Emma didn’t even consider hiding or retreating. Instead, she found herself lifting her chin and assessing Kay back. She wasn’t a powerful Shadow Weaver like Kay, but she was herself. She had just as much right to stand beside Zach as anyone else. More of a right, if she thought about it. And, now that it came to it, she was prepared to fight for that right. “Hello, you must be Kay. I’m Emma.”
Kay glanced at Zach and then back to where their hands joined, and Emma waited for some kind of refusal. Waited for Kay to point out how corrupted her Shadow was, or how unsuitable she was for Zach. But it never came. Instead, Kay grinned. “Welcome. It’s lovely to finally meet you.”
Emma didn’t know what to say. She had prepared herself for a battle. She was ready to fight to be recognized for who she was, but she hadn’t needed to. It was disorienting.
Kay led them through the house into a cozy front room filled with overstuffed couches, a jewel-toned Persian rug in rich reds and blues, and an array of vibrant oil paintings lit by bronze table lamps.
Three people were already in the room. A man their age with dark hair and kind brown eyes looked up and smiled. He was sitting beside an older woman with silver hair in an elegant bun, while a wiry man with a scruffy gray beard and an array of Celtic knot tattoos disappearing into his rolled-up sleeves sat in the corner.
Kay nodded her head toward them. “This is Ethan, Elizabeth, and Bryn. Ethan is my boyfriend, Elizabeth is my granny, and Bryn is our friend. Everyone, this is Emma.”
If she hadn’t already known they were Dru-vid, she would have figured it out at that moment. It was clear in the slow, assessing stares from Bryn and Ethan and the worried frown from Elizabeth.
The room felt heavy, the walls too close and the air too thin under the weight of their long gazes. This was more like what she expected. The flared nostrils and widened eyes. Next would be the horror and the disgust. And after that, they would ask her to leave.
The temptation to step closer to Zach was almost overwhelming, but he couldn’t help her with this. This was something she had to do herself. She wanted to be with him—wanted the chance for a real future together—but if everyone Zach cared about rejected her, he would get caught in the middle. He would get hurt. She had to make sure that didn’t happen.
She glanced up at him. His eyebrows were drawn together in a fierce scowl and he looked like he was about to growl at someone. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, then she took a step forward, looked each of them in the eye, and lifted her chin. “Hi, I’m Emma.” She didn’t put her hand out to shake, that could only end badly.
Her words somehow broke something, and suddenly Elizabeth was up out of her seat and hurrying forward. Emma stepped back, but before she could escape, she was wrapped in a pair of strong arms and held in a tight grip by the older woman.
Emma was so stunned that she froze. It was the last thing she’d expected. She hadn’t touched anyone except Zach for so long that she didn’t know what to do with herself. She could feel the flood of images rising through her. At any moment, a barrage of emotions and images was going to sweep over her, and she would be dragged under. She needed to get away, but she didn’t know how to do that. But then Zach’s hand gripped her shoulder, and the gathering maelstrom floated away. The tension behind her eye softened and her vision cleared. She let herself relax.
Elizabeth pulled her closer. “Oh, Emma, I’m so sorry.”
What? Nothing was happening as she’d expected. She’d expected a battle with Kay and disgust from the others. Not… this. “What for?” The words came out in a whisper.
“We should have come to find you,” Elizabeth answered, still holding her.
Emma shook her head slowly. Their families had never mixed, and she couldn’t blame any of them for that. As soon as she could, she got the hell away from Gordon too. “You didn’t know.”
Elizabeth squeezed her tighter. “I’m a Seer, Ishouldhave known. I should have helped.”
“No, Gran, Gordon uses wards. You know that,” Kay observed quietly.
“I do. I just wish….” Elizabeth murmured.
She sounded so sad that Emma slowly lifted her arms and wrapped them around the older woman to hug her back. God. It was like being held by her mother, being wrapped in soft, caring arms. Heat prickled in her eyes and she blinked to clear them. “Me too. But it was a long time ago.” She glanced up at Zach standing beside her, his hand a warm weight on her shoulder. “I’m happy now.”
Elizabeth gave her a last squeeze then slowly released her and stepped back. “You look just like your mother. I’d have liked to have known her better.”
“But you couldn’t because she was with Gordon,” Emma observed.
“Yes. She was quite a bit younger than him,” Elizabeth said, “I knew her through the college, and then she suddenly married him. I always wondered if….”
Elizabeth tucked a loose curl behind Emma’s ear, and the movement was so natural, so grandmotherly, that Emma couldn’t help leaning into it. “You wondered?” she prompted.
Elizabeth shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I wondered what she saw in him. If maybe she had a vision that led her to him. She was always very kind, very cheerful, and so powerful, your mother. While Gordon was…. He, ah….” Elizabeth looked over at Bryn who merely raised a bristly eyebrow.
“You didn’t like him,” Emma said quietly.
Elizabeth looked out the window, perhaps remembering. “When they first married, he was much better. He seemed to change. I honestly thought he loved her, that maybe she was his chance to find the happiness he’d never had as a child. But then his father—your granddad—died, and he went back to being….” Elizabeth shrugged ruefully. “Your father and I don’t agree on much.”
Emma couldn’t help her rough laugh. “Was it the megalomania or his insane desire to control people with blood Shadows that you didn’t see eye to eye on?”
There was a stunned silence and then Kay sniggered. Ethan joined in and then they all laughed. Even Zach’s lips twitched. But there was something she still needed to say. She met their eyes, one by one. “I don’t have anything to do with Gordon, I promise.” She looked up and smiled at Zach. “And I would never betray Zach, or any of you.”
“It’s abundantly clear, just from meeting you, that you can’t possibly be spending any time with Gordon,” Bryn said in his warm Welsh lilt.
