Page 104 of Bone Year

“Who might that be, Mr. Holloway?” Lux asks, her lips quirking up on one side like she’s expecting some kind of scandalous gossip.

He blushes. “Oh no, not like that,” he laughs, looking from Lux back to me. “She worked out here for a year or so studying the corrupted polar bears. Her name was Helena.”

That catches my attention.

“Do you know what her last name was?” I blurt out.

He closes one eye and cocks his head to the side, thinking. “I believe it was Raven. Yes, that’s right. I used to joke that she should be studying the ravens instead of the polar bears.” He chuckles at the memory. “Helena Raven.”

I can’t breathe.

I look down at my hands, gripping the edge of the table, trying to wrap my mind around what he said while Lux orders drinks for all of us. The noise of the tavern fades to a dull roar in my ears.

“Well, that was strange.” Ellavee’s voice cuts through the fog. “Maelis? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s the big deal?”

I cringe. There’s no other way to say it but to just say it.

“Helena Raven is my mother.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“The lies our parents tell us are the hardest to forgive. They shape who we become before we ever learn the truth.”

— Headmaster Ashmoor, Private Notes

“Raven is my mother’s maiden name,” I add, filling the silence at their awestruck stares.

Their eyes widen.

“I mean, it has to be her, right?” I say, and I’m not sure if I’m asking them or trying to convince myself. “I doubt there are any other Helena Ravens with red hair wandering around the Frostlands studying polar bears.”

“This whole time you’ve been looking for a record of your father at Ashwell,” Lux says slowly, the pieces clicking together in her mind. “But maybe it was your mother who went here.”

I nod, but my thoughts are spinning too fast to grab onto any single one.

Why would she keep this a secret? Even if she didn’t attend Ashwell, she clearly knew about it. She was here in the Frostlands studying corrupted creatures for at least a year. What the hell was she doing that for?

My mother never spoke much about her life before she married my father. I couldn’t imagine her traveling across Valen, let alone spending a year in one of the most dangerous and remote places on the continent.

And all I can feel right now is how furious I am. She never told me any of this.

Mr. Holloway returns with three tall glasses of ice-cold ale and three shots of amber whiskey. We down the shots quickly, the burn sliding down my throat, and chase them with the ale. My body heats from the inside out as the alcohol settles into my bloodstream.

“I need to go back to the library,” I say more to myself than to them. I stare off into the distance, trying to piece together what any of this could mean.

“You’re thinking too loud.” Ellavee’s voice pulls me back. “I can hear it from here.”

“Sorry.” I laugh through my nose, but there’s no humor in it.

“Maybe instead of going to the library again you should ask the school,” Lux says. “The school should know everything about you. It would definitely have records of whether your parents attended.”

“How in the hell would I ask the school?” I raise an eyebrow at her.

She grins like she’s been waiting for me to ask. “Why, the mirror of course, silly.”

“You already know the mirror let you inside once.” Ellavee sips her drink, her eyes narrow over the rim. “Find it and go inside again. Ask it questions. Seems a hell of a lot easier than sifting through dusty records in that creepy old library with the creepy old librarian.”

“Do you think the mirror is still down where the ceremony was?” I ask, and they both shrug.