Page 96 of Cursed Shadows 5

I always knew you loved yourself.

So why was I surprised?

Yet, you are a surprise, Narcissa.

You are a sister to be proud of. But you are not my sister anymore.

The family you have chosen is not ours. The life you have chosen is not ours.

I understand this.

Yet I will write often and tell you about Fáelán as he grows. If you wish to read the letters and not respond, I will accept that. If you feed the letters to flames, I will never know.

I do hope one day you will come home.

I know that day will never come.’

Pandora did not sign off the letter.

Instead, there is a small smear of blood, creased with the lines that come from a fingertip.

She finishes the letter with her blood so that I know it is truly from her. I lift the parchment—and I sniff the red mark. I have no sense for blood, I am litalf, I am female, I cannot differentiate.

The gesture is sincere… but pointless.

Eamon calls from the kitchen, “What did she say?”

“A lot.” I push up from the armchair and stalk for the bedchamber. “I need to write her.”

Eamon does not follow.

I move for the nightstand between the two beds and, wrangling the drawer out, snatch a parchment scrap and some inkpots and quills.

I settle myself on the foot of my bed to write my response.

‘Sister, I have little to offer you but the truth. I give you no lies. This is not an answer to your letter, which I found to be sorrowful and desperate.

I do not forgive, I do not forget. And yet, I must.

The ruin of our family is not anything I wished for.

The ruin of your child’s future is unwanted.

So I will give you what I can.

The truth.

You will hand this to Ronan and with it, he might save his career.

Henceforth, I will tell what happened on the summit.’

And I do.

I recount everything.

I include Mother’s whispers.

I include my failures.

---