Page 234 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
My guts somersaulting, I gulped. “Is that the same here as it was for me on Earth?”
“I believe so.”
Holy shit snacks! That meant Pete was about to get up close and personal with my feelings for him, both romantic and sexual. He clearly wasn’t down for that, as stressed as he was.
“Shall we get started?” Myrrdin asked, then simply moseyed off, leaving Pete and I standing together, avoiding eye contact.
Soon, the clerics had all the willing hosts organized into a circle around Pete and me. And the poor, clueless steer. A tense hush descended, all eyes on me.
I’d always hated being the center of attention. Now was no different, despite the kindness in the gazes. After a minute, I felt ready to burrow into my own hair, a sniveling mole. Then a bear paw nudged my hand.
Threading my fingers through Pete’s, I marveled at his ability to know just when I needed a comforting touch. At his readiness to give it, despite his own tumult at our bond.
I was beyond grateful for his physical support when the clerics glided into a second, smaller circle around us, their robes reminding me of ghosts. Each wore a twine necklace bejeweled with animal bones. Joining hands, they peered skyward.
They commenced my summoning in a chilling, monotone chant, reforming the bones around their necks into vortexes of coruscant steam—smoke signals to the heavens.
Message received, I mused when lightning speared through the violet nebulae above, making me suck in a breath.
We were calling on the freaking All Mother. How, I wondered, would she make her appearance—if she’d literally appear? As the serpent of Eden? As a person? As a burning bush?
I jumped when lightning arced over the clerics, a sprinting reaper, and struck down the steer in a thunderous clap that made my eardrums vibrate. It left only a pile of ash and a single longhorn behind.
Instinctively, I pressed into Pete for protection like he could save me from the Goddess. And he probably understood his uselessness in that regard. Yet, he pocketed his current reservations for a later time and drew me closer.
“Praises be to our holy mother, Danu!” Myrrdin’s voice reverberated. “We humbly summon your blessings and your tremendous magics in the name of your virtuous daughter, Princess Amaranthine Ginger Larkspur. We summon you in the name of the Aurora!”
No sooner had he shouted that last word—Aurora—than did the sky transform, rainbows streaking the sky. At first, everyone cooed at the splendor. At second, mass hysteria erupted when the streaks shelled the henge, shrieking like fireworks and rocking the ground.
“Remain calm!” Myrrdin commanded. “Stay where you are!”
Yeah, okay!I wanted to snark, the earthquake nearly knocking me on my ass.
Then came the asteroid, a veritable bomb with a tail of violet fire. I screamed as it blasted the hill in a mushroom cloud of sand and grass, bowling Pete and I over.
I coughed in the lingering haze, particulate stinging my eyes, and pushed to my feet. When the dust settled, I was the only one in the stone circle not kneeling in supplication, and three giant, semi-transparent beyns of startling beauty stood before me in a newly formed crater.
Their divinities glowed as shimmering auras around their breathtaking, stark-naked bodies. Even their elegant Danann ears scintillated as though sequined.
I stopped breathing when their omnipotence found me.
Pete gasped from where he knelt. “Holy Christ! It’s allthreeof them!”
The clerics shared his incredulity, for more than one gaped over his shoulder as they scuttled to join the other conduits. Leaving me to face three awe-inspiring deities on my own.
When they approached me, I staggered back. One triple goddess would’ve intimidated me. Three put me in danger of peeing my pants. Pete’s continued grasp on my hand was all that kept me from running away.
The first to speak had amber-toned skin and a soft,Botticellesque body. Her hair flowed like verdant rivers to her perfect feet. Flowers bloomed in her curls, and birds nested in her waves. She had the sweetest face I’d ever seen, her almond eyes slanted upward. Her regard, so imbued with tenderness and love, was a dead giveaway—Shewas Danu.
“My dearest, Amy,” she tinkled, her voice a windchime.
She knew my name? Not my given name. My heart’s name.
“We’ve been waiting for you to call on us.”
“We’ve been watching you,” the redhead to Danu’s left spoke in a smoky lilt, her smile, sultry as the jungle, weirdly familiar. Her skin was as luminous as pearl, her hair a cascade of molten copper, fresh from a forge. “You’ve been making us proud, daughter.”
Was she talking tome?I’dbeen making them proud?
