Page 13 of Whispers of Ruin
He decided to try to learn more about her instead. “How did you encounter a mirror realm before?”
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Her attention was drawnaway from the horizon; she smiled at some memory as she pulled a loaf of bread from her pack. She broke off a piece before shoving the rest inside.
“I was a child when it happened,” she said. “My sister and I were exploring the woods not far from our home when I moved a log in search of some criten mushrooms we needed for a spell. Instead of finding the mushrooms, I fell down a hole. It turned out I’d fallen into a tunnel that led straight into a mirror realm.
“Mina jumped in after me, and we were trapped there for a couple of days before finding our way out. My mother was so worried about us. I thought she was going to break my ribs as she crushed us against her when we returned.” She absently touched a cheek. “I can still feel her tears falling on my face. I was so happy to be home.”
“What about your father?”
She shrugged. “He came around occasionally, but we barely knew him. They never married, but both wanted children. If I’d been a boy, I would have gone to live with him and the warlocks, the same with Mina. Instead, we stayed with our mother in Verdan. He didn’t have much to do with us, but he was kind and always brought us sweets. They’d agreed to have two children together; unfortunately for him, we were both girls. We were happy about it, though.”
“What became of your parents?”
“My father was killed by another warlock when I was barely more than a girl, and a wendigo killed my mother when I was two hundred. I still miss her terribly.”
The small smile left her face as sadness settled over her features. He hated the melancholy enshrouding her and wished he could take back his question. He knew how painful the loss of family could be.
“I have no family left,” Kaylia murmured. “Mina also died a thousand years ago.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. It was supposed to be the two of us until the end, but a troll changed that.”
Brokk fisted his hands to keep from comforting her. She’d settled far enough away to make it clear that distance was what she wanted.
“I still miss my brothers and father,” he said, “and I’m sure I will a thousand years from now, too. I sometimes think I still hear or see them from the corner of my eye, but they’re never there when I look. And they never will be.”
“That’s the funny thing about loss; you never really lose it.”
When Kaylia smiled at him, he saw she was trying to lighten the mood, but the sorrow in her eyes made it clear she didn’t feel the humor she was trying to impart. And he didn’t think all her grief was for her family, but then, Kaylia was older than him and had most likely endured a lot of losses over the years.
“No, you don’t,” Brokk agreed. “How old are you?”
He knew she was older than him, and he might have learned her age at some point, but he couldn’t recall it now. Then again, so many things had happened since they first met that most of it had become a blur of fighting and death.
“I’m around fifteen hundred, but I don’t know my exact age. I lost track years ago.”
That meant she was at least nine hundred years older than him. “It is difficult to count that high.”
Kaylia blinked at him before laughing, and Brokk grinned as her laughter filled the air. It warmed his heart in a way he’d never experienced before, and he knew he’d do everything he could to make her laugh more often. It would be difficult in this place, but not impossible.
At one point in time, he’d considered her a heartless bitch, but while she could be vicious —she’d thrown him and Sahira out of her home the first time they met—he’d learned she was also vibrant and beautiful. He’d come to understand the heart he once believed didn’t exist was bigger than most.
“How old were you when you went to live in the crone realm?” he asked.
Her smile faded as her laughter died, and he once again regretted asking his question, but he was infinitely curious about this woman.
“Twelve hundred or somewhere around there, and I didn’t go to live there, I created it. That outer realm was little more than rock when I arrived. I went there to be by myself, but with some magic and a lot of work to make the land more fertile, it started growing around me.
“After some time, other witches retreated from the realms to live there too. At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted them there; I was content to spend the rest of my life living a solitary existence, but many of them needed somewhere to retreat to also, and I couldn’t deny them that. The more witches arrived, the more the land grew around us as things have a way of doing. Eventually, more creatures and witches arrived until it became the realm you saw.”
He frowned as he took another bite of his meal. He didn’t understand why anyone as vibrant, powerful, and beautiful as her would prefer to lock herself away from others to live such a lonely life. It didn’t make any sense.
“Fascinating,” he murmured.
He studied her as he debated asking his next question. He’d caused her some sadness with his others, but she was answering them, and he enjoyed learning more about her. She intrigued him.
