you out of here so you can go home.

I surge toward her. My legs cannot carry me fast enough. When I reach her, my hands go straight through her. A cry escapes my lips.

Do not be saddened, dear girl,whispers my mother softly.I do not have a body with which to embrace you, but my heart is with you always.She reaches out glowing tendrils of hands. They glide over my face, and when I close my eyes, I can feel the barest warmth at her touch. Everything inside me softens.

“You don’t hate me,” I breathe.

No.Mama smiles, as if the notion is silly.I never have, and I never will. It was my love for you that guided me through this Wood back to you. Now please let me take you out of here. It is dangerous, and I could not bear it if anything happened to you.

I swallow the gathering tears, the rock in my throat, and draw in a deep, clear breath. The last remnants of my fear, of my self-hatred, of my brokenness all evaporate. She loves me. She always did. She never hated me or blamed me or wished I had died that day instead of fallen into the Wood. She came after me, not out of guilt or a sense of responsibility, but because shelovedme.

I grow lighter than air with relief.

Follow me, Kat,Mama calls.This is the way home.

I reach out and grip Becky’s hand. “Let’s get you back to your mother.”

My mother turns and shows the way. We hurry after her. I never let my gaze stray from her form, drinking in the way her hair flows behind her and the bit of profile visible to me.

It seems like only moments before she stops and points. Toward the sun shining through the branches of the Wood. Thehuman sun.

“We made it!” Pavi cries, running forward.

“I’ve got you. Just a little bit longer,” Oliver says to Mary. He takes more of her weight as they disappear into the human world. Everyone in our party seems to rush forward, to throw themselves out of the Wood.

But I stop, turning around.

Mama hovers at my side, smiling down at me. All this time I hated her for abandoning me, when she was here. Always searching for me. Ready to help the moment she found me.

“Thank you,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “I miss you. I don’t want to leave without you.”

She only comes to me and presses her formless lips to my forehead. Warmth fills my core, soothing the last ragged edge of my pain.You aren’t leaving without me,she replies.

I memorize every inch of her face for the last time.

Then her glow winks out.

Instead of loss, a golden glow of peace fills the deepest parts of my heart and grows, until every part of me, down to my fingers and toes, is finally at rest.

I turn.

Rahk has stopped, too. The last one still in the Wood besides me. His neck twitches as he cranes his head to follow the trees to their towering tops. My heart goes out to him. I step to his side and slide my hand in his.

He looks down at me and squeezes my hand. A long, low sigh escapes him. Then his jaw sets in determination.

We step over the border of Faerieland for the last time.

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