But instead of relishing the karma, I’m . . . I lift my fingertips to my eyes . . . weeping? Her broken heart is my own. Because it is not the Void alone who cares for the Verity. The combo takes two.
I care for the Void as well. Like my sister and the brothers. Like every Verity’s vessel, I suspect.
“You aren’t hopeless.” Tears swiped and shoulders back, I do something I never, in this Reflection or the next, thought I would do. I scoot closer to my mother. And hold her.
She loses it then and we weep together.
For all she lost.
For all we lost.
For all I lost.
She doesn’t apologize. Still. But this hatred I’ve harbored, I can’t take it anymore. I bow my head next to hers. Wipe away her sorrow as if she is the child and I’m the parent. Despite all she’s done, I can’t help but mourn for her shattered heart.
“It’s okay. Shhh. Everything is going to be fine. You’ll see.” My tears fall, drop to the hard, cracked ground. “I love you, Mama.” I use Khloe’s term for Dennielle, finding I like the way it sounds on my lips. “I know I’m not Dimitri, but if you’ll let me, I’ll love you.”
More tears spill and I can hardly see now. Flippin’ emotions. I haven’t cried like this since I was told to shut up for doing so at the age of eight. Now everything I’ve held in for years pours out. I’m a dam.
And the Garden begins to bloom.
Shut the front door. Is this real?
Colors burst to life. As if the Seventh is a black-and-white photo, retouched stroke by stroke. The blank spaces fill with warmth and light. Scents like you wouldn’t believe expand in the air. Honeysuckle and cherries and rose blossoms and pine. Maple. Cinnamon. Cilantro. Cranberries. This isn’t Epoch—it’s epic. Literally.
My own warmth surrounds my mother until she’s too hot to touch. My hold on her loosens, and I back away. Shielding my eyes, I rise and join my friends. Tide takes my free hand and kisses it. I don’t even deny this is my guy and I’m his girl. And I’m totally in love with him, by the way. We watch in silent wonder as the cold, deserted Garden warms, the light now radiating off Isabeau touching everything around it.
Mom transforms right before me. But not into a Troll or a Lioness. She’s just a girl. Not plastic like the woman she tried to be. She’s about my age with hair and eyes like mine. The Void has melted away to leave soft but far-from-perfect skin, curvy hips and thighs, and a face shaped like a heart. Is this how she appeared to Dimitri? She’s lovely. How could he reject her?
When she stands, she examines her hands. Her hair. Then her eyes find mine. “Ebony,” she says.
Though I can’t recall her ever appearing to me this way, I know her. This is my mother in her truest form. “Mom?”
She opens her arms and I run into them. She smells of the Fairy Fountains and I know I’m home.
“I was lost,” she says into my ear. “I’d forgotten who I was. You . . . helped me remember the girl in the Garden all those years ago.” She kisses the top of my head. “We must go. The Garden is meant to guard the light. It is no place for us mortals.”
“Mortal? You’re . . . ?”
She nods. Tears of joy ensue. “Let’s go home.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“What of the Fairies?” El speaks up, stepping forward. “The Shadowalkers?”
My mother wraps one arm around me and smiles. “They will be keepers of the Garden now. Given a second chance. They will guard the light instead of darkness.”
We walk hand in hand to the entrance where Preacher and Wren wait. When we’re standing outside the Garden gates, vines and thorns and roses and ivy grow over the opening. Unless one knew where to look, they’d never know the Garden was here.
“What of the Void?” Ky asks.
My mother frowns. “The Void will always have a chance to grow where it is welcomed. We may never defeat it entirely. But if we remain aware, we will always have a fighting chance.”
“How do we get home?” Khloe tugs on my jacket.
“The Fairy Fountains are not for us anymore. But now that the Verity is restored, we will still have the Thresholds.” My mother looks at El. “But there is always mirror walking.”
My sister touches her cheek.
“You are the last Mirror,” my mother says. “Use your Calling wisely.”
“I will,” my sister promises.
And I know she’ll keep her promise well.
I look over my shoulder once more, hoping I’ll at least catch a final glimpse of the Garden’s beauty. Instead, I find something else. I eye my sister. Did she see it too? I tap her shoulder. “El. Look.”
She follows the direction of my gaze. “What?”
I blink and shake my head. “Nothing. Thought I saw something.”
She shrugs, but I continue to watch the spot where he vanished.
He’s alive. But we buried him.
And it’s in this moment I realize the truth.
The First Reflection—the place where those passed are not really gone—was in the Seventh all along.
ASIDE
Joshua
I hover in the shadows of a rosebush as I watch her part. My throat grows tight, but my heart is not heavy. For once I have chosen what is best and right for her. For once I have finally acted as the king my father wanted me to be.
“You will not say good-bye, dear one?” The Verity speaks. I have a feeling the sound is not for human ears but for the ears of her Guardians alone. “After today you will be able to neither see nor hear her if she returns.”
“This is my good-bye. I am letting her go. This is the best way I can love her. This is my purpose.”
I walk deeper into the Garden. I will never forget the sound of her voice or the way she made me feel. But my brother is the best one for her. He loved her enough to risk losing her. To risk her forgetting all about him just so she could live.
And . . . that is why . . . I live.
CODA
Eliyana
One year later
Go on, I’ll be right here when you get back.” Ky kisses me on the forehead and gives a little shove. He slides down the tree trunk behind him, lazes at its base. Closes his eyes. But he’s not sleeping. He doesn’t have to watch me to hear everything in my mind.
“Nice try,” I say.
His lids flash open. “Hey, we’re connected. Don’t hate on a guy who wants to spend every waking moment in your head, love.” He shrugs.
“I’ll be back.” Then I shut him out, collecting my thoughts for myself alone.
I didn’t tell Ky why I desired to return here. When Ebony came to me and said she saw him, I had to find out for myself.
Unaccompanied, I follow the rest of the path to the familiar hedges that form the labyrinth that is the Garden wall. I navigate the maze easily, finding the Fervor Dragon at the Garden’s gate in no time.
She rises from her relaxed state, rolls her head in a full circle. “Your Majesty.” The Dragon bows, though . . . should I be bowing to her? Something Ky said following our last venture to the Seventh returns. A conversation we shared before journeying home to the Second.
“I have a theory.” He elbowed me as we walked. It was the first time I’d felt at ease in what seemed like ages.