Page 141 of Madness of Her Mages

My mates and Shiri’s mates shared jokes and laughter. I caught Shiri’s eye, and we exchanged smiles while gravitating toward each other.

We fell into each other’s arms, hugging and laughing.

I’ve missed you, sister,she projected to me.

I gave a start. It felt like a lifetime since I’d heard her voice in my head.And I’ve missed you—so very much.

When I felt a tug at my skirts, I hoisted Aurora into my arms and Shiri picked up Ember. We hugged again with the girls between us, and that fissure in my heart slowly began to narrow.

“What about Marius?” our mother cried out.

Shiri let out an aggravated groan as she glared at our mother. “As much as I want to help Marius, the demons pose a bigger threat than Malvolia. We must eradicate them before we can confront Malvolia again. I believe the spells Thorin cast on your minds will break if we kill him.”

“Shiri is right,” I said. “The demons pose a bigger threat at the moment than Malvolia.”

Our mother gave us an expectant look. “How do you plan on killing these demons?”

“Lady Chara told us we had to go to Fallax to defeat the demons,” Shiri said.

“Lady Chara?” Our mother let out an unladylike snort. “She’s dead.”

“Mother! A little tact,” I scolded her for her callous words in front of Lady Chara’s sons.

Shiri gave our mother a challenging look. “I already explained to you her spirit spoke to Ember.”

Our father shook his head. “You’re going to believe the imaginings of a child!”

“They’re not imaginings.” Thunderstorms brewed in Shiri’s eyes as she glared at our father. “Ember is a powerful spirit talker.”

Our mother threw up her hands. “Ember is barely out of nappies!”

“That makes no difference.” Shiri rocked Ember on her hip while they shared a smile. “We believe her.” She turned a scowl back on my parents. “She warned me when my mates were coming to kill you both. She delivered a book and a letter to us on Lady Chara’s behalf.”

“What book?” Our father asked, his voice laced with disbelief. “What letter?”

Shiri grimaced. “Malvolia destroyed them.”

Our mother rolled her eyes. “How convenient.”

“I believe her,” I blurted, growing ever tired of the way our parents treated Shiri, and I was assailed with other memories of them treating her this way before. In fact, our entire lives they disrespected my sister, though she tried so hard to prove her worth to them.

“You don’t know your sister anymore, Tari,” our mother snapped while scowling at me.

I looked at my mother a long moment, hardly believing her childish behavior. “And whose fault is that?” I adjusted Aurora on my hip, my heart sighing when she rested her head against me. “If Lady Chara says we need to go to Fallax to defeat the demons, then that’s where we’ll go.”

Our father bowed up his chest. “If you won’t help Marius, I will go to Thebes and free him.”

My mother cut him a glare. “I’m going with you.”

“Malvolia will kill you both,” Shiri blurted.

“Do you take us for fools?” our mother chided, her disdain for my sister a palpable thing as she motioned toward our father. “Do you think we’ll arrive in these bodies?”

Shiri scowled at our parents. “One other thing about the book Malvolia destroyed.” She glared at our mother while Ember mimicked her. “It was a book that you wrote calledThe History of the Monarchy.”

“I-I never wrote a book,” our mother stammered, her eyes clouding with fog.

“You did,” Shiri pressed. “You don’t remember. It shows Avias queens have ruled together for centuries, and nothing, not a damned thing about one twin being evil and one being good. That was another lie fed to you by Thorin to tear our family apart.”

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