Page 53 of Returned to the Vissigroth
Darryck hesitated, glancing at Thalia. She gave him a nod, a small smile playing on her lips, and she arched an eyebrow atMallack to let him know that she was aware of how he was trying to sneak the males out.
“Go,” she said. “I’m safe here.”
He exhaled and followed Mallack and Myccael without further argument.
As they walked away, I caught a snippet of Mallack’s low voice, “I don’t know what she remembers. But when she looked at Thalia…” he trailed off, but I didn’t need to hear the rest. I felt it too. That unshakable certainty that some pieces of me were coming back together.
Thalia turned toward me, her eyes still rimmed with tears, though they shimmered with something gentler now. “You’re really here,” she whispered again, like she couldn’t quite believe it even now.
I reached for her hands and held them tightly between mine. “I don’t remember much. Hardly anything, really. But when I saw you…” My throat caught, but I forced the words out. “It was like something inside me finally exhaled.”
She nodded, her expression softening. “I felt it too. I’ve seen portraits of you, videos, and Darryck and Father told stories; I even dreamed of what it would be like to meet you, but nothing, nothing prepared me foryou.”
I chuckled, watery and uneven. “You sound like your father.”
Her lips curled. “Don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll get smug.”
“Too late,” I said, glancing toward the hill where the males were disappearing. “He already is.”
We both laughed, and the sound was healing in ways I hadn’t expected. It wasn’t like waking from a dream; it was more like discovering I hadn’t been dreaming at all. That the ache in my heart hadn’t been emptiness, but the shape of something I’d once had, and maybe could have again.
Thalia reached into the pack on her belt and pulled something small out, a polished stone the color of sunset glass, wrapped in a delicate copper wire. She handed it to me. “I brought this. I don’t know why. I just… I thought you might like it.”
I turned the stone over in my fingers. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s from Gorgolum,” she said quietly. “Where the Zuten were buried. Where they were reborn. I guess I thought… maybe it would help.”
I held the stone against my chest. “It does.”
"I grabbed it after I heard the rumors of you. I didn't want to believe them," her smile was pressed and wry, "but I guess deep down I must have."
"Thank you," I kissed both of her cheeks, and I couldn't find the words to describe how that felt. Being able to kiss my daughter. It was incredible. Even though I had no memories of missing her, there was something inside me, a remnant of a memory, a sadness, that was dissipating with every passing second. Like a bad smell after you open the windows.
Oksana stepped closer. She had stayed silent and respectful a few paces away. “I don’t know you,” she said, not unkindly. “And I'm sure there is a big story behind you being here—” she jerked her chin in the direction Myccael had gone, “—but, what are those males up to?”
Thalia followed Oksana’s gaze toward the rise where the males had disappeared. Her brows pinched together immediately. “They look like they’re about to sneak off.”
Oksana snorted. “Theyaresneaking off.”
I squinted, and sure enough, Mallack, Darryck, and Myccael were gathered near the nictas. Low voices, purposeful strides. I recognized that look on Mallack’s face: focus laced with quiet frustration. Whatever it was, it wasn’t just a friendly patrol. I stood abruptly, dusting my hands on the front of my breeches. “They’re going to explore the Zuten chamber.”
Both seffies froze.
“Thewhatnow?” Thalia asked sharply.
I nodded and explained in clipped words, “The workers here found something while digging for the magrail. It looks like ancient Zuten ruins. We believe that the mountains are riddled with them, and that the Eulachs have accessed Zuten weapons and are trading them with the Renegades."
Thalia’s expression darkened immediately. “You’re sure?”
I met her gaze squarely. "Zyn."
She cursed softly, her voice sharp with concern. “And they didn’tthinkto tell us?”
“I doubt they want us involved,” Oksana said dryly, arms crossed. “Probably think we’d get in the way.”
“Well,” Thalia said, her tone flat and decisive, “they’re wrong.”
There was fire in her now. That same unshakable will I’d seen earlier when she rode in. The kind I suspected she’d gotten from both her parents.
