Page 34 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Daddy must’ve heard my breath shudder. “Something wrong, Amy?”
Clearing my throat, I glanced down at the bag between my knees. “Daddy, if I did something awful, something that would break the Danann sacrament, would you still love me?”
He clicked his tongue. “What kind of a question is that?”
I gnawed the inside of my cheek. “An important one. To me.”
“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t a hypothetical?”
I sniffled, wiping my nose. “I just really need to hear your answer right now.”
My father exhaled. “Amaranthine Ginger Larkspur, I would love you even if you massacred a village. Even if you ate babies for breakfast and puppies for dessert.”
I laughed, my heart lightening.
“I would love you if you brought about the apocalypse and ended the universe as we know it.”
My tears blinded me.
“I love you because you’re a part of me—a part of your mother—and that will never change, even if you do.”
Wishing I was home, so I could hug him, I took a calming breath. “Thank you, Daddy. I love you too.”
“Now, are you going to tell me what you’re up to, so I can talk you out of it?”
I sputtered another laugh. “Goodbye, Daddy. I’ll see you at home later.”
“Amy, please be care—”
I ended the call and dropped my phone in my purse. Steeling myself against the paralyzing fear of my kinsmen’s castigation—and reminding myself of the trap Briar and my uncle had laid for me—I opened the box securing my right to my own body and popped out the first of two pills. I downed it with a gush of mineral water before I second-guessed myself.
The forbidden action done and over with, I relaxed back against the cool brick wall. I watched a set of sparrows fight over a cracker left on the blacktop by the garbage can. They twittered and flapped, their pudgy bodies hopping.
Then they started spinning.
Stabbing chest pain followed, and I struggled to breathe, my tongue suddenly too big for my mouth. I tried to get up, alleviate things somehow, but my legs wouldn’t work. And I crumpled to my hands and knees.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong!
I’d heard of women having adverse reactions to the birth control pill—which was all the morning-after pill was—but nothing like this. This was more like anaphylaxis.
Freaking out could only worsen matters, but my heart was thundering by the time things got blurry. I rooted in my purse for my phone in vain. Spots blotched my vision, and I couldn’t see my keypad, let alone dial 911.
He’s coming for you,the woman’s voice from my drunken Beltane hallucination sung in my head.
Before the darkness I so feared overtook me, I swore I heard Briar cursing in my ear.
Whenthelightreturned,I wished I were still in darkness. I was too hot, too cold, too sick to be alive.
A ceramic mug pressed against my lips. Again. I used all my strength to fight it.
“You have to drink this.” Someone squeezed my cheeks until my mouth popped open, then a bitter, searing liquid seeped past my bloated tissues. I coughed and sputtered, my guts following suit.
Eventually, my stomach muscles ached from hurling. That’s when torrents of water splashed over my parched tongue, now shrunk back to normal. After the noxious drink, the water felt like medicine.
My maladies thus eased, gentle arms lifted me, laid me on a bed beside a crackling wood burner. “You’ll be okay now.” Fingers stroked my hair. “Rest.”
When I awoke, night had fallen, and I was back in the cabin, the stench of vomit, herbs, and woodsmoke thickening the air.
