Page 24 of Death of a Mortal

The answer both excited me and scared me. The thought of going to Dolvenar was terrifying as a mortal human, but then again, my mother was there, and that was enough to stave off the fear for now. And I finally knew definitively, for the first time in my life that she was still out there. If the banshee was to be believed, anyway. I had nothing else to go on.

My second and final question had been more challenging to choose. There were so many answers I wanted, but the ones I needed had to take priority—like the ones that would help me protect Nella.

I glanced at her then, seeing the unease in her questioning eyes. Right… Nella couldn’t understand the banshee.

“How can I heal this wound and get my vision back?” I motioned toward the left side of my face. “It feels…like there’s still magic inside it, preventing it from healing.” I waited for its answer with bated breath.

“The lightning will fade in time, and the scars will form. The vision, however, is lost.”

My stomach dropped. The banshee either spoke the truth and my mother was alive, but I had permanently lost half my vision, orit was lying, and maybe my mother was dead, but my vision wasn’t lost. Neither potential was desirable, but the former was preferable, so I decided I believed the ancient being.

“You may yet still see, though,” it finished.

“What does that mean?” I asked, a bubble of hope forming in my chest.

“I have already given you more than you asked for and more than I was willing to give. My protective spell on the other’s ears will lift, and I will scream loud enough to make her very brain explode if you are still sitting at my table by the time the elixir turns blue.”

Just then, the elixir over the fire began to stir and change from red to purple. I did not need to be told again.

I grabbed Nella by the hand and pulled her to her feet and to the front door as fast as I could before shoving her over the threshold and following, looking back at the elixir as it turned from purple to an electric blue.

“You never told me what the elixir is for.” My curiosity got the best of me. After all, I’d bled and endured mental torture for it—I deserved to know what it did.

“It’s made of truth and memories. There is great power in those, and they can provide protection against some dark magic. I daresay you’ll need this protection one day, and you’ll be glad for what you endured.”

Before I could ask more questions, it just smiled at me, then slammed the door in my face.

I prayed I would never find myself in a situation where I needed protection from dark magic, and I momentarily wondered if it knew things about the future.

Chapter 8

The Voice in my Head

I wasn’t surewhat concoction I’d just helped the banshee create, but Nella and I had come out of the task nearly unscathed. In fact, my lightning wounds were uninfected and reduced to only a dull ache while Nella’s punctured hand was nearly good as new. The knife slice across my palm was gone completely—this must have been the banshee or its blade’s magic.

I guessed that elixir must be something really special for that terrifying being to actually be somewhat kind to us. After nearly killing us both, of course.

I filled Nella in on the banshee’s answers as we found our way to a path. The same roller coaster of emotions crossed her face as I’d felt—shock at my mother being in Dolvenar, disappointment…followed by hope…at the potentially non-permanent loss of half my sight.

The trees were thinning around us, so it seemed like we were on the right path toward an exit out of this massive forest. The realization that we hadn’t slept or eaten in over a day now set exhaustion and gnawing hunger coursing through my body and stomach. I’d atleast passed out for a few hours on the water bank. Nella had to feel far worse.

But still, we kept walking through the dark.

“What happened to you after the banshee slapped you with the smoke from the cauldron?” she asked, eyeing me. “You fell into this, like, trance and, well, you screamed a lot. And then there was a knife, and it all happened so fast. Then you woke up and started sobbing.”

My heart sank. If I had been screaming during that awful experience, I was sure they were sounds of despair. I had screamed that I wanted to die…

I wished she hadn’t heard that.

“I was trapped in a dark place, and I was forced to watch my greatest fears come alive,” I said with a shudder.

“What were they?” Nella asked with wide eyes.

I told her about the smoke figures and the sex scene, albeit an abridged and nondetailed version, and about my mother not wanting me, which stung to say out loud.

My feelings about my mother were more conflicted than ever. If the rebellion was real and she’d left me to join it, then maybe there was some hope that she’d left for a good reason. And if that were the case, and she was in Dolvenar, maybe she was working against the king right under his nose. These were a lot of “maybes”, but I’d never know unless we found her. So I’d made my mind up about our destination. It had to be Dolvenar.

The mortal purge had already happened in Fellendral, and the fae and royals there were urging other continents to do the same. It made me sick to think about it, but if my mother had left me to join those allegedly rebelling against our king and the mortal purge of our continent, then shehadto be good. I couldn’t believe that a woman with strong morals like that would have no love for her only child. I had to hold on to hope. But I knew hope could be a dangerous thing.