Page 97 of Drawn in Blood
“He did need you, Mo Stór.” Aoife smiled. “Not to open it, but for what was inside.”
Ember bit her lip, suddenly feeling very hot, like the fire across the room was licking at the tips of her fingers, singing her hair and nose.
“There is a spell potion in the book,” she continued. “It is very complicated with many ingredients that are almost impossible to find, but it would heal his magical core completely.”
“What does that have to do with me,” Ember asked.
“The key ingredient, the one he has been searching for for years, is Wildling blood.”
Ember froze—she couldn’t have heard that correctly. “And the children in the dungeon? They’re all Wildlings?”
“Oh, no,” Aoife almost laughed, “not the ones who have been tested thus far anyway. He’s been testing their blood for the last year to see if there were any in hiding. Underaged Vala have notoriously strong magic, it would be easier to detect in a young one. We started with the Fae children, to see if we could get by with it, but it was unsuccessful. That’s when we started testing on Vala.”
“And then you found me,” Ember said. It wasn’t a question. Something told her the timing wasn’t coincidental.
“You were meant to be his savior the day I found out what you were.”
What…
Something about the way Aoife looked at her made her sick to her stomach—like she was an animal she had been hunting all season and finally had in her crosshairs.
“That’s why we left,” Ember whispered, puzzled pieces shifting together. “That’s why we left the island, to keep me away from him.”
Aoife all but rolled her eyes, nostrils flaring. “Your father didn’t agree with my decision to give you to your granda’, but I knew you were his only chance. I made a plan when you were six to bring you home, but he found out.”
Arguments in the dead of night flitted through her mind—a screaming match against the night sky while waves churned underneath her.
“This will keep you safe.”
Her father’s words rattled around in her head as she twirled the ring on her right hand. Had he put some sort of protection spell on it? Could that have been what Cormac was talking about? A spell to hide her in plain sight, away from her mother?
“You took me on the boat,” she whispered. “We were on that boat because of you.” Ember felt like the breath had been knocked out her lungs, and she was suddenly filled with a fire in her chest that threatened to consume her entirely.
“The sky was clear that night,” Aoife replied, shaking her head. “There were no storms on any radars. It shouldn’t have happened like that.”
Ember’s bottom lip trembled. “You killed him.” She felt something in her break, shattering into a million pieces.
Aoife looked like she had been smacked. “I might be a villain,” she hissed, “but I am not a monster.”
“My entire childhood was ripped away from me because ofyou.” Ember suddenly couldn’t breathe, her lungs felt like they were slowly filling with water.
“What happened to you made you stronger.” Aoife gave her a small, comforting smile that turned Ember’s stomach.
“I was a child,” Ember whispered, as she took a step back. “I didn’t need to be strong, I needed to be safe.”
Aoife tried to say something, to argue her point, but Ember cut her off.
Ember shook her head. “So, your plan was to just hand me over? To leave me locked up in a castle and have my core drained? To what end?”
Aoife sighed as she looked at the ceiling. “Our family was promised this island thousands of years ago. It is our birthright. We all must make sacrifices for the greater good.”
“And I was the lamb you chose to sacrifice?”
“I wish it could be different,” Aoife replied. “We tried so hard to find another Wildling with enough power for what we needed, but you are his last hope. When your brother came along,” she continued, “I thought he would solve our problems,” she replied, “but he didn’t have the same…mutationthat you did. He couldn’t help your granda’ the way he needed.”
Mutation.
Ember suddenly felt sick. This was what her mother thought of her—this is who she was to her, just a means to an end. She furrowed her brow. “Is that why you never bothered to learn sign language?”
