Page 123 of The Rebel Seer

Arawn leans over and lays a gentle kiss on my forehead. “Fly free, my cauldron. You deserve all the love in the world. See things the way they are now, free of fear, your ancient eyes lit with new fire.”

I feel Dev slip back into my soul and then we’re in the midst of battle.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Shy

The cold bites into me and I feel the door to the Hell plane is open. It is a gaping maw in the center of the valley, red flames spewing forth, and the stink of brimstone fills the air.

He’s already opened it, Shy. Devinshea’s voice is steady in my head. You can do this. You can save the rest.

I can save them all.

It’s not too late. I see the souls pulled into the Hellmouth, watch as they try so hard to avoid it but cannot. They have no other option.

I will give them one.

“Shy.” Rhys rushes to my side. “You have to get out of here.”

I lean over and brush my lips across my husband’s. “This is my time, Rhys. You have to let me do what I was born to. Give me some of your strength, love. Ostara told us. My autumn. Your spring. We are what turns the wheel. Summer is work and winter is rest, but real change comes from us. I intend to offer them change.”

He is the most beautiful thing, this man I found at the end of my long journey. He is a gift to me and I to him. How had I ever thought I wasn’t enough for him? I am what he needs. He is youth and fire, and I am wisdom and comfort. We belong together.

He steps back as Myrddin turns my way. I can see the protective magic around him now where I could not before, but then I can also see the glow coming off my skin.

I realize that it’s more than protective magic. The wizard is lying, but then that’s what he does.

My mother-in-law rushes out of Daniel’s arms and stands in front of me and Rhys, staring down Myrddin though she doesn’t have an ounce of battle magic. She puts her arms out and gestures as though I should hide behind her.

“You will not hurt my son or my daughter.”

That’s who Zoey Donovan-Quinn is.

And suddenly the Drowning Woman is beside her. Both women—one alive and one who even in death would not let me be alone—stand in front of us. Protecting us.

“I don’t have to hurt her,” Myrddin announces. “She can do nothing. I thought she was more than she is, but it’s apparent now she is useless. Those souls I collected are all going to Hell, and I have the power. The spell collects the energy that is created when a soul passes to Hell. I will have all the power I need.”

“Or I can show them another way. Mama, could you call to them for me? You’ve never once felt the pull. You can show the ones who are already inside the way back,” I say to the Drowning Woman.

She didn’t drown, but it’s odd how spirits present themselves. I don’t know why she became this water spirit beyond the fact that her name is Visola. My grandmother was looking for an African name and found Visola. She said it was a gift she could give her daughter from her ancestors.

I blink back tears. It means longings are waterfalls.

My mother came to me the only way she knew how.

“Who’s here, Seer? Who did you bring with you?” Myrddin looks around like he can find the threat.

My mother emerges from the water for the first time.

“The Drowning Woman is your mother?” Rhys asks.

I nod.

She is beautiful, too, Shy. She can do the job, Dev says deep inside me. She can lead them back.

I know it in my soul.

Visola Davis, my mother, reaches her hand to me, and it is not frightening. It is not desiccated. It is the gentle hand of the woman who loved me so much she found a way to stay close even after death. She gives me a smile from behind the water which now I can see truly is longing. Longing for me. Longing to make sure I am safe.

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