“No pressure.” I shoved down the anxiety that threatened to take hold of me.
Opening the door, he led me into the same room where I’d woken up after Cam had knocked Elle and me out. When he turned to face me, he looked serious. “Lily, can I see your mother’s journal?”
Apprehension ran up the length of my spine. “I’m going to do the blood thing, I just haven’t found a good time,” I assured him.
Liam shook his head. “I’ll do it. There’s a certain price you pay when you use blood magic, and I’d rather you stay pure.” He trailed his finger along my cheek, and I frowned.
“What kind of price?”
He sighed. “Let’s just put it this way. Right now, you’re a beautiful, bright light. If you do this, a small part of yourself goes dark, and it’s harder to come back to the light.”
Oh, gods.
That didn’t sound good. I had been about to hand him the journal, but now I snatched it back. “I don’t want that for you.”
Liam smiled sadly. “I’m well acquainted with darkness. I can handle it.”
He pulled the journal from my hands and then plucked out his knife, piercing the tip of his finger. Peeling back the cover, he squeezed the wound and placed a drop of blood on the first page.
“Reveal your true self, illusions be gone,” he muttered, and a black puff of smoke wafted from the page.
Holy crap. My heart raced as I watched the thick smoke curl into the air. Liam moved his head to the side to avoid it, and I gasped as letters started to appear.
My mother’s unique script filled the pages rapidly, and a sob lodged itself in my throat. Liam gently set the book in my hands and turned to leave.
“Don’t go,” I croaked. “Stay with me?”
He nodded, his eyes glowing in the dimly lit room. We sat down together on the bed, and I read the first page aloud:
Dearest Lily, if you are reading this, go to the end.
Frowning, I riffled through the pages until I noticed one was dog-eared at the back. The handwriting here was sloppier than before, looking rushed. Liam looked over my shoulder, and we scanned the page together.
Lily, I hope you find this journal. I showed Bashur where I hid it so that if I die and you take over for me, he will bring it to you.
My heart pounded in my ears. The writing was dated just three weeks before she’d died.
Oh, Lil, I made so many mistakes. I thought by keeping this life from you that I was preserving your innocence, keeping you safe. Now I see that I have made it that much harder for you. I want to tell you now…but I don’t know how.
Anxiety ratcheted up in my nervous system so quickly that I felt nauseous.
How do I even write these words? Lily, my life, my dearest treasure…you are not my daughter by blood.
I yelped and tossed the book across the room. It hit the wall and slid down, crashing to the floor. Tears spilled from my eyes, and before I knew what was happening, Liam pulled me into his arms and wrapped me tightly in his embrace.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, rubbing my back as I sobbed into his neck.
My entire world fractured in that moment. Why would she have written those words? How could they be true? There was more in the journal, of course, but I was too shocked by that one sentence to go any further.
“It will be okay.” Liam’s voice was soothing in my ear. Feeling his strong arms wrapped around me, his warmth and scent, was the only thing keeping me sane right now.
My mother wasn’t my mother?
Nothing about that was okay, but I was so damned glad I’d asked him to stay with me. I didn’t trust myself alone right now. He held me for what seemed like forever until I was able to rein my frazzled mind into focus.
Pulling back, I wiped my eyes. “Thanks.”
He nodded, seemingly unsure of what to say. Without another word, he stood and walked over to the book. Picking it up, he opened it to the end and looked at me. “Do you want me to read it to you?”
I gulped. Maybe that would be easier than reading it myself, because I wasn’t sure I had the courage for that. Giving him a nod, I steeled myself for his words.
“Not my daughter by blood,” he continued where I’d left off. “Lily, I had no idea. My memories…were tampered with.” He frowned, clutching the book tightly. “I always thought you were mine, but it wasn’t until I found Indra giving the queen sleeping medicine that I started to suspect something was wrong.”
Okay, I could handle that. I already knew about the sleeping medicine, but what was this memory stuff?
“I started to have weird flashbacks or memories I hadn’t recalled before,” Liam continued. “Memories of Indra and me, or of my sister and me.”
He looked at me, and I nodded for him to go on.
“My sister and I were very close, so why didn’t I remember her at your birth? Why didn’t I remember your birth at all? I decided to go to the healing pool beyond the protection dome.”
My eyes widened. It seemed I truly was living my mother’s life, and we were on the same path.
“When that water cleansed me, the spell Indra had placed over me was broken, and all my memories returned.” Liam glanced up, seemingly checking if I was okay, then looked back at the book. “I remembered my sister, the queen, giving birth to you and pleading with me to take you on as my own.”
Liam looked up at me, and tears flooded my vision, making him go blurry. “Keep going,” I croaked.
“My sweet Lily…you will always be my daughter, but by birth, you are the princess of the
