[This post is from Matt Astoris’s point of view.]
Matt’s heart missed a beat. He cleared his throat. “Then you know.”
“Aunt Caro confirmed it,” Lin said after a momentary hesitation. “When she found me out there, I asked. I—Uncle Matt. I know why you didn’t tell me and it’s okay. I get it. I just—they’re out there somewhere, right? They’re out there somewhere and I just feel like part of the reason that I feel this way is because I need to find them, that somehow they need me.” He swallowed hard and looked away. “I just wish I knew why they left. The real reason.”
“Mar was dying,” Matt whispered. “She knew there was something out there that could save her—they both did. Something that was drawing on her magic, spooling it away like yarn from a ball. They needed to find it and they couldn’t do that staying here. We’d known for a long time that it would probably come to that but I guess we all just…I don’t know. I think we were all in a little bit of denial. But she knew the moment when it was time. I think that she originally meant to go alone but your dad—gods. Thom was never going to let her go out there alone. I knew that. I think deep down, your mom knew it, too. I don’t know what their conversation looked like. I never got the chance to ask and honestly, I don’t think I want to know even now. I just know that by the time I was in the room, they’d made the choice and the plan was set. Only a few of us knew what they were doing—a necessary evil, I guess. But then, if everyone else knew that they’d just up and left, well…I don’t know what that would have done.”
“Maybe nothing,” Lin whispered. “Maybe destroyed what they’d built.”
“They feared the latter,” Matt said. “More than that, they feared that if it looked like anything other than them possibly giving their lives to save everyone here that the peace that Marin secured would die even faster than it already was. What they ended up doing bought us at least a few more years.” He scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “I’m sorry we kept it from you.”
Lin shrugged and winced slightly. “What’s done is done, right? All I can do now is try to find them.” He chewed his lower lip for a few seconds. “You think they’re still out there, right? Still alive?”
“I think we’d know if they weren’t,” Matt said, shaking his head slightly. “Don’t ask me how, but I think we would. Somehow.”
