Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,80

tea for your mother, but I fear I must depart for the day shortly thereafter. Yuki can show you around your home when you feel up to it." She bowed her head.

"Your home. I'll continue living in Cedar Falls, thank you very much."

"You do not intend to??

"I never intended to. That's what I was trying to tell your brother-in-law. I am where I'm needed."

"Well, that is a discussion for another time."

"Yes. Best to keep my mother caffeinated." I rolled my eyes and earned a smile from June.

"You remind me so much of her."

"And here I thought we were friends," I said half-jokingly. And half-indignantly.

June laughed. "In the area of formidableness, you, your mother, and your grandmother are all cut from the same cloth." She bowed and backed out of the room.

Just as Yuki returned with a very angry looking banshee in tow, with red-hair and answered to the name Mother. Crying, the banshee ran across the room and fell to the floor beside me. "Are you okay?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, thank the goddess." She bowed her head and pressed her forehead against my arm, sobbing silently.

"What are you doing here?"

She lifted her head and stared at me incredulously with red-rimmed eyes. "You were hurt! Of course, I would come."

"I mean, how did you know?"

She gulped and stared at me. "Your father??

I smiled. "You saw him, too?"

She nodded, seeming almost frail. "Daughter??

"Yes, Mother?"

"I am sorry. Truly sorry."

"For?" The list was so long, I didn't know where she was starting.

"Treating your human??ith such disdain."

"Marge?" Again, the list was too long, and I needed clarification.

"Yes. Midge."

"It's not me you need to apologize to," I said sternly.

"I know, and I will."

"Why do you hate her so much? She's the sweetest woman in the world?"

Mother shifted in embarrassment. "That is just one of the reasons."

"Huh?"

Mother sighed. "I'm jealous."

"Of her?"

She nodded.

"Why?"

Taking a deep breath, she thought about her answer for a moment before speaking. "Because of how much you adore her. You treat her more like a mother than you have ever treated me."

I nearly slapped her upside the head. "Because you never let me!" Enough was enough. I sat back up and stared down at my mother, fighting the urge to throttle her about the head, neck, and ears. "You and Nana both treat affection like some sort of disease! If you weren't belittling me, you were teaching me how to be a bigger, badder witch!"

"Sweetie, belittling is how we show affection."

"So, you love Marge?" I cocked an eyebrow in disbelief.

She swallowed. Hard. And nodded. The answer I was least expecting.

"What?"

"How could I not? You move across the country, start a new life, and from the moment you rolled into that dinky, dingey little town, she made sure you were fed and loved! I owe her a great debt."

I blinked. Looked up at Dar, over at Shea, and back down at my mother, waiting for the punchline. "Seriously?"

"Yes?"

"Well, okay then. Apparently, I've slipped into the Twilight Zone." I pushed myself back against the headboard and sat up straighter, pulling Shea into the space between my legs and hugging him like a teddy bear. I needed an anchor.

My mother blinked as the tattoos on him flared into life, tilting her head and gasping. "What is that?"

"I am tattooed," he said simply and held out his arm.

She reached out and touched his arm, but they were lifeless beneath his fingers. She started tapping them.

"They only light with your daughters touch," he said by way of explanation.

"He's my nightlight," I said with a chuckle.

"That is the most??nusual thing I've ever seen. What language is it?" She looked at Shea instead of me. I barely spoke English, sometimes.

"I do not know."

"Doesn't matter," I answered and hugged him a little tighter, causing them to flare just a little brighter.

"Daughter?"

"Yes?"

"Pour a little power into them?? She stared at the arm in her hand.

"What?"

She finally looked up, huffing in frustration. "Pour. Magic. Into. Them," she answered slowly, for us slow kids in the back.

I shrugged and smiled, letting my love, warmth, and magic flow into the embrace.

The room flared a brilliant blue, and I had to blink a few times to let my overly light-sensitive eyes catch up. The script on his arms, shoulders, and chest was scrolling like a computer monitor, rearranging themselves and blending together until the brush strokes began to form constellations and swirls.

"What the hell is it?" I pushed him forward, keeping my hands on him to keep the magic flowing as some sort of map finally coalesced over every visible