All That Falls

36 A Mother's Welcome

My feet found the hard, russet marble ground below them moments later. I only stumbled slightly as Gemini and I materialized before a grand bronze throne. Steps made of the same russet marble with rivulets of bronze and copper woven within them flowed downward to where we stood before it. The walls were made of the same material, all the way to the hard, mahogany ceiling and the shining copper chandelier. The light was dim, like a candle guttering out. No one was here. No one had been waiting for us, preparing for this room to be occupied.

"What—" I started but was interrupted by a sudden feminine voice calling out from beyond the mahogany doors at our backs.

"I know you aren't so stupid as to shadow step right into my throne room, Gemini Morningstar," the voice sang as the doors flew open and a woman with blonde hair and a flowing chocolate gown strode inside. She flicked a wrist and the copper fixtures on the wall as well as the matching chandelier above us flamed to life, lighting the entire room.

Her eyes settled on Gemini for a moment before flicking to me. She froze, her hand still held aloft from the gesture she had made to light the room. Her lips parted as her eyes widened.

"Seren," she breathed.

"Mother," I replied, disgust roiling in my gut as I addressed her.

She rushed forward, the train of her gown flowing out behind her, and embraced me. I froze, every muscle tense as she squeezed me tightly. Her heavy necklace pressed into my collarbone and I winced.

"You're here," she said in wonder, pulling away but still holding onto my shoulders, shaking me as if to prove to herself that I was real. "You're alive."

I nodded because I didn't know what else to say to this woman I had never known but who called herself my mother, who claimed some maternal hold on me.

"Your father will be so happy to see you," she told me and I froze, my fake smile faltering.

"My father?" I asked, stunned. "I thought he was dead."

Her grin turned wicked at that.

"And I thought you were dead," she mused. "Seems the Morningstars have a penchant for faking deaths."

She raised one arched brow to Gemini, letting her judgemental gaze flick over her from head to toe. My heart pounded against my chest at her words. A penchant for faking deaths? Did she know about Lark, that he was still alive, that they had never executed him? How could she?

"We do what we must to escape those who would do us harm," Gemini professed through gritted teeth, her gaze narrowed to a glare.

"And that's me, I suppose?" My mother asked with a roll of her eyes as she strode past us and ascended the steps to the throne. She collapsed lazily atop it, propping her feet up on one arm and leaning her back against the other as she draped one arm lazily off the side and looked at us. "I always forget what they think of me in the Bone Court. Am I the mother who went crazy after losing her daughter and started seeking vengeance? Or am I some crazed, narcissistic autocrat trying to take over the realm? Remind me, dear Gemini, for I can never keep track."

It caught me off guard, how callously she discussed all the perceptions of her that I had been exposed to for the last few months.

"All of that and more," Gemini hissed.

"And today?" My mother asked, raising a brow. "What must I be today for you to finally return my precious child to me after nearly sixty years?"

"The woman who keeps tearing the world apart to find me," I said.

My mother turned to me, a smile growing on her lips.

"Fierce, like her mother," she observed with a grin.