Everyone Who Entered the Forbidden Room Wanted Me Dead novel · Chapter 22 of 32

Chapter 22: What It Costs

I laid the boy in his mother's arms and walked out of the hall without a word.

Elias followed me down the stairs.

I did not stop him, and I did not look back.

The Moon Hall was empty, the torches burned down to stubs, and the oak door stood open on the dark.

I went in alone and sat on the black floor beside the stone.

It sat in its dish, dull and grey, as small as a loaf of bread.

Elias stopped in the doorway and let me be.

"Say it," I told the stone. "Whatever it is you do. Say it to me."

The crying voice began at once.

"Bryn, you took everything from me."

"No," I said. "You're his. I know you're his."

I pressed both palms against the cold floor.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore."

The voice stopped.

For a long time there was only the dripping of water somewhere in the dark.

Then something else spoke.

It was not loud, and it did not come from the walls.

It came from under my hands, from the stone itself, and it was warm.

"Bryn."

I knew it.

I had never heard it before in my life, and I knew it.

I put my hand over my mouth.

"Mama?"

"I am not here," the voice said gently. "I am what I left. You have been listening to your father's lie your whole life, and I could not stop it. He cut over my words with his own."

"You gave yourself to this."

"I gave you to it. I thought you'd have a pack to love you, and you'd choose it. He took the choosing away."

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