Eliana POV
A sharp ache spread in my chest. “You’re still hiding something.”
My mother stepped closer, her face taut. “Not because I want to. Because if I tell you the truth too soon, it’ll unravel everything you are. And once you see it, you can’t go back.”
I didn’t answer.
Because deep down, I already knew.
I felt it—that unraveling. Every time Scarlet surfaced, every time my power flared out and someone looked at me like I wasn’t human anymore. Every time Alexander’s eyes softened toward me, like he could sense the storm rising but didn’t know how to stop it.
I was coming apart.
And not even my mother could put me back together.
“Then help me,” I said. “Before it’s too late.”
Mother looked at me long and hard.
And then she pulled something from beneath her cloak.
A round pend
