Chapter 47 WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
(HAVEN)
“When were you going to tell me you were never a prisoner in Euron?" I ask my mother, arms folded.
After Tyren told us that his hunch was Eurolys who they trapped in Euron, Imogen said to wait for Auren to recover before further light can be thrown on the topic.
The meeting dispersed and I instantly hurried to my bedroom and shut the door before calling on my mother. In as much as I'm mad at her and would rather not speak to her, I would still like an explanation as to how Eurolys ended up the one being turned into a monster, and why she never thought of telling me.
She's silent for so long that I almost think she's no longer here, till I turn around and find her leaning by the wall.
“When?” I press, my voice sharper than I intend. “After everything unraveled on its own?”
She straightens from the wall, her form shimmering slightly, like she’s struggling to remain anchored here. Even now, even like this, she looks the same; regal, composed, untouchable.
It hurts more than I expect, to know that she's not a normal human and I can't have a regular mother daughter relationship with her.
“I was going to tell you,” she repeats softly. “I just needed to confirm something first.”
“Confirm what?” I demand. “That lying to your daughter was the right choice?”
Her lips part, then close again. For the first time since I’ve known her—really known her—I see uncertainty flicker across her face.
“That Eurolys didn’t switch places with me willingly.”
The words land heavy.
I uncross my arms slowly, my anger giving way to a cold knot of dread. “You’re saying he didn’t choose to take your place?”
“No,” my mother says. “I’m saying he didn't really know what he was getting himself into when he did. See, I took the forbidden magic from the temple and used it to save him. The excess needed to be harnessed and taken back, but he managed to get to it before I could.”
I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “You’re going to have to explain that better.”
She nods, as if she expects that. Pushing off the wall, she steps closer, her presence cooling the air around us. I can feel her now, more clearly than before, like frost creeping over my skin.
“Eurolys was powerful,” she begins. “More powerful than most of the council realized. He studied forbidden transmutation magic, the kind that reshapes souls, not bodies.”
My stomach twists.
“He wanted immortality,” my mother continues, “but not in the way others do. Eurolys wanted persistence. To exist beyond death, beyond judgment. When the war escalated and the council decided the monster had to be sealed in Euron, he saw an opportunity.”
“To fake his punishment,” I murmur.
“Yes. But the spell required balance, and magic stronger than what he could handle. He needed an advocate.
My breath stutters. “You.”
She meets my gaze. “Me.”
Silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating.
“But wait, if he was the one the magic turned into a monster, how come you were mistaken for him?”
She shuts her eyes for the while and sighs. " When I discovered he had tried to harness the magic, I confronted him and he used it against me. I tried to shield myself, but somehow the magic affected me and turned me into a monster.”
“So he used you,” I say slowly, pieces clicking together in my mind. “He had everything planned out and made you a monster just in case things went south for him. And when they did, he hid and let you fight your own people.”
Fucking hell!
If I hated Eurolys before, I definitely despise him now.
“And when he heard I was about to be imprisoned, he helped me escape and got captured instead. Everyone thought it was me and no one bothered with him." My mother shakes her head. “He planned to escape from there, but he underestimated Euron. The realm has no escape.”
“So he's still trapped in there?” I ask
“Yes.”
I sink onto the edge of the bed, my legs suddenly unable to hold me. “And you? What happened to your body?”
“I was bound,” my mother says quietly. “Not imprisoned in Euron, but tethered between realms. The magic locked my soul in the safe haven I created for my people. I could only escape it for so long before my body gave out.”
The anger flares again, hot and sudden. “So you watched me grow up thinking you were gone? Thinking you were damned?”
“I watched you survive,” she says. “I watched you become stronger than I ever hoped you would be.”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” I snap.
“I know.” She doesn’t argue. She never does. “But if I had revealed the truth before confirming Eurolys’ condition, the seals would have reacted. Euron would have torn itself wider open. And he would have been free.”
A chill runs down my spine.
“And now?” I ask.
“Now the seals are weakening anyway,” she admits. “Because of Auren. Because of you.”
My heart clenches at his name. “What does Auren have to do with this?”
Her gaze sharpens, something ancient and knowing settling into her features. “He is the anchor holding the old magic together. And you, Haven, are the catalyst that will either restore it—or shatter it completely.”
I stand abruptly. “So let me get this straight. My mother was never imprisoned. The monster haunting our history is someone else entirely. My husband is dying because of a curse and also because he’s holding together a broken world, and somehow this all circles back to me?”
“Yes.”
The word is soft. Merciless.
I drag a hand down my face. “You should have told me.”
“I know,” she says again, and this time her voice breaks. “But knowing sooner wouldn’t have spared you. It would have only made you a target faster.”
I look at her—really look at her—and for the first time, I don’t just see the mother I lost or the mystery she became. I see a woman who made impossible choices and lived with the consequences.
“I don’t trust you,” I say honestly.
She nods. “You shouldn’t.”
“But I need the truth now,” I continue. “All of it. No more half-secrets. No more waiting.”
Her eyes soften. “Then you must be prepared for what you’ll uncover.”
“I already am,” I say, thinking of Auren on his knees, coughing blood into porcelain. Thinking of the fire burning him alive from the inside. “Because whatever Eurolys is… whatever he becomes next, I won’t let him take anything else from me.”
My mother watches me for a long moment, something like pride—and fear—warring in her gaze.
“Then,” she says quietly, “be ready for the war ahead.”