"When your hair is long, what does it look like?" Amelia asked, barely getting the words out. Meryn couldn't answer. She just let her tears fall. Amelia knew then that they shared the same brown curls.
"She looks like me, only she has a short pixie cut and no curls, and bright green eyes like..."
"Like me," her mother said, sniffling. "Can Meryn hear me?" she asked.
"Yes, you're on speaker."
"Meryn, sweetheart, who raised you?"
"My grandmother. I hated her, just so you know." Meryn crossed her arms over her chest looking defensive.
Lily sobbed. "Oh Violet, I failed you."
"Lily, Lily, darling what's the matter? Who is this?" Amelia heard her father demand.
"Father, it's me."
"Amelia? What in the world is going on?"
"Give me the phone, Marshall." Seconds later, her mother was back. "Meryn, sweetheart, I am so sorry! If I had known, I would have moved heaven and Earth to bring you to Storm Keep. The last time I saw Violet was two years before she died. She hadn't been pregnant then. When I heard about her death, I called Mother, and she told me that I wasn't welcome to come home. The funeral was over, and she never wanted to see me again. She never once said anything about caring for Violet's child because, she knew if she had, I would have come and gotten you."
"Why?" Amelia asked.
"Because my mother wasn't a very nice person. She believed that I was one step up from the devil because I thought differently than she did. I practically raised Violet after she was born. She was only thing that kept me in that house. I refused to leave Violet alone.
"When Violet was thirteen, Mother and I had an argument. She disowned me and kicked me out of the house. I swore to Violet that I would come back when she was eighteen and take her out of there.
"It was the seventies, so I drifted, hitching rides and camping with friends. Eventually I met your father. Two years after mating with him, when Violet was seventeen, I kept my promise. Your father and I went back home to check on Violet and make preparations for her to move out on her eighteenth birthday. But to my surprise, she had already married and moved out with her husband.
"When we were saying goodbye, she made me promise that if anything happened to her and she had children, I would take care of them. I swore to her that I would, and no child of my baby sister's would ever live in that house." The venom in her mother's voice scared her; she had never heard her sound like that.
Aiden looked ill as he faced Meryn who'd buried her face in her hands. "Baby?"
Meryn didn't look up; she just continued to shake her head behind her hands. "It's just when I imagine how my life could have been different if I had been raised in Storm Keep, I get so angry. If Amelia's mom had known about me, I could have had a sister and brothers, a family that loved me. I wouldn't have gone hungry or worried that my one pair of shoes wouldn't last the winter. I would have been wanted." Meryn choked out the words between sobs. Aiden pulled Meryn into his lap and wrapped his large arms around her as if to protect her from her own memories. Ryuu ran a gentle hand over her hair in an effort to comfort her.
Amelia saw the shocked expressions around the table and realized that Meryn had never told anyone exactly how bad her childhood had been. She felt her own tears trickle down her cheeks.
"That's it! Marshall, I don't care about your magic rules! We're going to dig up my mother and you're going to bring her back to life so I can beat the everloving shit out of her!" Lily yelled.
Amelia felt her eyes widen. What her mother was talking about was black magic.
"Lily, honey, calm down. You know we can't do that." Even over the phone, she could feel her father's shock.
"Kyran! Tristan! Don't just stand there; get our bags from our room and take them back down to the car. Thank God, we haven't unpacked yet."
"Lily..." Her father was trying to get her mother's attention.
"Today boys! My niece is crying, and my baby is crying! We're going to Lycaonia after we make my mother a broken corpse!"
"Lily..."
"Marshall, don't just stand there, help the boys with the bags."
"Yes, love." After a few quiet moments, she heard her mother take a deep breath. In all her life, she had never once heard her mother raise her voice. She was normally very laid back, and went with the flow, always smiling. Amelia liked this new side of her mother.
"Girls, listen to me. There's so much I want to tell you, but I can't right now. Just know that you were brought together for a reason. Stay close to each other. We'll be there soon."
Meryn sniffled. "Are you really going to beat Estelle up?"