98 Chapter 98: The Right Choice

I've always been told I look like my mother and now I see it. Her own blonde hair is darker, but her face shape, the tilt of her eyes and the width of her mouth are all mine. I cross slowly to where she stands, glancing out at the balcony. "You could have used the door."

She smiles, touches my cheek with one hand. "I've grown so used to the sly ways of wolves," she says, "it seems odd to do anything so direct."

"I'm just glad you're all right." My tears spill at last, hands covering my face, the shame of my weakness. She embraces me, whispering soothing words in my ear until I fall silent and wrap my arms around her.

"I am so proud of you, Sharlotta," she says. "I have watched you, as best I could, since your friend Sydlynn freed me from the animal mind that held me silent, all those years ago." She leans away, strokes the tears from my cheeks. "I tried so hard to reach you," her own despair hovers behind her eyes, "and there were times I thought you suspected."