New words immediately shimmered into view. My hands stilled on the page, and I sucked in a breath.
“What is it?” Kerralyn leaned closer.
“New text. Appearing right now.”
Kerralyn reached for it. “May I?”
The instant the journal left my hands, the fresh ink vanished.
“What…?” Kerralyn turned the book over. “Where did it go?”
The moment I took it back again, the writing reappeared.
“It knows me,” I whispered.
My throat tightened as I read the first passage silently, my friends crowding close, reading over my shoulder.
I’d traveled through the veil to this world one prior time. I’d remained for years. Made friends. Fell in love, though she died much too soon. I’d even thought of staying, but my family would’veworried, so I passed back into my own realm. But I missed her very much. Worried about her.
Her.
I turned the page. More words appeared.
My vision blurred as I read.I shared my secrets with my beloved daughter, watching her joy as she learned to bridge realms. Her laughter was light in the darkness, her wonder a gift I treasured. I traveled between worlds as easily as one crosses a threshold, and I doubt she was ever aware I was gone. I enjoyed traveling. How could I have known the cost it would take from my soul?
I flipped to the sketch in the back, the young girl with dark hair and bright eyes.
My mother’s face stared back at me.
“I saw her portrait in the gallery,” Lexie said. “It does look a lot like a young version of her.”
I pinched my eyes shut, then opened them. “He could be my grandfather.”
My words hung in the air. The man who’d torn open reality. Who’d captured Skathes and studied them like specimens. Whose blood might be running through my veins right now, carrying power I’d spent my life hiding.
I’d thought I was broken, but what if I’d never been broken at all? The faint scent of Mother’s favorite perfume ghosted through my memory, a whisper from childhood mornings when she’d brush my hair and hum songs.
Lexie’s hand found mine and squeezed.
“Velacross Blyte,” I said again, testing how it felt. “My grandfather.”
Pherin landed on my shoulder, nuzzling my neck.Strong. Brave. Like me.
The next passages came faster, each one a knife between my ribs. Velacross had hidden my mother. Sent protection. Thorne? The timeline fit. He would’ve been young when Velacross assigned him, maybe only in his early twenties, but he’d done what he could to protect all of us for so long that it must be him.
My hands trembled as I turned the page.
The breach drew dark eyes. I saw the peril I’d placed on her innocent shoulders. Forces beyond my control were drawn by the power she and I carried.
Someone had known what she could do.
I read faster, the words blurring.I concealed my daughter where others could not reach, entrusting her to the one who swore to guard her with their life. A shadow to watch over my light. I sent protection, knowing that, as sick as I was, I could not stand beside her myself.
Veil-travel extracts a toll. The body weakens. The mind fractures. Too many crossings and one loses themselves entirely to veil-sickness.
“Addie,” I breathed. “They said she stumbled. In his hidden message, Thorne said she was sick.”
If someone had forced her to travel, had pushed her to use power, it could be destroying her just like Velacross.