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Maybe the other goddess and her involvement was what made it so much harder, so much slower.
“You can send them in, one at a time,” Mom said to Zita after taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Even if we help just one, it’s better than nothing.”
She was right. Every soul mattered. I just hated how slow it went, and that we couldn’t seem to crack it to make it run smoother. It would take a thousand lifetimes to help all the Conjurites if we did it this way.
I forced the thoughts away—I wasn’t going to be negative. We’d come here because Terra had bestowed a gift upon us, and a calling along with it. We would do what we’d come here to do, no matter what.
Two women walked in together.
“One at a time,” Zita said.
“Please, my mother is very afraid,” the younger one said.
“Let her stay,” Mom said. “It’s perfectly fine.”
I nodded, agreeing. The two women reminded me so much of me and my mom, and how we’d done everything together. I wouldn’t have let her go in alone, either.
The older woman looked terrified. The Conjurite magic was thick in the air, the fear swirling around our feet, darkness pressing in from the outside as if it wanted to squash us. It knew what we were going to do, and it wasn’t happy.
“Sit here with us,” Mom said, patting the couch next to her.
The older woman sat down, her fingers trembling when she reached up to her face and scraped her hair back. Her daughter stayed close to the door, watching us dubiously. She didn’t look like she agreed with what we were doing here.
Mom talked to the older woman, trying to find out what she had come for. Did she know what it all meant? Did she really want to give up the darkness?
“Most of us do,” the woman said. She interlinked her fingers and twisted them together nervously. “Not all of us have the strength to stand up and face it, to do this despite how hard it keeps pulling us back. The darkness can be so punishing, and we fear it. What if we die?”
“Do you mean that all Conjurites want to return to the light, but the darkness won’t let them?” I asked.
“And the fear of dying. What if it doesn’t work and we die, and then it’s all over before we ever have a chance at happiness again?” She blinked at me, her eyes panicked. They flitted toward the door all the time, as if she tried to figure out how she could escape without Zita stopping her.
“I don’t want it,” her daughter said tightly, pursing her lips after each sentence as she spoke. “I’m here to look after my mom, to make sure she’s okay. She can do what she wants, but she’s not dragging me down with her.”
“I’m not dragging anything or anyone down,” the older woman said softly.
“You’re just throwing away our relationship,” her daughter sneered. “You think I’m going to stick around once this is over, but we can’t live in one house with light and dark together. You didn’t think about that—you only think about yourself.”
The older woman sighed. “It’s a touchy subject.” She looked at my mom. “I’m ready. It’s been a lot of years of pain and struggle, and I’m tired. I’d like to live out the remainder of my days in peace.”
Mom nodded and held out her hands. The older woman hesitated before she put her hands in my mom’s.
I moved so that I sat closer to her, on her other side, and I put my hand on her shoulder.
Mom closed her eyes, and I felt her draw inward, reaching for the light that was buried within her. I did the same, drawing my focus away from everything in the room and toward my healing power.
It worked. As Mom and I reached into the light together, we drew it out, and it was stronger and brighter than if we did it alone. In my mind’s eye, I saw us holding onto the older woman, and we carried her toward the light, toward Terra.
“Oh!” she cried, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Her eyes were still closed, but an ethereal expression crossed her face, and she looked like she was on a different plane, reaching for the light out of her own accord. The darkness didn’t fight so hard to hold her back now that Mom and I worked together.
When she finally fluttered her eyes open, they were a light gray and shone brightly, as if she had the light within.
“Thank you,” she breathed, and she looked at her daughter. “It’s worth it, my sweet. Please, don’t hold back anymore. You can’t live in captivity forever.
Despite the transformation her daughter had just witnessed, she scowled at her mom.
“You think you’re not betraying your own by what you’ve just done, but you’re wrong. Turning to the light isn’t as glamorous as it seems. You forget that it’s the Fae Queen who destroyed our village, who stood there without remorse and stripped us of the few things we had left. How can you pledge your allegiance toher, to the Goddess she serves?”
“What?” I asked, confused. Was she talking about Ellie?
