Page 102 of The Immortal’s Mark

But she’s not speaking to me.

Mistress Lola huffs. “If you say so.”

Her cloak billows as she stomps across the sand and makes her way back to the safehouse.

I continue to hold my mother’s stare from behind Gregory, doing my best not to reveal my frustration.

This is the first time I’ve even seen my mother since we arrived at the safehouse. She’s made herself scarce.

She’s avoiding me: her freaking daughter.

“You’re tired… You should rest.”

Her words might as well be nails on a chalkboard the way they make me flinch.

“Fine.”

My feet sink into the sand as I walk, tugging at my exhausted legs, but I press on, refusing to stay one more moment in this woman’s presence.

I’m about to pass my mother when she shifts to the side to block my path. “I could help you, you know.”

My head snaps up. “Help me?”

Her expression is placid, unaffected. “Yes. Perhaps I could offer additional insight and⁠—”

“Thank you, but no,” I say through clenched teeth. “You’re clearly busy searching for Adir. You should focus on that.”

Before she can respond, I step around her. “Excuse me. I want to take a nap.”

My mother lets me stomp past her without another attempt to block me.

Gregory doesn’t immediately follow, and their hushed conversation reaches my ears as I reach the top of the grassy hill.

I don’t turn around.

I keep going, anger fueling my steps.

How dare my mother come to me and offer to train me.

Who in their right mind would think that is how to approach the daughter they abandoned seventeen years ago?

Maybe she isn’t in her right mind.

That checks out.

A mother in her right mind wouldn’t abandon her husband and child.

But still? After all these years…

No.

I scowl and stomp the rest of the way to the safehouse. I won’t feel sorry for her. I refuse.

The villa sits in front of me.

I reach for the handle right as a gust of wind blows over my head, pushing my hair in my face.

A light touch brushes my elbow. “Are you alright?”