Hidden Gem - Beasts of Beauty Series - Book 4

Chapter 9

"Amethyst! Malachite! There you two are."

Amethyst and I both try to act normal as we greet our mother who is watching us with careful eyes. Her tone and facial expressions do not show anger, like I had expected. Instead, she looks anxious, as if she wants to bombard us with questions. I take a moment to relax my muscles so as to not arouse suspicion.

"So, um, where have you been?" Ma asks. I glance over at Amethyst, the better liar of the two of us.

"I dragged Mal to Lythia's with me so she could help us design the wedding gown," she explains. Our mother appears confused, as if the explanation does not make any sense. Worry courses through me seeing as we both agreed this was the most believable excuse.

"And you're just now coming home?" she asks, clearly not believing us. "Nothing else...happened?"

What the heck is she getting at?

Amethyst and I both share a look, before turning back to our mother and painting confused expressions on our faces.

"No," I tell her, trying to keep my voice level. "Did we forget to pick something up?" Ma occasionally gives us errands to run, picking up paperwork or food or delivering items to people. Maybe I forgot about a task she delegated in the midst of all my personal chaos.

Ma just shakes her head, sighing in defeat.

"No, no," she assures me. "I just thought for sure..." she trails off, glancing at Amethyst. She appears to be looking for something. When she strains her neck ever so slightly to try and see around my sister, I realize what she's searching for.

"Well, Lythia's dress is just gorgeous, Ma," Amethyst gushes, trying to play off the awkwardness in the room. If she noticed Ma looking for her wings, she didn't show it at all.

Did she notice the patch is missing?

Amethyst continues to babble on about her friend's wedding that is coming up soon. While this is part of her plan to get Ma distracted from where we've been, I know she is really excited for the big day. She's even more excited now that she's met her mate.

Once she runs out of things to say, I look at Ma and innocently ask, "Where are the boys?"

"Out looking for you two," she replies looking incredibly tired. "Mal, can we talk for a minute?"

Amethyst and I share a look but I don't hesitate to agree, for fear of looking suspicious. She leads me to the sitting room and takes a deep breath before speaking.

"I wanted to talk about what happened between you and your grandfather," she says. "I thought that is what you were so upset about. I didn't realize there were other things going on."

Oh yeah. That's right. In all the chaos, I had forgotten about our falling out.

"Can we please talk about that?" Ma asks after a minute of my silence. "I haven't gotten a chance to properly apologize to you, yet."

"Uh, yeah, I guess," I reply with a tone of indifference. "There's nothing you need to apologize for."

"No, I do," she insists. "I sat back while your Grandpa treated you just as horribly as he treated me. I was blind to how it was so wrong. I do need to apologize for that. It's supposed to be my job to protect you and I failed you."

I let her words sink in for a few moments. My outburst really caused this sudden shift in perspective?

"It's okay, Ma," I say slowly. "You only chose what you thought to be the best options." While a part of me will always believe my mother chooses the easy options rather than the best ones, it means a lot that she is trying to apologize now. That cannot be easy.