Page 7 of Destined Dawn
And then I’m alone and I suddenly don’t feel so brave without those five strong men around me. I remind myself that I was alone for a long time before they showed up and I survived just fine. Plus, despite what Renzo may think, I am with Stone on this one. I think this memory is here to help me.
I cross my legs and focus my eyes on the shimmering gold, allowing the memory to drift into my mind, until the gold is shining somewhere inside my head, lighting it up with its brightness. But as quickly as it gleams, it fades and in its place is my aunt’s face, staring back at me.
She’s younger than she was, her fair hair braided around her head, the locket resting against her clavicle, fewer lines on her pale skin.
“Rhi,” she says. And I’d forgotten how much I’d missed her voice, even though I’ve heard it so many times in my memories, in moments where I forget. Now I’m hearing it again, the soft yet firm tone of her voice; it has a sob catching in my throat.
“Aunty,” I whisper. But she can’t hear me. She isn’t really here. This is a memory, a recording, a message from the past. And I realize I’m not looking into her face, I’m looking at her reflection.
“Darling, Rhi.” She smiles and I remember that smile. Like a reward. Always forthcoming when I’d done something to make her proud.
I bunch my hands in the bed sheets. I can feel my body shaking. She has something to tell me and what if I don’tlike it? What if Renzo’s correct and it isn’t something I want to hear?
“If you’re watching this now, then you are as bright, as tenacious, as wonderful as I always suspected.” The smile falters, her voice cracking slightly as she speaks. “And I am no longer here to help you, my darling. I’m sorry. Sorry if I let you down, sorry I can’t be there with you. And I am sorry that there are things I kept hidden from you when I was there with you. Know I did it for your safety. Everything I’ve ever done was to keep you from harm.” She nods, composing herself. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
She swallows and then she tells me about my mom, about how she was a talented seer who dreamed of the future, of how those in power learned of her gift and took her away from her family, of how they used her in their ongoing battles for power and dominance. I know all this – from the pieces I’ve puzzled together, it’s nothing new – and yet I sit there entranced, listening to my aunt tell the story, reading the pain on her face when she describes how my mom was torn away from those she loved, how she was used and abused.
And then my aunt turns to the subject of me.
“Rhi,” she says, “your mom was a powerful weapon, and I guess it was inevitable that the fight would turn eventually to possessing that weapon.” She meets my eyes through time and through space. “Bronwyn was taken by forces from the West – kidnapped. She fell in love with your father while she was being held there. She had you and for a time they were happy together. But it didn’t last, and all I know is that she reappeared on my doorstep with you in her arms and begged me to take you. To keep you hidden from everyone – the authorities, the chancellor, even your father.”
My aunt is quiet as if she foretold I’d need a moment to gather my thoughts, to process this all.
My dad was a magical from the West. I was conceived while my mom was being held captive there, and then she fled with me.
I think of what Renzo told me, of who he believes my dad to be. Is that right? Did my mom fall for the Black Prince? And if she did, why did she leave him? Why did she beg my aunt to keep me hidden?
“Your mom loved you so very much, Rhi,” my aunt continues, and a lone tear trickles down her cheek. “And I love you too, my darling, as if you were my own. You are so very precious, so perfect, so wonderful. It breaks my heart every day that she didn’t get the opportunity to see the amazing person you’re turning out to be. But I know she’d be proud of you, just as I am.”
She reaches out to touch the plane of the mirror, her reflected hand coming to meet it so that her fingers touch their twin, but it’s me she’s reaching out to touch, to tuck my hair behind my ear like she always used to do and stroke my cheek.
“Wherever you are now, my darling, whatever it is you’re doing, know you are your mother’s daughter, my daughter too. You are enough, you are strong. You are loved.”
I think that will be it. That she’s told me everything there is for me to know, that the memory will fade and I’ll be left here alone on the bed.
It doesn’t.
She fixes me with her steely gaze.
“Rhi, there’s more. Bronwyn had a vision about you, about your future.”
I sit up a little straighter on the bed. This is it. The truth.Something, if I’m honest with myself, I’ve suspected right from the moment I learned my mom could read the future.
“You are the girl from the Fourth Prophecy, Rhianna. Your mother foresaw it.”
I stare at my aunt’s face. I don’t know what that means.
“I had to keep you safe, my darling, protect you. Because Bronwyn was right: they came looking for you. She said they would. That some would want to destroy you and some would want to use your powers for their own means. It’s why I hid you away and it’s why …” she leans closer to the mirror as if she wants to whisper the next part to me, “your dreams, Rhi, they didn’t simply stop, I stopped them. I suppressed your powers. Please forgive me, but they tormented you so much, and you were so young, so frightened by them. They were such a danger to you. I found a way, and I stopped them.”
I stare at her, thinking of all those years I never dreamed, how they plagued me when I was little and then they’d stopped, just like that. I never questioned it before. How strange that was. To never dream. No dreams at all, not until recently, not until the last few days. Then I’d had those dreams that offered me a glimpse of the future.
And then I know, before she says the words, before she tells me the truth.
I know.
Pip.
My dreams came back when Pip was unwell.
