Chapter 149

Nora

She was barely recognizable.

The woman on the thin bedroll was skeletal, her hair white instead of the dark auburn I remembered. Her skin was papery, stretched tight over bones. Silver burns marked her wrists and throat—fresh ones, not the old scars.

But it was her. I knew it in my bones.

"Mother," I whispered, dropping to my knees beside her.

Her eyes fluttered open—still that same pale gree