Page 239 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
The redhead’s smile spread. “And I call you daughter because I’m Brigid.”
At least that made sense. Brigid wasthefire goddess. My summoning was being held onherday. But that didn’t explain why she’d call me daughter.
“I’m the Dagda’s daughter, and you, Amy, are my direct descendant.”
“Ohmigoddess!” I smacked my own head, making Cissus chuckle before he moved onto other patients. “That’s right! I knew you were somewhere in my family tree. I just never put it together—that you and I are linked like that.” I shook my head, Pete’s exasperation compounding. “Does that mean you’re, like, my dad’s great-grandmother to forever?”
Tenderness softened Brigid’s divine face. “Not your father, Amy.”
“Huh?”
I nearly swallowed my own tongue as another willowy female, who looked very much like me—as I’d always been told—stepped from Brigid’s wild, blazing mane and strolled into the night. She glowed like a moonbeam, stars alight in her long copper hair. Exquisitely gowned in trailing midnight-blue, she glided toward me, her orange-green eyes joyous. She had a broad, round nose like Vi’s, and the tilt of her head very much reminded me of Ace. But that smile of hers—it was all mine.
Pete gasped in recognition the moment tears spilled from my eyes. “Mom?”
Without hesitance, she rushed to me, took my teary cheeks in her long, slender hands. And she wasreal. I felt her skin, warm as if she’d never died. I could hear her breath and see the baby fine hairs behind her pointed ears. Mewling, I burrowed into her, and her arms came around me, a security blanket.
“Oh, my sweet little love,” she burred, her voice so beautiful, so devastating, that my bones poised to do her bidding. But she uttered only love as she stroked my hair, breathing, “How I’ve missed you.”
I gripped her like she’d disappear. “I—missed you—tooooo.” I hiccupped. Several times. “So much.”
She thumbed away my tears. “I’ve been watching over you, Amy. We all have in the Isle.” She chuckled, a row of dimples in her right cheek. “We can’t wait to see what you’ll do next.”
I sniffled. “I’m a sit-com star up there?”
“Something like that. As your father likes to joke, you’re big in heaven.”
I shuddered out a breath I’d been holding for months. “He’s with you up there? I was so worried that—because of the curse—because of Gentian—”
“He’s there, Amy. He was never destined for anywhere else.”
“Is he here with you?” I glanced toward Brigid, my hopes soaring. “Is he hiding in your hair to surprise me too?”
My hopes crashed at Brigid’s sympathetic expression.
“He couldn’t come, little love,” my mother said, caressing my cheek again. “Only females can visit the living after death. Males can’t breach the veil between.”
Containing my disappointment was a lost cause.
“He’s given me a message for you, though. He says, ‘Keep thinking with your heart, kiddo, because a heart is what our people need.’”
My lips quivered. “Can—can you give him a message from me?” Because I knew she would go back to the Isle. Though I longed for her to stay with me, never leave me again for the rest of my life, I knew Danu wouldn’t let her remain. “Tell him—” I wiped my drippy nose. “Tell him he was right. About Briar.”
He’s not the one, Daddy had decided.
After that night, I thought maybe—just maybe—I knew who was.
Her eyes dancing, my mother brushed my bangs off my forehead. “He’ll be pleased to hear that. He’s always pleased to hear when he’s right.”
I laughed, gushing more tears.
After several more heartwarming moments, my mother’s smile dwindled. “I’ll have to go soon, Amy. My being down here will soon disrupt the order of things.”
I bit back a vehement cry ofno. “I figured.”
“But before I go, I have three more gifts for you.”
The circle of conduits damn near mutinied.
