Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,82

I already didn't have.

"Gosh. That was exciting."

Candace just snickered.

∞ ∞ ∞

I stood in the shadows of the First Moon Café. Technically I was in the shadow realm and not the shadows, but I wasn't going to correct myself. I didn't move, I didn't step out, I just stood there staring at my sister and watched her work. In just a few short months she had grown from a flighty best friend into a shrewd, hard-working business savvy woman in a serious relationship and I didn't think I could have felt any more pride in who she had become. Even working, you could see the love flowing between her and Candace. Nothing overt, just subtle smiles, glances, and touches. They were going to be together forever, you could tell just by looking.

Business was at the point, just after the rush of everybody leaving work and just before the sun setting and drawing in the nocturnal coffee drinkers looking for a fix before perusing the bookstore. It wasn't slow, but it wasn't slammed either. The vamps would be there soon to relieve the day shift. It was time. Candace could handle the store with the younger humans while I kidnapped my sister.

Somehow, Candace knew I was there and nodded in my direction. "Josie? Could you grab me a couple sleeves of twenty-ounce cups? I'm getting low."

"Sure thing, Sunshine." She winked at her fiancé and headed for the door into the kitchen, right toward me hiding in the corner where the recessed lighting afforded a nice corner shadow. As she passed, I reached out, grabbing her arm, and tugging her into the shadows with me.

She screamed. Thankfully, sounds in the shadow realm were vastly muffled or I might have had to go to the hospital for ruptured eardrums.

"Holy shit, Dot! What the hell. Don't do that to me!" She huffed and covered her heart with her hand while she tried to get her breathing under control.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"Bullshit."

"Okay, maybe a little." I chuckled.

"What's going on?" She looked around, trying to calm her nerves. It wasn't her first trip into the realm of shadow, but one didn't exactly ever get used to it. Unnerving was a good way to put it.

"Needed to highjack you for a bit. We need to have a talk."

"Oh fuck. What did you do?" She shifted her weight onto one leg and put the opposite hand on her hip.

"It's nothing I did, or you did. Just have something to tell you," I answered and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the café. If she were going to go ballistic or have a meltdown, I didn't want her to do it any place public.

It only took a few heartbeats to traverse the distance to Ashville. Since we'd moved, she hadn't been back, and I thought she might want a bit of familiarity for her conniption. We stepped from the shadows of the pines of the grove used by the Coven of the Black Well. When we were younger…hell, right up until we moved to Cedar Falls, whenever we snuck out to drink, make out with guys, or just get away from our mothers, we always went to the grove. I couldn't think of a better place to drop the bomb on her.

"Oh, my goddess!" She squealed and ran to the rock, the one we always sat on, and hopped up to sit in her usual spot. Then her face darkened. "Oh, shit. This is bad, isn't it? It's really, really bad. For you to bring me all the way here…"

"Not bad. Kind of awesome actually, but I won't lie to you, it's big."

"Big as in epic or big as in you're about to crush my heart and tell me something completely life altering like Candace is my sister and I can't marry her." She frowned and scrunched her eyebrows.

She gave me the perfect lead in. "No… Not Candace…"

"Oh, thank the goddess. I can't even begin to tell you how gross that would be. Sister…shudder. Wait, what?"

"Candace isn't your sister…"

She stared at me blank faced for a moment while she processed the words. I was fully prepared to give her a few minutes, but it sunk in. "She's not? Who is? Princess Leia?" She scoffed. "Juke, I am your father," she raised her arm and pinched her fingers together while making heavy breathing noises.

"Josie, focus."

She let her hand drop slowly and cocked one eyebrow at me. "What? Don't tell me you're my sister!" She scoffed.

I remained silent.

"Dot…"

"Josie… I