“Will this path take us close to the field where we met?” Marcus asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “It should also go by the village where my brugh is, but we’ll be going so fast I doubt Erna or Dean will notice.”
“Your witch might not notice, but I assure you Kelsey will.” Marcus had relaxed a bit as though he’d come to the conclusion we weren’t going to die in the next few moments.
“She won’t be able to catch us, and honestly, it’s best I do this alone.”
“You aren’t alone now. If it is up to me, you won’t ever be alone again.”
There was a sigh over the line that sounded far too feminine to be from Marcus.
“Dante, you never say such things to me anymore,” Kaja said.
“No, I’m too busy running after our daughter and praying I survive her childhood,” came Dante’s reply with a chuckle.
I will be happy when we’re alone again, bella. Marcus reminded me that we could have some privacy.
I caught the sight of something out of my peripheral vision. It was nothing but a flash, but I could have sworn I saw Dean’s shock of white hair and a woman standing next to him who could only be Kelsey.
“Marcus, did you see that?” I tried to turn my head.
“Was that Kelsey?” Marcus asked.
“Boss, I detected five civilians.” Adam was all business. “Three of them are of unknown origin. One is Fae and one is a known citizen of the Vampire plane. Do you want to investigate?”
“Summer!”
I heard someone scream my name. A feminine voice.
“We don’t have time to investigate,” Taggart declared. “But obviously someone knows who we’re transporting. I don’t like that.”
“It’s one of the unknown origins yelling. I’ve got a scanner on her. She’s running after us,” Adam said. “Boss, it’s the weirdest thing. If I didn’t know better I would say she’s Summer’s twin. But she doesn’t have a twin, right?”
My heart nearly stopped. Could it be true? Could that be my mother? “Stop.”
“No can do,” Taggart replied.
“Stop, please.” I felt something—some deep emotion—build inside me, and I knew I would regret it forever if I didn’t stop and find out who that woman was.
“We need to stop.” Marcus was right there with me.
“We’re not going to…” Taggart began.
And then the bikes stopped so suddenly I felt my body lurch forward. I wasn’t sure why Taggart had changed his mind, but I wasn’t going to waste a moment. We’d been speeding by and I wasn’t sure how far back they were. I slid off the bike which hovered roughly a foot off the ground.
I could hear Taggart cursing, but I pulled the helmet off my head while Marcus was moving to stand beside me.
And then I saw her. She’d been running and she stopped suddenly as she rounded the curve in the path. She stood there in the early evening light, her eyes on me.
She hadn’t changed a bit, hadn’t aged or altered her appearance. She still had long red hair and the kindest eyes. My heart constricted and I realized that all the anxiety I’d felt when I thought of this moment was nothing in the face of the deep joy I felt at seeing her again.
“Momma?” The helmet I’d been holding slipped from my fingers to the dirt below.
We stared at each other in complete wonder. All of my life she’d been so far from me. She’d been on another world, but now she was here. She was standing right there, and I felt a bit frozen, worried if I moved she might disappear.
“Zoey, those men have guns.” Kelsey’s warning snapped me back into reality.
My mom was standing there. She wasn’t moving toward me. Was she scared of me?
My Fae father jogged around the curve. “My goddess, we don’t know who she’s with.”
Those words seemed to spur my mother. She suddenly ran my way, her arms open and emotion plain on her face. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she enveloped me in her arms.
“Momma?” My breath hitched in my chest and I was almost overwhelmed by the sweetness of being near her.
“Summer, I missed you. I missed you so much. Baby, I love you. I never forgot you.” She whispered in my ear, her voice ragged, and she held me so tight. As though she worried someone would rip me from her arms the way they had the first time. “You’ve been in my heart since the day you were born. Please forgive me for