thunderstruck | book #2 | discontinued

I I

Maksim had not spoken to his mother properly since he had taken the portal to Nil Lake. He had not wished to, either. Much had happened since then that had effected both of them; for instance, he had discovered that his mother had a secret daughter who had been disguising herself as their cat for the past few weeks and rather wished to kill whoever she saw fit if it meant taking ownership of the key of dark magic. He could not understand it, and after all of the exhaustion and emotions he had experienced after leaving Remy in the Mortal World, all he could feel now, when he closed his front door and came face to face with his mother, was anger.

He did not know how he managed to walk straight past her without shouting or glowering, but somehow, he did. It didn't matter, though, for she followed him into the kitchen, where the glass walls had shattered and black soot caked many of the marble surfaces of the counter tops. It was clear that Hilda had not gotten around to cleaning it up yet, which was rather unlike her.

"Well?" she questioned finally, her green eyes glistening with expectancy.

"Well, what?" Maksim responded, turning to look at his mother. His jaw was tensed and his blue eyes cold, the silver in them standing out particularly well today. His skin was still reddened and blistered from Nil Lake.

"Do not take me for a fool, Maksim," she sighed. Any of her usual sternness was gone, replaced with the same hollowness that Maksim felt. There were lines in her forehead, too, that Maksim was sure had not been there a few days ago, so that she looked older now. Still, Maksim could not pity her. Not yet. "I know how it must hurt to leave Remy in the Mortal World. And I also know that there are many things you must wish to say to me—or perhaps, to ask me."

"I would not know where to begin." He shook his head, staring out of the break in the glass, where he could see the sharp towers and buildings of Astracia puncturing the seamless pink sky. He remembered looking out onto them before, from the top floor of the house when he had found Remy standing behind the glass roof, watching the sun set. The memory caused a wave of nostalgia to roll over him, so harsh that he thought his lungs might collapse from the weight of it, and he clenched his fists, allowing his nails to press into his palms so that the pain pulled him from its depths. The surface was not a much better place to be. "When were you going to tell me that I had a sister? One evil sibling is bad luck, but two ... that is simply careless parenting, is it not?"

Hilda looked down in shame, appearing weaker than Maksim had ever seen as she fiddled with the edge of her shawl. He found himself wondering how she could have been so unwaveringly strong all these years, and so unwaveringly critical of him, when she had been harbouring such a secret as this one.

"I am sorry," she said finally, meeting her son's eye again, if only for a moment. "I never thought that this would happen. I did not ever think she would come back."

"Things always have a way of returning and causing more pain than before. You should have known better than to expect otherwise. You did not answer my question."

She nodded at this, inhaling as though she was preparing for something terrible. Maksim had no doubt she was. "The truth is that I am an awful parent. Is that what you would like to hear? I destroyed my first child before she had even entered this world because I was addicted to dark magic. Erika was born with black eyes and burned those she touched. I created a monster, and because of that I knew that I could not look after her."

"So, what?" Maksim asked disbelievingly. "You gave her away and let somebody else deal with her instead? Left her with even more inner turmoil and a darkness that ended up destroying my brother, too?"

"I thought I was doing the right thing." Tears filled her eyes, her chin wobbling though it was clear she was trying hard to steady it. "I thought somebody might have helped her in a way that I could not."