“I was doing a bone reading, and I saw you. In the future.”

I yawn. My mother seeing my future is nothing new. This story isn’t starting out exciting at all.

“You were sitting in a training room studying bone charming, and do you know what you saw in your vision?”

“What?” I say, bleary with exhaustion, my eyes already sliding closed again.

“You saw this very moment. You saw yourself having a nightmare and me coming in here to talk to you. I saw a future where you saw the past. Isn’t that amazing?”

“I don’t know,” I say sleepily. “What does it mean?”

“It means you’ll never lose me.” Her voice is husky with emotion. “It means we’re connected forever. Across space and time.”

“Why would I lose you?”

She’s quiet for a moment. “In the vision, you missed me very much,” she says.

“Homesick?” I ask softly, tucking my palms beneath my cheek.

“Something like that.”

In the vision, I roll over. My breath grows deep and even. But my mother keeps talking.

“I saw a future where you wondered what I would think of your choices. So I want to tell you: I saw a woman who is brave and strong and capable. A woman who tries to do the right thing even when it comes at great personal risk. A woman I’m so proud to have raised.”

She’s not talking to me in the past. She’s talking to me right now. I’m breathless with the magic of it. With this golden, glimmering gift of fate.

“I love you, Saskia,” she continues, “with every fiber of my being. I will love you always.”

In the vision, she leans over and presses a kiss to my forehead. I feel her lips on my temple. Smell the vanilla scent of her skin.

“I love you too,” I say in the present—outside the vision. I say it even though I know she won’t be able to hear me. The only Saskia she can hear is right beside her, fast asleep.

And yet …

My mother smiles softly. “I know you do, bluebird.”

The vision fades. I open my eyes and wipe the tears from my cheeks.

Master Kyra is studying me with a thoughtful expression. “Memories can be so healing, don’t you agree?”

Chapter Thirty-One

Bram and I walk hand in hand through Kastelia City. Moonlight glimmers on the water. Musicians stand at each corner, strumming instruments and singing love ballads. I feather my thumb along the slender red tattoo on Bram’s wrist. It appeared after we changed the past—bright and fully formed, as if it had been there all long.

When I first saw it, my eyes met his. “Is that …?” I looked away, suddenly shy. “Is it from me?”

He shrugged. “Could be from anyone. I’m not familiar with this path.”