Sarissa exhaled. She didn't reply right away - not because she didn't want to, but because there were several centuries of build-up to Lily's death and the passing of the Mantle. How did she summarize it for someone who didn't understand how the fae worked, or how dysfunctional her family was?
"When the current bearer of the Mantle dies, it goes towards the nearest appropriate vessel," she finally said, her gaze focused inward as she tried to find a good explanation. "I didn't really realize it at the time, but my mother was preparing me to take the Winter Lady's Mantle. The one who had it was my sister." Pain flashed in her dark eyes. "She was...sick. Mad. Twisted. Uncontrollable. I suppose our mother decided she wanted someone more pliable. So she started preparing me for it. Of course, Maeve's never been stupid, even if she was sociopathic. She knew what was going on before I did. So she got the Summer Lady and me in one place, and she killed the Summer Lady. The Mantle flowed to me."
She glanced up then, and gave him a humourless smile. "It was smart, really. She wanted to separate me and our mother, and she did it. The Winter Queen can't consort with the enemy, after all."