The Faceless Woman Emma Hamm (ebook reader screen TXT) 📖

For a moment, she lost track of herself. She frequently found herself lingering upon memories of facelessness, of being someone who wasn’t real. Her greatest fear was that the curse would return tenfold, and she would be punished for attempting to remove it.

To lose everything that had made her into a real person would strip away every happiness she had found.

Shaking herself from the dark thoughts, she picked her way around granite stones. Her sister waited at the top of the munro that looked out over the sea.

Her sister. Aisling had never thought to say those words again.

She’d always known she had a family. Badb had made certain she was aware of that. They had left her, given her up, didn’t deserve to have any space in her mind. But she’d still thought of them.

Who wouldn’t? Family was some mythical support system that would never harm you. She couldn’t remember anything of them in the beginning. Not even the slightest memory of her mother kissing her forehead or her father ruffling her hair.

Those memories had come back as she aged. Little by little, the spell Badb had woven unraveled in her mind. She remembered them all too well now. She saw their cold expressions as they made her leave them forever.

Elva appeared at the top of the rise. Her hair whipped around her, loose and tangled by the breeze. Legs spread in a confident stance, hands clasped behind her back, she was the picture of a warrior at attention.

What had happened to the bubbling child she remembered? Aisling had looked up to her, she remembered that much. She didn’t recognize the woman before her and couldn’t reconcile that spoiled child with this stoic future.

She should thank her for the borrowed clothing. Simple brown skirt, a tight bodice, nothing fanciful, but clothes that would suffice in meeting Unseelie royalty.

“We’re leaving,” Aisling said as she reached her sister. “Thank you for the boat. It will be easier than creating a portal.”

“You could stay, you know.” The breeze lifted a strand of golden hair and smoothed it across Elva’s cheeks. “It’s not a bad life here.”

“And do what? Learn how to fight?”

“It’s not a bad thing to know.”

Aisling shook her head. “I’ve taken care of myself for years now, Elva. I don’t have any reason to remain here.”

“We could be a family again. If you’d let us.”

When she turned to look at her sister, Aisling saw there were tears in Elva’s eyes. How strange for the seemingly unshakeable woman to express such emotion.

“A family?” Aisling tried to soften the words as much as possible. “That option was taken from us a long time ago.”

“We can have it again. I never wanted to let you go. I cried for days after they sent you away, threw every tantrum I could, but they wouldn’t bring you back.”

“That doesn’t change anything, Elva.”

“It should!” Her shout was stifled by the wind, ripped away from her and dulled by the elements. “I lost you, and then I lost him, and then I lost everything because I thought I wanted a throne. I look at you two and I see…something. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to feel that way, and I think you might be able to teach me.”

“That’s too much to lay at my feet.” Aisling reached out and took her sister’s hands. “No one can teach you that but yourself. You’ll learn again, I’m certain of that. But in the meantime, stop trying to rush the healing. You don’t have a cut that can be patched with a bandage. It will take a long time.”

“It has been a lifetime.”

“And it could be yet another lifetime, but you will endure. It is what we do.”

Elva reached out and touched a finger to Aisling’s jaw. She followed the sharp line to her chin where she tapped the end. “You aren’t the creature I thought you would grow up to be.”

“I became who I wanted. Know that I do not regret losing my family. It made me the witch I am. I would not trade that for the world.”

Aisling saw recognition flare in Elva’s gaze. Not necessarily for the words, but something else that burned deep in her soul. Perhaps she had heard similar words before.

They turned together and stared out to sea. It was a clear day, a good omen for the journey she, Lorcan, and Bran would make. Still, it was strange to say goodbye to family she had just found once again.

The first moment she could, Aisling had cast a spell to watch her Seelie family. Her father had recognized it immediately and cast a counterspell. Her mother had disappeared from view too quickly for her to watch. But Elva had allowed her to watch for hours on end.

Aisling had been captivated by the way Elva would brush her hair, the tiny sheets of gold that she would press to her face and make her skin glimmer. It had been like watching a princess every morning.

Until she disappeared forever, and Aisling hadn’t been able to see her until now.

She wished she could have more time. This was a woman she would like to know. Her past, her future, her story, all of it was infinitely precious. Aisling felt as though it was being ripped from her hands.

“To love someone who cannot love themselves is a great and terrible burden,” Elva quietly said.

Aisling looked out over the crashing waves. “Or it is a rare opportunity to show them that no matter what darkness lies heavy in their mind, someone else can always find their light?”

“You really believe that?”

“I have to.” She waited a moment, then turned her back on the sea. “I’d like to see you again when all is said and done.”

“You shouldn’t trust him.”

“Who?”

“Bran. He’s not who you think he is, and you aren’t telling him the whole truth.” Elva reached out and plucked a white down feather from Aisling’s shoulder. “You need to tell