Page 37 of Reign of Light
I try to muster my voice, but it comes out barely a whisper. “Weston, what is your last name?”
His brow knits in confusion, and he stares at me for a moment, trying to figure out why I am asking before he answers.
“Rowe.”
Sir Rowe’s face flashes before my eyes, the man I called my friend. The man who, since the day he introduced himself to me as my tutor, would never let me use that formal name.
He crouched down to my level, smiled, and told me I was only ever to call him Edmond.
“You’re Edmond’s son,” I whisper in complete disbelief.
Edmond’s son.
Weston is Edmond’s son.
The son I didn’t know existed until the moment that changed the trajectory of my entire life; the moment Edmond told me about Dawnlin.
“What?” Hope fills his voice as his hand wraps around the side of my face.
“He knew I would find you,” I breathe. My eyes dart between his, and I can’t believe how much I overlooked now that I look at him. “How didn’t I see it before?”
His eyes widen, and his mouth parts slightly. “You know my father?”
I nod, and my eyes fill with tears. “Besides my guard and Tila, Edmond was…ismy only friend at home.”
He shakes his head in disbelief. “How would you even know him? He was an advisor a long time ago.”
“He wasn’t an advisor. He was my tutor.” His eyes widen in understanding. “I’ve spent every day since my childhood with him. He taught me everything I know.”
His face hardens. “So he’s the one who made you starve yourself on my ship.”
A wet laugh bubbles from my chest. “Unfortunately, yes.”
His hands settle on the top of his head as he looks down at me. “I never thought I’d ever see him again, but I at least wanted to know if he was all right. We didn’t expect that I would never come home.”
“He knew you were coming here?”
“He knew I was trying. He was the one who told me the story.”
I nod slowly. “He’s the one who told me the story too.” I can’t help smiling at the memory now. “That was the day I found out you existed.”
A hint of sadness touches his features. “He didn’t talk about me?”
My smile falls as I see how much that hurts Weston. I shake my head and soften my voice. “He never talked to me about his family, not until right before I left. He looked sad when he mentioned you, and I thought it was because you had died as a child. I thought it was too painful for him to talk about the family he lost. I just had no idea that he lost you this way.”
His shoulders rise and fall with a heavy sigh. He lowers his hands from where they were wringing his hair, and sinks back into the water, wrapping his arms around my torso once again.
“Besides Rem, my father was all I had. He knew me better than anyone.” His lips curve up at the corners. “Maybe that’s why he sent me you.”
“Do you think he really sent me? Did he really think I would bring you back?”
“If you spent your whole life with him, I think he knows you pretty well. I saw your determination and stubbornness right away, so I have no doubt he believed you would.”
My lip quivers as the feeling of failure washes over me. “But I didn’t. I didn’t bring you home.”
“That was through no fault of your own. Don’t blame yourself for that.” He smooths the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip, stilling it before holding me again. “I have no doubt that if he knew you well enough to believe you could find Dawnlin and bring mehome...” He pauses, as if thinking to himself. “He probably also knew that you are the woman for me.”
My chin quivers, but a slow, sad smile spreads over his face. “I’ll never get to thank him for it.”
