That’s true... So tell me, when it came to your trial, how well did you do? How well do you compare to similar witches of your age?
My mother’s tone was smug and I couldn’t help but smile. She knew the answer to the question.
“I... kicked their ass. Too much, actually.” That’s what had alerted everyone, my impossible strength signaling a non-human father.
Of course, you did. I trained you as such.
Although I wanted to enjoy her triumph, her happiness in what we’d achieved, I couldn’t.
“Then why not teach me more about the realms, Mother?” I asked. “I’m not ungrateful for what you prepared me for. Trust me, I am. But my role as High Warlock wouldn’t just be about being strong. I need knowledge and comprehension of the world around me, things I know nothing about. I need to know the politics of the magic realm and to understand why it is the way it is. But you haven’t taught me any of that. It’s something I need to learn on my own.”
I inhaled sharply, my breath shaking in my throat. I wasn’t trying to be difficult, and I appreciated the fact that she was smug, because she deserved to know I achieved power under her tutelage. But there was more to this role than just that.
I rubbed my lips together, fingering the necklace. I needed to ask my mother a question. A question that would change my mental state, push me forward. Change my entire existence, in fact.
I stood up and began to pace the length of my bedroom, unable to stand still.
“Mother, I need to ask you something,” I finally said.
Ask me anything.
“Do you think I can do it?”
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Perhaps I should have waited to ask such a thing after we visited the shifter realm. Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked her at all. Regardless of what she thought, I was still going to make my choice and we would both have to deal with it.
And yet, I couldn’t help but need my mother’s approval, her encouragement. She rarely gave it when she was alive. I needed it now—if it was something she could give me in the first place.
Do what, Ava? Be specific.
“Be the High Warlock,” I said. “You know what the role entails. You grew up in this world. I didn’t. You know what’s expected. You know the sort of person who could handle it. I want to know if I’m that sort of person.”
There was a long beat of silence, and my ribs tightened around my chest. Oh, my god... if she thought I couldn’t do it, then I definitely couldn’t.
All my ambitions curdled into a pile of goo.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have thought I would actually be successful at something like this?
I gasped between tight breaths. “Mother...”
Ava. You can do anything you put your mind to. You know that.
Disappointment pulsed through me at the old rhetoric. Of course she would say that. Of course.
“Mother, that is a weak-ass thing to say,” I said through gritted teeth, curling my fingers into tight fists so my nails punctured my skin. “And you know it. If you’re not going to be honest with me...”
I grabbed the locket in my hand, tightly, so that I could yank it off my neck.
I didn’t need her pussy footing around. My mother had always been honest with me. Too honest. Brutal, at times. If she was being a coward now, I wanted to know why.
Stop, Ava. Don’t... put me down. I can’t cope with being put in the dark again.
I put my hands on my hips, angry now, though she couldn’t see me. “Then tell me the truth, Mother. Or else I’ll shove this locket into a drawer that will soon be gathering dust. I don’t want to hear a token response. I want—no, I need—to hear the truth.”
Ava. You are a better woman that me. You are a better witch than me. And I pushed you from the moment you could walk, just in case this ever happened.
“In case what happened?”
Specifically!