Her fiery orange hair, striped with black and white, wrapped around her in the breeze,
revealing a pale face nearly the twin of mine. She wore a long dress, green and gold
like her eyes, that looked like it was made out of interwoven leaves. The light from
the pool flickered up around her with an unearthly glow.
“It is time for you to come home,” she said.
“Mother.” My voice was a whisper. “You’re
not
my mother.”
The smile spread slowly across her face. “There’s nothing for you here anymore.”Her
voice was throaty, a growl. “Come back. We need you. We love you still.”
There’s nothing for you here.
That was true. I’d failed everyone. Siku was dead, November devastated, Caleb gone.
My biological mother held out her hand. “You have always wanted to know me. Throw
away the artifact we gave you, which now resembles a blade. Forsake it, and you may
cross over to be with your family again.”
“The Shadow Blade?” I put my hand on its hilt, feeling the cool calm it emanated stealing
over me. “You gave it to me?”
She nodded. “To keep you safe, we decided to send you across the veil. Morfael agreed
to take you. But we needed an item of power that would anchor you there until it was
safe for you to return. It takes on whatever form you need, but you need it no longer.
Morfael refuses to bring you back. Now is the time, daughter. Destroy or drop the
blade and come with me. We are in danger. Our world may not survive. Only you can
help us.”
“Don’t believe her!” Lazar’s voice rolled out over the desert. He pounded up to halt
at my side, breath coming fast. “You don’t know who that really is, Dez. You can’t
trust her.”
The woman in the pool laughed. “She knows me well. She called me here, where the veil
is thin. And I have answered. She is more powerful than she knows.”
I couldn’t help staring at her—so like me and yet so different. Could I ever look
like that, sound like that��
be
like that? If I did, maybe I wouldn’t feel so small, so sad, such a terrible failure.
Lazar grabbed my face with one hand and turned it, forcing me to look at him. “Dez,
listen to me. You belong here. You’ve defeated Ximon. You’ve begun to unite the different
shifter tribes! We need you.”
“Fool,” said my biological mother. “You may need her, but my daughter doesn’t need
you. She needs me. She needs her true family. Come, Sarangarel. You’ll find everything
you need here with me.”
Sarangarel
. “Is that my name?” I asked. She was right. I needed to know who I was. “What’s your
name?”
“
Dez!
” Lazar took me by the shoulders and shook me. “You can’t leave. Think about your
mother! Remember what this . . . thing did to her!”
My mother.
Something in me snapped awake, as if the light from the other moon had sent me into
a dream.
My mother had nearly died because of this woman. And now she stood there smiling,
expecting me to leave everything behind, for her.
Lazar’s brown eyes widened as he saw realization come to me. “That’s it. Remember?”
“I remember.” I turned to my so-called mother. “You used my mother like some kind
of puppet. You could have killed her.”
“
She
is not your mother.” Her arched brows frowned dangerously. The faint veins beneath
her pale skin darkened. “You are one of us. We are Amba, and we are at war. Will you
doom your true family to extinction?”
“I have family here,” I said. “This is my war. And I won’t let you endanger them again.
Go back!” I waved my hand at her, pushing my mind against the dark current of Othersphere
pressing in around me. “You don’t belong here.”
Lazar hummed a deep, disturbing note. My biological mother winced, a ripple of fear
crossing her face.
The note alarmed me too. But I placed my hand on the Shadow Blade and leaned into
the vibration. I found something resonant inside me. “Get out of here!” I shouted.
“Begone! Go! I don’t want you here!”
A cloud seemed to pass over the moon as the ambient light around us dimmed. The figure
in the pool writhed. “Look for me!” she cried. “I will send for you.”
Then she was gone.
I collapsed. I would have fallen completely, but Lazar fell to his knees to catch
me. “You’re here,” he said, his voice soft with happiness. “You stayed.”
He cradled me in his arms and pressed soft lips against my forehead like a benediction.
This time I didn’t pull away.