Page 3 of Tragic Ink
“What happened?” My voice cracked as I struggled to hold back a sob. “What can Ido?”
“Nothing. It is too late to help me.” She pressed her lips together, and her face contortedsharply.
A sob escaped. “Ma, please. Youcan’t—”
I broke off, unable to say theword.
Die. She couldn’t die. Not yet. Not likethis.
“Listen to me now,” she said quietly. “Hush and listen. I have kept this from you solely for your own safety. I thought I would have more time,but...”
“More time for what?” I asked through tears that blurred her face until I could barely make herout.
She drew a slow, pained breath. I squeezed her hand, willing her to go on. Part of me wanted to tell her to save her breath. To hang on while I ran for help. But something held me there. Something that knew these were our last moments, and I wasn’t willing to waste them on pointless efforts. I blinked until I could see her weathered cheeks and light eyes oncemore.
“Gwen, you are special. Important. I’ve done all I can, but they have never stopped hunting you. You must not let them find you. Leave this house. Don’t come back. Find Rhys. He will know what todo.”
“What are you talking about, Aelwyn? Who is hunting me? Who did this to you?” Her words jumbled against each other in my mind—all of them taking a backseat to the puddle of blood I was now sitting in, while still more leaked from the fresh wounds on her chest. The horror of watching her bleed out this way overrode any sense I might have made of whatever secrets she was trying tospill.
She clutched my hand much too weakly, her eyes pleading with mine. “You are a bright star, Gwenllian. Much too bright to conceal. But you can’t hide anymore. They have come for you. And you must not run from that. You must not run from who youare.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” I sobbed. “Who am I hidingfrom?”
Aelwyn didn’t answer, and for a terrifying moment, I thought she was already gone. My head bowed, and I leaned in to lay my head on her shoulder, my cries filling thesilence.
“You will,” she whispered, so low I might have missed it if I hadn’t been lying so close to her lips. “Rhys will protect you. He alwayshas.”
“Rhys?” I sat up, confused and heartsick at the thought of asking him foranything.
“Promise me,” she said, because Aelwyn knew. She’d always known. Somehow. “Please.”
“I promise,” I said, my voice breaking. My heart ached, because it was a promise I would keep no matter how much I didn’t want to. The first stirrings of rage began in my gut. Even now, I could see the life fading in her, and I knew that when she was gone, I would have nothing else stopping me from my revenge. “Now tell me who didthis.”
“I love you,nighean.”
Daughter.
It was what she called me when she was trying to comfort or reassure me, usually when my magic had gone awry or my heart had felt broken. And it was absolutely broken now. “I love you too, Ma. Don’tgo.”
She didn’tanswer.
My shoulders shook as I lay with my cheek against her shoulder and my hand still squeezing hers. A coldness had seeped into her skin, and now, it felt odd, like I was holding onto a stranger. Thinking that only made me cryharder.
Outside, Ethan gave a sharp call, and I jerked my head up, blinking away the tears that blurred the kitchen cabinets as I looked toward the open door. For a split second, it all slid into place. The reality hit me that Aelwyn was gone and someone had taken her from me. And that someone might still be close by. For a moment, that was enough to dull the grief and sharpen mythoughts.
I looked down at Aelwyn. Her blue eyes were closed, and her chest no longer moved with the rise and fall of labored breaths. I swallowed back a scream as I searched for a pulse. I foundnone.
And just like that, my helplessness vanished. Instead, I had purpose. Not once in my life had I chosen violence to solve something. In fact, the only time violence had occurred at my hands, I’d spent the next few years punishing myself for it. But now, tonight, violence called to me. The idea of avenging Aelwyn made my bloodsing.
No longer frozen in shock, I rose slowly to my feet. When I heard Ethan call again, I sucked in a breath and twisted toward the door. It was a battle cry. The call he used to let me know when he’d found his prey. Sometimes, when I loosed him in the woods behind the house, we’d hunt together. Him with his talons and sharp eyes as he soared overhead. Me with the bow and quiver I kept in my old room upstairs. Tonight, though, I had a feeling he wasn’t signalingdinner.
I wiped my bloody palms on my dark jeans and ran to the knife block, yanking free the largest of the blades. I clutched it tight in my stained hand before racing out into the darkness in the direction of Ethan’s call. If Aelwyn’s murderer was still out there, I was going to find them. And when I did, I was going to killthem.
