Chapter 59 - You can’t be
EMMA
The strength in my legs gives out and I fall to the ground. The cold hard stone collides hard with my knees. The fidget water soaks my jeans and leaves a chill on my spine.
The light from one of the holes in the wall illuminates her face. The sky-blue eyes of my mother are dark and weathered, but there’s still fire in them. She’s sitting on the ground four feet away from me. She’s dressed in scraps of dirty fabric and dirt stains run over her skin, but she still looks strong.
I want to speak, but no words come out. My mother is dead, this can't be real.
Hadrian kneels down next to me and runs a hand over my back. “Are you okay?” He pulls me closer into his body and his warmth seeps through my clothes.
“Stay away from her.” My mother growls and I flinch. Her attention is on Hadrian and her growl is animalistic and possessive.
Hadrian growls back at her. “Or what? Who are you?” The pressure of his arm becomes heavier around me and for a moment I think Hadrian will haul me away.
My mother bares her canines. “I’m her mother.”
This woman before me looks exactly like my mother seven years ago and at the same time doesn’t. She has fierce eyes and sharp canines. *Since when does my mother have canines?*
I want to get closer, but the silver bars hold me back. I want to know for sure that this isn’t a figment of my imagination.
My hands grip tight around the bars. “You’re alive,” I whisper the words that I thought I would never speak. Tears are already brimming my vision and I blink them away.
“You can’t be her mother. You’re a werewolf, she’s human.” Hadrian says as he looks her up and down with a scowl. His words echo off the walls before they truly reach me.
My mother is a werewolf? My world tilts for the second time in a short period. But would that mean…
My mother looks from Hadrian to me. There is apprehension and melancholy in her eyes. “Half-human.”
I’m half-werewolf? I’ve never felt anything other than human. I’m not strong, I don’t heal fast and I don’t have werewolf coordination. I don’t even think that I have human coordination.
“You’re a werewolf?” The words are barely a whisper in the dark. My voice is so fragile that it nearly breaks.
“I am.”
Thoughts run a mile a minute in my head and my brain can’t keep up, but one thought runs on repeat. I watched her die, how can she be alive?
“What happened that night?”
Her eyes turn sad as they look at me. “I knew they were coming for every blue-eyed woman and girl. I knew Zeno was going to kill me.”
“But you’re alive.”
Her hand runs over the fabric covering her chest. “The injury that Zeno gave me would be fatal for most werewolves, but he didn't know that I heal quicker than most. We have a powerful healing gene in our bloodline.”
Lucas found me that night in the hunter's cabin. I still don’t know how, but he did. Our mother was dead. We wouldn’t have left her if we knew that she was alive. Guilt swirls in waves in my stomach and chokes me up.
“Our ancestors stem from the White Moon pack in the farthest part of Septentrion.” She explains further, before dropping another bomb.
“Some of it resides in you too.”
I lift a trembling hand to my own chest. “Me?” I turn to Hadrian and look at his healed hand. Could it really be that I have a healing power in my blood or is it just the mate connection accelerating his healing process?
Hadrian looks from me to my mother. “The White Moon pack was eradicated many years ago by Alpha King Maxius. Long before any of us was alive.”
I’ve read this too, it was in one of the books about the history of Sanguinem. Alpha King Maxius used the power of the Blood Moon to gain power and create the kingdom.
“Some have escaped. They are either hiding in plain sight or they have moved to the human world.” My mother counters.
Hadrian narrows his eyes at my mother. “Why are you here? In Sanguinem?” His commanding tone is hard to ignore.
My mother grimaces and the hostility between them hangs painfully in the air. “I’ve lived in Sanguinem for many years before. I served your father, Alpha King Magnus as a prophetess.”
“Prophetess?” I repeat.
My mother nods. “Descendants from the White Moon pack have many abilities and therefore they formed a threat to King Maxius one hundred and eighty years ago.” Her face is grave.
Water trickles from the ceiling in a gentle tap, it gives a rhythm to her words.
“King Magnus found out there were still some of us alive, however, he used my abilities for his own gain.” She looks down at the ground and clutches the fabric of her clothes. “I escaped to the human world and there I found my human mate.”
Her eyes are clouded as if fallen into vivid memory. “You were born during the full moon and on that night I got a vision, a prophecy.” She whispers and stays quiet after that.
“What was the prophecy?” Hadrian growls.
She blinks her eyes and turns to look at Hadrian. “The Alpha King will fall when his heir finds their blue-eyed mate.” The words echo from the walls.
Hadrian freezes and I do the same. I look at Hadrian. I’m his chosen mate. I don’t have blue eyes. If the prophecy is true, what would that mean? Am I standing in the way of fate or will fate catch up and trample on my heart? The idea that Hadrian is fated to someone else is already breaking my heart.
My mother sighs. “Oriane was my best friend. I wanted to warn her, but the king found out.”
“So my father killed them all,” Hadrian says as he connects the dots.
“This was never about revenge.” I fill in. It was always about killing off Hadrian’s fated mate. Did they succeed or is she still alive?
Hadrian turns his head to the dark tunnel and mutters a string of curses. “The guards are coming, they must have heard us. We have to go.”
“But—“ Footsteps echo through the hall of more than one guard.
“Now.” Hadrian growls.
A hand grips around my wrist and the hiss of burned flesh reaches my ear. My mother has her fingers tightly wrapped around my wrist. Her arms start to blister with the burn of silver. “Do you still have your necklace?”
I rest my free hand below my throat. Behind the thick fabric of my sweater hides my silver necklace. “Yes.”
She gives me a small smile. “Good, go.”
Hadrian’s big arm winds around my waist and hauls me away from the cell. I watch my mother disappear in the darkness.
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