Page 132 of Lady for Embers

“And our mother?”

“She was known to her people as Selinya.” Selinya.

Juliette had said that name. That Queen Selinya had hidden two of the seven Avonleyan keys.

Scarlett nodded, pressing her lips together at the unexpected emotion gathering at the back of her throat. At some point Sorin had slipped his hand into hers, and he squeezed her ?ngers gently.

“When did they... How did they die?”

Cethin did not answer for a long time, as if he were gathering himself as much as she was gathering her own emotions and tucking them away. “Our father died to get our mother out. So she could get you to the other continent.”

“What?” she demanded, rounding on Cethin.

“We were bound here, Scarlett. We could not leave the wards, not without a signi?cant cost. In this case, the cost was his life.”

She pulled her hand from Sorin’s, her ?ngers raking through her hair that she’d left down and loose around her shoulders.

“Our parents died because of me. To get me out,” she said, feeling the weight of that truth settle into her soul. Sorin was already reaching for her, spinning her by her shoulders, surely feeling the guilt she was taking on down their bond.

“No, Love. Do not do that. You are not responsible for their choices,” he said, his tone brokering no room for argument.

But there was room. Because those choices would not have needed to be made if she hadn’t...

If she hadn’t existed. “Stop,” he snarled.

“He is right, Scarlett. They would make the same choices all over again, do things exactly the same,” Cethin said gently.

“How can you possibly know that if they are no longer here?” she asked.

“Our father no longer lives, Star?re. But our mother does.”

Star?re.

She stepped out of Sorin’s hold and moved to face Cethin. “Our mother...Mymother is alive?”

He nodded.

“Then where is she?”

“In Elshira.”

“In Shira Forest. Where the spirit animals reside,” Scarlett clari?ed.

“Yes.”

“Where we cannot freely travel. Why is she there?”

“Because that is where she is safe and what she guards is monitored. Until the Maraans are taken care of, and she can leave this world,” Cethin replied. At her confused stare, he pushed out a harsh breath. “There is no easy way to say this that will lessen the shock, so I am just going to say it, Scarlett. Our mother is Saylah.”

“Saylah,” Scarlett repeated.

“Yes.”

“Saylah. The goddess of night and shadows.”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t help the laughter that fell from her lips. “The daughter of Arius and Sera?na.ThatSaylah is our mother?”

---