The reflection of the Queen: Exile

Chapter 35

But on none of those occasions could I have imagined that it would be from her that I would hear it. So when she made a move to touch my face again, I took a step back.

"No."

Something fleetingly crossed her expression.

"You can't be my mother."

"I'm sorry, my daughter."

"It's the truth, Persephone."

Lokih had approached us, and I could not but think that he was wearing the robes of Seneschal as if he had been born with them on. That was him. For the first time, he was letting me see who he was in his entirety.

"No," I repeated, more firmly. "It can't be. I know who my father is, I know my father."

"Your father was my husband, Eriavar."

"They are your family, Persephone," Lokih insisted, "They sent me to find you, they wanted me to bring you back, to bring you to Ethryant to get you to safety and see you again."

"You knew... and you didn't tell me..."

"I made him swear not to do it," said Furya. "Knowing that could have put you in danger."

I could hardly think about any of it, I was afraid of what would happen if I did: to accept reality. To accept that the monsters I had spent all that time hiding from, the great darkness that awaited me on the other side of the sea, were actually my family. A mother. A twin. Not in a thousand years could I have imagined such a thing.

"Persephone, let us explain..."

I looked to both sides, feeling suddenly suffocated. I had just remembered that we were surrounded by the entire Ethryn Court, who seemed to be holding their breath, not missing a detail of that scene, and that Scilla's blood was spreading to almost stain the soles of my high heels. Just looking at her made me nauseous.

I turned and hurried out of the throne room, pushing aside the nobles who stood between me and the door. Outside, a worried Leilith was waiting for me.

"Do you know, then?"

"They have killed her, the Princess... she has cut out her heart..." I replied.

"I was afraid you would see that."

"She is my twin..."

"Yes, I know."

"I have to get out of here, please help me to get out of here..."

"Get out? Why?"

"I can't... I can't..."

"I'll take you to your room, okay? You just need to calm down."

"No, you don't understand, I have to get out of here."

"But this is where you belong, Persephone, you're in no danger. In there are your mother, your sister, and the man who loves you, why do you want to leave?"

"I..."

"Come on, come with me, as soon as you have calmed down you will think clearly."

I ended up letting Leilith guide me back to the room I had woken up in, and when I asked her to leave me alone, she did. I lay back down on the bed, with the feeling of something hammering at my temples. I raised my head to see my reflection in one of the mirrors. My reflection was smiling, with my chin resting on my hands, moving my legs happily. A dark and dangerous magic whose origin I had asked myself dozens of times, and the answer had been right in front of me the whole time. As little as I liked it, it made sense: Princess Hecathe didn't have powers because she was some sort of chosen one from a false prophecy, she had them because her mother was a witch. She was also my mother. My mother...