Yet when I dreamt of her, I somehow aged her up, as though I still needed to keep the same gap of years between us. It was how I kept her living, I supposed, not just through memories but through what I thought she would look in the now.
But her hug felt real.
And I knew, in the deepest corners of my heart, that her love still was real.
Love never went away.
It justwas. Once there, love just existed. The threads of it entwined in the fabric of the universe, contributing to a greater tapestry of all that is and ever was.
“My love. My heart. Faelan of the flowers. What brings you here? Why do you walk so closely to me?” Eriska’s brow creased, and only then did I really take a look around at where we were. Usually when I dreamt of her it was in the fields by our favorite picnic spot. But this … this was different. Yes, there were flowers, but we were no longer in the field. We stood on the edge of the field, and I realized it was on the edge of a cliff that dropped sharply into nothingness. When I peered over, all I could see was inky night sky, a sea of stars shimmering like sand being tossed in waves, and I gasped.
“Where are we?”
“Oh, my child.” The corner of my mum’s eyes creased in concern. “I think you know.”
I did know. I’d seen it enough times when I was healing a critical patient, hadn’t I?
“It’s the veil, isn’t it? Something’s happened.” I wracked my brain, but for some reason, standing in this in-between space, I couldn’t recall what had led me here. I couldn’t remember much of anything, actually, other than the people I loved and the places I’d been.
“Something has happened.” Eriska tilted her head, her hands squeezing my shoulders, a look of sympathy on herface. “But I’m certain it’s far before your time, my child. I’d read you. This is … unusual.”
“You read me? My death?” My head snapped back as I looked at her in shock.
“Of course. I wanted to know what kind of time you had. I needed to impart as many lessons in you as I could before I left you.”
My mother, despite her flightiness and eternal optimism, had always had a deeply pragmatic streak. Her brow furrowed as she looked me up and down.
“You’re wounded.”
“Everything hurts.” Even now, in this space of in-between, I could feel the pain that wracked my physical body.
“Was it a healing? Did you not divert?” Worry filled her face and her hands tightened on my shoulders.
“I … I,” I tried to remember what had happened. All I knew was it was horrific. Something atrocious had happened. “I don’t know. It was bad.”
“Oh Faelan, my love, you need to go back. It isn’t your time yet.” Eriska nudged me away from the cliff’s edge, turning me back toward the field of flowers. “Come, walk with me for a while.”
If it meant that I could have more time with her, I would. With one glance back at the sea of stars, lapping gently against the base of the cliff, I walked alongside my mother.
“Tell me of this man. You’re in love, I can feel it.”
“Can you?” I angled my head to look at her. I knew, had known, her presence was near, but I hadn’t known howmuch she could see or feel about my life. Or if I was all just imagining it in my head to bring myself comfort.
“I can. I don’t get to visit as often as I’d like, but I did see him once. He’s a doctor, no?”
“He is. A good one at that.” My stomach twisted, and memories slammed back into me so hard, that I tripped and my mother caught me, righting me. “He’s … Wulver. Oh my God. He’s a Wulver.”
“A … no.” Eriska brought a hand to her mouth in shock. “That’s, well, that’s incredible, isn’t it, honey? I mean, we always thought they were the stuff of legends. But they exist, do they? Fascinating, really.”
“Fascinating?” I hiccupped a sob. “Fascinating is all you can say? What about the fact that the man I love turned into a werewolf before my eyes and didn’t think to bring it up? Like, oh, hey, by the way, I get a little furry around the full moon?”
“I could see where that might be a difficult conversation to have with someone.” My mum kept her arm hooked through mine. “Maybe he just needed time?”
“Well, he ran out of it, didn’t he? A Kelpie attacked. He protected me, in Wulver form. And I didn’t divert.”
“Oh, oh no.” Eriska whirled, her hands to my face. “Darling, we need to fix this.”
“Did you know?” I asked, ignoring her point about fixing this. “About the Order? That I had a connection in Loren Brae?”
