Page 57 of Wicche Hunt

“You’re the strongest person I know,” I said, hugging her back. This was so unlike her, the tears and hugs.

She stepped back. “My darling girl, don’t confuse strength with good posture.”

“And don’t you run yourself down. You stand up to everything thrown at you,” I insisted.

“Not everything. They told me I had to give him up and I did.” She shook her head. “He was so angry with me, so disappointed.”

“I’m sorry. I wish we both could have had him in our lives.”

Reaching out, she tucked a stray curl behind my ear. The gusts off the ocean were gaining force. “I’m sorry my actions kept you from having a father. I knew you needed him, but I also knew I wasn’t strong enough to turn him away again.”

“I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but he’s been keeping an eye on me.”

Her expression went blank. “What?”

“Do you remember the seal I play fetch with?”

“Wilbur, yes.” Shewaspaying attention.

“Turns out he’s a selkie. He introduced himself to me a few weeks ago. In his human form. He said he was there at my father’s orders to keep an eye on me. And when Cal and her demon sent someone to burn down my gallery, a huge wave doused the whole building.”

She walked closer to the edge, hugging herself in the cold wind. “When you were little, I used to take you to the beach to play so he could see you if he wanted.”

I smiled. The image of Mom basically holding me up to the ocean to show me off was so odd and yet sweet. “And why you took over Great-Gran’s house a stone’s throw from the water?”

She nodded. “And why I always scheduled family get-togethers on the beach.”

I laughed and she turned to look at me. “When I was little—I don’t know, three or four—we were at the beach. I was sitting on the sand, playing with a shovel and pail. The waves sometimes touched me, like a kiss. Colin was being a jerk. Naturally. He took the pail and threw it into the surf and the very next wave brought it back to me.”

Mom chuckled, her gaze avid.

“Well, that ticked him off, so he took both the shovel and pail, walked out farther, and threw them again. And the next wave returned them to my lap.”

I hadn’t seen a smile like this on my mother’s face for far too long.

“He wasn’t having that, so when the next wave came in, he kicked me over so I went face first into the water.”

Mom’s expression turned thunderous.

“I was fine. The water’s never scared me. I felt a hand right me, so I was sitting again with my shovel and pail. At the same time, Colin was stung by a jellyfish.”

Mom stepped forward and grabbed my elbow. “I remember that. It was chaos and he was screaming his head off. John was trying to get him to settle down so he could heal the sting.”

“I guess. I wasn’t paying much attention to him. I was looking in the water, trying to figure out who’d helped me.”

She looked down at the ground, shaking her head. “He’s been keeping an eye out for you all this time.” Wistful, she looked out to sea.

I was about to leave her to her memories, but stopped myself. “Since we’re finally talking about important stuff, can I ask something else?”

She turned and hesitantly nodded.

“I know I really let you and Gran down by not accepting a spot on the Council when I was a teenager. And seeing how hard it’s been for the two of you because of that, I get the anger, but your—I don’t know—coldness toward me started long before that.”

She turned away from me, shaking her head.

I started this, so I was going to finish it. Talking to her back, I said. “I recently remembered when it started. I was young, still in the bedroom beside yours, and I’d had a horrible nightmare. I was crying inconsolably, and you came to hold me and hear what I’d seen. I’d told you about Aunt Sylvia’s death, and you shut down, moved me to the turret room, and everything changed between us.

“I was ashamed of what I could do after that, tried to hide it. When I woke every night, I stayed in my new room, far from you, and learned to deal with it on my own. I know you loved Sylvia, probably more than anyone else in the world, but I don’t understand why you’ve been so angry with me. I didn’twishher dead. I loved her too.”

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