Chapter 102 #2
We both nodded. My hair whipped around my face, making it hard to see Sinthy, but I kept doing my best to concentrate on holding my mother’s hands.
Sinthy stood behind Gabriella, her hands an inch above the other woman’s head, and began to chant.
The words were incomprehensible, but I could sense the power in them.
Each word, every syllable, seemed to slam into me.
The wind rose to a fever pitch. Pillows on the couch started to lift away and spin around the room, as did dozens of stray pieces of paper and magnets from the fridge.
Gabriella began, almost imperceptibly, to shake.
The bones jostled in her hands. Soon, she was convulsing in the chair.
It was all I could do to hold her hands together to keep the bones in place.
Nico pushed against my shoulders, trying to keep me close to her, even as the wind tried to force us apart.
“Don’t let go!” Sinthy screamed. “It’s about to get weird. ”
I gaped at her. “It’s not fucking weird yet?” I shouted, but my words vanished in the wind.
Sinthy lifted her hands higher above Gabriella’s head and slowly turned her palms toward the ceiling.
Then, faster than I could see, she clutched her fingers together, forming two fists.
As soon as her fingers came together, a powerful cold wave slapped me.
In less than an instant, everything vanished.
Instead of the house and my friends, I was seeing memories.
Not mine. These were Gabriella’s memories.
They flashed across my mind like three-dimensional movies.
Gabriella and I were combined into one being.
I lived the memories like I was inside her mind when they first happened.
A young boy, maybe thirteen, handsome and confident. David Samuels, my father. He grinned at Gabriella. This was the first moment my mother ever saw him.
The same boy, a year older, leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. The first of many kisses.
A massive slavering beast, standing on two legs, thickly muscled arms hanging low, fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws.
Edemas’s wolf. The werewolf that shared David’s body.
She’d never seen it before. Fear pulsed through her like water through a raging river.
But the fear was tempered by love. He was a terrifying sight to behold, but she knew in her heart that he would never hurt her.
David, a year before he died. Sitting, holding his head in his hands, tears dripping to the floor. “I just want to be normal. I don’t want him living inside me anymore,” David said, looking up at Gabriella. “I’m afraid of what he makes me do when he takes over.”
Gabriella standing in front of a mirror, rubbing her belly. The excitement and anxiety were minor emotions compared to the love she already had for the baby growing inside her.
Screams. So many screams. A man had her with his arms around her chest, dragging her away. Kenneth’s voice yelling at Gabriella to run. David screamed for her to go. To go with his brother and allow him to buy her time.
Heart-rending sadness as she held a baby.
A baby I knew was me. Tears fell from her eyes, landing on the baby’s cheek.
The child flinched at the sensation but reached out a hand to grab her finger.
Gabriella, sobbing uncontrollably, lifted the baby and handed her to Kenneth, who disappeared out the door.
A sadness unlike anything I’d ever felt in my life fell upon her, and she wished she could die.
Dying would be easier than giving away the thing she loved more than anything else.
The thrill of excitement and happiness when a small girl came toddling into her exam room. Gabriella’s heart was full for the first time in a long time as the tiny girl reached out a hand to her.
Dozens more memories fluttered by. It was overwhelming. All that emotion. The pain, the happiness of a full life. The moments that made a person who they were. I was able to see all of it. Relive all of it. I was not ready for it. Not in the least.
Then there were the dark memories from the last month. Viola’s face: beautiful, cold, and harsh. Gabriella’s fear of what the woman would do to me and her determination to protect me at all costs. At the cost of her life if needed.
Finally, after what seemed like years, I blinked and stood in a room that was solid white.
The living room had vanished. Nico and Sinthy were nowhere in sight.
All I could see was a figure wandering through the white nothingness some distance away.
Even in the distance, I could tell it was Gabriella.
I put a hand to my mouth to call out to her. “Gab… Mom? Mom, over here.”
She turned and saw me. Slowly, she took a few hesitant steps in my direction. “I know you,” she said, calling back to me.
My heart broke a little. She’d been pulled deep and almost forgotten everything. “Yes. It’s me. It’s Maddy.”
She froze and put a hand to her mouth in shock. “Maddy? My baby girl? Is it really you?”
Before I could answer, a thick growl erupted from my right. I spun and saw Gabriella’s wolf trotting up to her. The two figures stood side by side, looking at each other. The wolf looked agitated and afraid, its tail tucked between its legs. I’d never seen an animal look so frightened.
I held my hands up. “It’s all right. You’re safe. Come to me.” I motioned for them both to come closer.
The two only hesitated for a moment before walking closer. I watched as they drew near. The wolf began to shimmer and become almost ghostlike before it stepped close to Gabriella and vanished into her body. My mother finally stood in front of me, and the wonder in her eyes almost made me cry.
She reached out and touched my cheek. “My baby. My beautiful girl. You don’t know how much I missed you. You are so perfect. I always knew you would be.”
“Come home with me?” I asked.
Gabriella glanced around, confused. “Isn’t this home? Isn’t this where I live now?”
I shook my head, grabbed her by her arms, and pulled her close, pressing my forehead to hers.
As soon as our heads touched, we were ripped out of the memory world.
I gasped, and Gabriella shouted in surprise.
The world went white and so bright that it was like we were on the surface of the sun. Then it all went black.
The next thing I knew, I was half out of my chair, gasping for breath as Nico held me up. The wind in the room was dying, leaving the house a mess. Sinthy looked exhausted and was slowly sliding down to the floor.
Nico was trying to get me to lie down on the floor, but I pushed him away. “I’m fine. I’m all right. Christ, that was intense.”
“Maddy?”
I looked up to see Gabriella looking at me, confusion and happiness warring on her tired face.
My jaw fell open, and words stuck in my throat.
Sinthy shook her head to clear it, then stood back up.
She stepped over to us, looking woozy. Once she was between Gabriella and me, a smile spread across her pretty face.
She nodded to me, then looked at Gabriella. “Welcome back.”