[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This Chapter 51: In Which I Learn My Mother Was a Badass (And Lef

The vision hit three hours after we got back to the safehouse.

I’d been fine, or as fine as you could be after channeling enough power to permanently seal a dinsional tear and accidentally announcing yourself to hell’s upper managent. Mara had checked over, declared "exhausted but stable," and sent upstairs to rest.

I’d made it to the bedroom, had even managed to kick off my shoes before collapsing face-first onto the bed.

Then my wrist started burning.

Not the binding sigil, that was its usual warm pulse, this was the other wrist, the one that had never done anything interesting before, suddenly feeling like soone had pressed a branding iron to the skin.

I jerked upright, clutching my arm, and the room disappeared.

***

I was ten years old and sitting in the back seat of a car that slled like french fries and my mother’s perfu.

It was night, raining, the windshield wipers made their rhythmic squeak-thump that had been lulling to sleep before—

Before what?

The mory felt wrong, like watching a film with fras missing. One mont we were driving, normal and boring, the next my mother was twisted around in the passenger seat, eyes wide with sothing that looked like fear and determination mixed together.

"Riven, listen to ." Her voice was urgent, sharp in a way I’d never heard before. "Whatever happens, don’t leave the car, don’t open your door, and don’t let anyone touch you. Promise ."

"Mom, what..."

"Promise ."

I nodded, scared now, not understanding.

She turned back to my father. "They’re gaining, we need to..!"

The car swerved violently, I saw headlights in the rear window, too close and aggressive. Not an accident, it’s a chase.

"Eleanor, the wards won’t hold much longer," my father said, his voice tight with strain I didn’t understand then but recognized now, the voice of soone channeling power while trying to stay calm.

"I know." My mother’s hands were moving, tracing patterns in the air that left glowing trails. Warden magic, she was using warden magic while my father drove and sothing chased us and I sat in the back seat not understanding anything except that we were in danger.

The pursuing car ramd us from behind.

We spun. My father fought for control, but the road was wet and we were going too fast and..!

The impact, when it ca, was inevitable.

tal screaming, glass shattering, the world turning sideways and then upside down and my ten-year-old self screaming as the car rolled once, twice—

But I didn’t hit anything, didn’t slam into the door or the ceiling or the seat in front of .

Because my mother had turned in her seat, one hand extended toward , and a shield of pure golden light had wrapped around like a cocoon.

"Stay inside the shield," she said, blood running down her face from a cut above her eye, her voice steady despite everything. "Don’t let it drop, don’t let anyone through."

"Mom!"

"I love you, Riven. Rember that your father and I love you so much." Her other hand was moving, drawing symbols in the air, complex, deliberate and purposeful. "You’re special. You’re going to be important, and I’m so sorry we won’t be there to see it."

"What are you—"

The car settled with a final crash, right-side up but crumpled, my father wasn’t moving, my mother was still conscious but barely, her shield around flickering.

Doors opened outside. Footsteps, voices speaking in a language I didn’t know then but recognized now, infernal dialects, Covenant operatives.

"The child," one of them said. "Is it him?"

"Check the bloodline."

My mother’s hand moved one last ti, drawing a final symbol on my wrist. It burned when she touched , bright and fierce, and I cried out.

"Hush, baby. It’s okay, this will protect you until you’re ready." Her voice was fading, growing distant. "Until you find soone you can trust, soone who can help you beco what you’re ant to be."

The symbol sank into my skin, disappearing like it had never existed.

"I can’t reach him," one of the Covenant operatives said, frustrated. "There’s an old magic seal of the Kael lineage."

"Kill them, if we can’t take the child, at least we can eliminate two bloodlines."

"Mom!" I tried to move, tried to reach for her, but the shield held frozen, protected, helpless.

She smiled at one last ti. "Be brave, Riven. Be strong, and when the ti cos, trust the binding."

Then the Covenant operative’s hand ca down, glowing with hostile magic, and my mother’s eyes went empty and the shield around flared so bright I couldn’t see anything and—

***

I ca back to myself on the floor of the safehouse bedroom, gasping like I’d been drowning.

My left wrist burned.

I looked down and saw it, a new mark, glowing golden-white on my skin, not the binding sigil, which sat on my right wrist in its familiar amber-red. This was different, older and more complex.

A seal.

But wait!

My mother. In the car crash, alive, using warden magic and placing a seal on my wrist.

The archive had said she died giving birth to , that I’d survived childbirth complications but she hadn’t.

But I’d just *seen* her. *Rembered* her. She’d been there in that car protecting .

"No," I whispered. "No, that’s not...the records said.."

The pieces fell into place with sickening clarity.

The Covenant had falsified the records, marked her as eliminated when she’d actually escaped with , hidden us both for ten years, and then they’d found us.

Ten years.

I’d had a mother for ten years, she’d raised , loved , protected , and I didn’t rember any of it because the seal she’d placed had buried those mories along with my power.

To keep safe and hidden, to make sure the Covenant thought I was nothing worth watching.

The grief washed over like rain.

I’d grown up thinking I never had a mother, that I was born alone, unwanted and cursed from the beginning, but that wasn’t true. She’d been *there*. She’d loved , and they’d taken her from and made forget she ever existed.

The door burst open.

Azryth stood in the doorway, eyes blazing ember-bright, power crackling around him like he’d been ready to tear through walls to reach . The binding between us was pulled taut, singing with shared alarm.

"What happened?" he demanded, crossing the room in three strides. "The binding..I felt.."

He stopped, then stared at my wrist.

Then at my face, which I realized was wet. I was crying, when had I started crying?

"That’s a new seal," he said, voice carefully controlled as he knelt beside . "Where did it co from?"

"My mother." My voice broke on the word. "She was alive, she didn’t die when I was born, she...she raised for ten years, and I don’t rember any of it."

