I heard the words whispered above me and then a small ray of golden light seepedthrough.

That moment had happened sixteen years ago. Why I’d thought about it today, I still didn’t know. Those few words or prophecy were what had been spoken when my egg hatched. But they had been a lie. Why the words were still black in the Book of Shadows, none of us knew, but they had given me hope, hope that maybe, just maybe, my true rider existed somewhere. Those words were all I had to hold on to now. They were what my mother held on to. AndIrene.

I remembered her words, ringing inside my skull as if they were spoken yesterday. I remembered them just like I could remember the temperature of my egg as my mother lay on it. Why she didn’t just trample on it and end all of this, I will never know. She knew what I was: a Rub