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.
