Lilia protects Ava and teaches her about her abilities

Ava and Lilia’s bond is a sustaining intimacy built under pursuit: Lilia watches over her daughter’s dangerous, unpredictable fire abilities while trying to keep both of them beyond the Coterie’s reach. Her protection offers warmth and hope, but it also requires painful separations and secrets, most consequentially the truth about Cade’s place in Ava’s family.

Care Under Pursuit

Ava remembers growing up on the run with Lilia, whose attention to her daughter’s safety was constant. In Colorado, where the cold, dry air and higher elevation were difficult for Ava, Lilia made her drink plenty of water and kept a close watch because Ava would sometimes spark without warning. Ava could not tell whether her mother’s expression in those moments was pride or worry, so she made up the words “woud” and “porried” for the conflicting feelings she sensed in her. The private vocabulary captures how closely Ava watched Lilia in return: even as a child, she was trying to read the fear and affection behind her mother’s vigilance.

That vigilance had immediate, practical stakes. In a small cabin near a town, Lilia mended the sleeve Ava had torn on barbed wire while escaping Coterie men who had nearly caught them. The jacket mattered beyond warmth: Ava knew that things sewn into its lining were necessary to her, and might also help the pursuers track them or confirm what she was. Lilia’s care took place inside this precarious routine, where tending a torn garment could not be separated from the dangers that had caused the tear. In the cabin, however, the quiet and snowfall offered a rare interval of safety; Lilia relaxed enough to sit by the fire and hum as she sewed.

Teaching Ava to Think Beyond Her Gifts

Lilia’s protection also took the form of guidance about Ava’s powers. When Ava’s preteen sulk made the fireplace flames sputter, Lilia drew her close and stroked her head. She did not treat Ava’s abilities as a reason to abandon tenderness, but she understood that those abilities could expose them to danger. On another occasion, she warned Ava not to become so fixed on her gifts that she failed to think around them. Her point was not that power alone would solve the threat posed by Venus: Lilia identified Venus’s hubris, her belief in her own invulnerability, as the flaw that could ultimately bring her down. In teaching Ava to look beyond the obvious source of power, Lilia offered a way to understand an enemy who seemed otherwise impossible to defeat.

Ava’s memories also show that Lilia could make room for play and comfort amid fear. When Ava’s paperback prompted a stern warning about flammable pages, Lilia’s tiny smile faded into sadness; Ava went to her and apologized. Lilia reassured her that there was nothing to apologize for, then explained that Ava had reminded her of Cade through her expression and her book. Ava treasured the comparison. Lilia’s recollection made Cade emotionally present even when he was absent, and her daughter understood the reference as a profound compliment.

Separation as Protection

Ava repeatedly wanted the security of living with Cade. Lilia knew that returning to Currant was difficult to resist: she and Ava sometimes slipped back there, even though doing so put Cade in danger. For Ava, home meant Cade, and one childhood holiday visit brought a week snowed in together, complete with a Christmas tree decorated with popcorn chains and paper snowflakes. Those rare domestic moments sharpened the pain of leaving. Lilia nevertheless refused to make their happiness the only consideration. Cade’s bookstore and cabin were full of books, she reminded Ava, and paper burned easily; more fundamentally, living together would put Cade and the two of them at risk. Lilia’s fingers reached for Lilia’s heart-and-star necklace as she explained that Cade deserved to live his life without being endangered for their sake.

When Ava argued that Cade should be allowed to choose the risk, Lilia answered that sometimes people had to be protected from their own choices. Their occasional visits were dangerous enough. Her decision meant that Ava’s longing for a stable home could not simply be granted, even though Lilia understood exactly what it meant to her. Still, Lilia offered a future to hold on to: nothing, not even the Coterie or Venus, lasted forever, and perhaps one day they could stop running and live with Cade. The hope was fragile, but Lilia stated it plainly, giving Ava an imagined life beyond flight.

The Secret and Its Cost

Lilia’s protection extended to controlling what Ava knew. When Ava learned that Cade was her father, she realized that her mother had concealed the truth from both of them so neither could reveal it if they were captured and tortured. The discovery recast Lilia’s earlier separation from Cade: keeping Ava ignorant had been part of keeping him safe, and keeping Cade uninformed had prevented him from taking on the Coterie for them. Ava understood the protective reasoning, but understanding did not spare her the pain of realizing that her mother had withheld a truth central to her identity.

The relationship is therefore defined by care that is both intimate and costly. Lilia comforts Ava, attends to her emerging abilities, helps her imagine a future, and makes decisions that deny her the family life she wants in the present. Her protection is not simply shelter from immediate danger; it also means choosing distance and secrecy on Ava’s behalf. Those choices preserve the possibility of safety, but leave Ava to live with the longing and hurt they create.