His expression shifted, understanding, then fury so cold and controlled it made the air around us drop in temperature.

"The archive records," he said quietly.

"They lied, or the Covenant lied to them, she escaped with , hid us, and when they finally found us.." I gestured at my wrist. "She did this, she locked away my power and my mories, made forget her so I’d be safe."

"Tell what you saw."

So I did. The vision, the car chase, my mother’s magic, my father’s desperate driving, the Covenant operatives closing in, the seal she’d placed on with hands that shook and a voice that stayed steady even as she died.

*Trust the binding*, she’d said.

Eighteen years ago, my mother had known, had seen enough, understood enough, to prepare for this exact situation.

"She told to trust the binding," I said, staring at the glowing mark on my wrist. "How did she know? How could she possibly know I’d end up bound to soone?"

"Warden bloodline knowledge," Azryth said, his hand hovering near mine but not quite touching, like he was waiting for permission. "So families pass down more than just power, they pass down understanding, patterns, and probable futures based on what the Covenant does to warden children."

"So she knew they’d keep hunting , and that I’d need protection I couldn’t give myself."

"And she gave you the tools to survive it." He finally took my hand, examining the seal with careful intensity. "This is ancestral magic, high-level seal work, she didn’t just hide your power, she preserved it and kept it safe until you were in a position to use it properly."

The seal pulsed warmly under his touch, responding to him in a way that made the binding hum with recognition.

"It knows you," I said, watching the way the golden light seed to reach toward where his fingers pressed against my skin. "The seal, it’s reacting to the binding."

"It seems they’re designed to work together." His thumb traced the edge of one of the symbols. "Your mother made sure of that, this only unlocks when—"

"When I’m bound to soone trustworthy," I finished. "Soone who can help beco what I’m supposed to be."

Our eyes t.

The binding pulsed between us, warm and certain and absolutely sure that this, us, together, synchronized, was exactly what my mother had hoped for.

"She’d be proud of you," Azryth said quietly.

"You didn’t know her."

"I know you." He said it like it was a simple fact. "I know you’re brave enough to face your parents’ murder and strong enough to keep fighting after, I know you channeled enough power this morning to permanently seal a rift that should have taken eight wardens to close. I know you’re doing exactly what she died to make possible." His hand tightened on mine. "That’s enough."

The binding humd agreent, his certainty bleeding through until I almost believed it too.

I looked down at the seal, at this gift from a mother I’d forgotten, at the proof that I’d been loved, protected, prepared for.

"I don’t even know what it does," I said. "Just that it’s here and it’s connected to the binding sohow."

"We’ll figure it out." He helped up off the floor, guiding to sit on the edge of the bed. "But not tonight, you’ve had enough for one day."

"We don’t have ti to rest. Mara said the resonance clusters..."

"Will still be there tomorrow," Azryth interrupted, firm but not unkind. "Pushing yourself past breaking won’t help anyone."

I wanted to insist that we needed to understand the seal imdiately, needed to figure out what enhanced techniques my mother had left , needed to...

The binding pulsed gently, and through it I felt his concern, his absolute conviction that forcing myself to function right now would cause more harm than good.

And honestly, I was so tired. The rift closure this morning, the vision, the grief of rediscovering and re-losing my mother in the span of minutes, it had hollowed out.

"Okay," I said quietly. "We’ll tell Mara tomorrow and figure out what this thing does."

"Tomorrow," he agreed.

He moved to leave, to give space, but I caught his wrist before he could.

"Stay?" The word ca out smaller than I ant it to. "Just...don’t go. Not yet."

Sothing shifted in his expression, softened.

"All right."

He settled beside on the bed, back against the headboard. After a mont’s hesitation, I shifted closer, resting my head against his shoulder, his arm ca around automatically, solid and warm and grounding.

"Tell sothing about her," he said after a long silence. "From the vision, sothing that wasn’t about dying."

I thought about it, pulled up the fragnts of mory the seal had unlocked.

"She wore this perfu," I said. "Sothing floral, jasmine, maybe? The car always slled like it. And french fries because we’d get takeout on long drives." I closed my eyes, trying to hold onto the details. "She had my eyes, or I have hers, I guess, and she laughed a lot. I rember her laughing at sothing my father said."

"She sounds lovely."

"She was a badass warden who escaped the Covenant with an infant and stayed hidden for ten years." I felt the seal pulse on my wrist. "Yeah. She was pretty amazing."

The binding humd softly between us, carrying grief and comfort in equal asure.

We sat like that for a while, processing the mother I’d rediscovered, him providing a steady presence without demanding I be okay.

Eventually exhaustion started pulling at , the emotional drain catching up with the physical.

"You should rest," Azryth said quietly, but he didn’t move to leave.

"Don’t want to see it again, the crash, her dying." I pressed closer to him. "Every ti I close my eyes I see the Covenant operative’s hand coming down and.."

"Then don’t close your eyes yet." His hand moved in slow, soothing patterns on my shoulder. "Just breathe, I’m right here."

So I did. Focused on breathing, on the steady rhythm of his heartbeat under my ear, on the way the binding carried his calm certainty that we’d get through this.

"My mother told to trust the binding," I murmured. "She was right. You’re..you’re soone worth trusting."

His hand stilled for just a mont, then resud its gentle motion.

"Get so rest, Riven." He paused. "I’m here with you."

I let my eyes finally close, wrapped in warmth and the steady certainty that I wasn’t alone.

My mother had given the tools.

Tomorrow, I’d start learning how to use them.

But tonight, I just needed this. Comfort, safety, the presence of soone who’d proven over and over that he’d stand between and anything trying to hurt .

The dual seals on my wrists pulsed in harmony as sleep finally claid .