AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Locked away. Remember?”
“Right. Sorry. You remind me the world doesn’t revolve around Trono and its shallow problems.”
“Hey, we’ve all got stuff.”
“Enough of this prattle!”
I almost jumped out of my shoes, inciting questions of concern from everyone.
“Find me!”
“I’m okay, guys,” I said over my ringing ears. “I just... had a chill. I’m going to step out for a moment. Go for a walk and warm up.”
“Okay,” Daciana called. “See you later.”
I rushed my byes and ducked out into the hall.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at my wrist. “I obviously want to find my mom as badly as you want me to find you! We’re on the same side right now, so stop yelling at me and calling me stupid!”
She sniffed. “You’re the one yelling right now if you want to be accurate. But... very well,” she said, surprising me. “You are suitably motivated to find where we’re being held. I will cease losing my temper.”
“Uh, thank you,” I muttered. “Okay. Now that I’m alone, I can do this. Tell me where my mom is.”
“I do not know.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I do not know that either, except that I am somewhere within the confines of this academy.”
“All right, then tell me where to begin to find you. Are you buried somewhere in the forest? Are you in one of these rooms?” I asked, looking up and down the long hallway. “Where do I go?”
“I do not know.”
It was me who had to rein in my temper. “What do you mean you don’t know?” I forced through clenched teeth. I moved farther down the hall so my new roomies wouldn’t hear me talking to myself. “You sent monsters after my mother. They brought her to your prison. How did they do that if youdon’t know where you are?”
“Have some sense, child. My prison was crafted by the gods themselves. Their intention was that I never be freed. Do you imagine they’d make it easy on anyone who would be my rescuer?”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“There are protections on the prison. One such being that anyone who enters it forgets who they are, why they’ve come, and where they are.”
My eyes bugged. “But then how did the monsters bring my mom to you?”
“Once you’re in, you can’t get out. You can’t remember why you need to get out. The only way to go is forward. Your mother was brought through the barrier by the monsters, and then my allies on the inside of the academy gave up their memory and their lives to bring her to me. She fought her way forward until she wound up in my chamber.”
Horror seized me. “Does that mean my mom’s forgotten me?”
“No, she has retained her memory,” she said, making the breath whoosh from my lungs. “The traps were designed for demigods and monsters. Not powerless mortals. There was no need. Your mother couldn’t free me if she tried.”
I’d bet anything Selene tested that theory by forcing my mother to try.
“I still don’t understand,” I said. “How do you know you’re somewhere in the academy if what you said is true? Are you guessing?”
“I do not guess. For centuries, I wallowed in the dark, and then she found me. She gave me voice. She found a way to anchor my essence so that I may speak to her as I speak to you, and then she gave me the key.”
I didn’t know I had slid down the wall until my butt hit the cold floor. “Anchor your essence? You mean the bracelets. Part of you is inside of them. How did she do it?”
“What does it matter how?”
