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Anger bubbled up in my chest, but I couldn’t take it out on Rune because he was just giving me advice. He just pissed me off because I didn’t like what he was saying.
Iwasn’tlosing.
And Iwasn’taccepting help from the fae. I worked alone, I played alone, and that wasn’t going to change.
Even if it should?
I shut my inner voice down because seriously… what the fuck.
16
DANNA
Ikissed Emmie on her head. She was warmer than usual, so I pressed my cheek against her skin.
She was burning up again.
“How are you feeling, baby?” I asked.
“I’m okay,” Emmie said.
“Do you feel sick?”
She shook her head and cuddled a teddy bear to her chest. It was one of the first things we’d found in the box of toys from Virginia, and she’d decided that was her favorite. She refused to go to bed without it.
A part of me was relieved that something about Emmie was still normal, just a little girl who needed the kind of reassurance her favorite toy could give her. These days, Emmie was so grown-up in so many ways when it came to this new magical world that it scared me. I felt like she was already slipping through my fingers.
When she wanted me to tuck her into bed, when she cried without her bear or came to me at night when one of her dreams was scary enough that she sought me out, I felt like I was a mother again. I felt like I could help her through the things that were under my control, and I wasn’t standing on the outside, looking in.
“Okay. Go to sleep, sweetheart. I love you.” I kissed her again before I walked out of the room and pulled her door shut.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against her door.
Lately, she’d been burning up more and more, but it was never because she was sick. It was because of the magic that lived under her skin, the beast that lay dormant inside of her, waiting to get out.
We were still a long way away from that—I’d learned that shifters only found their animal when they came of age as a young adult. Could Emmie handle the magic that ripped through her the way it had today in the park? Was it possible to live with so much magic inside of her for so many years still without it pulling her apart at the seams?
I was terrified of her animal for her sake.
I was terrified of everything I didn’t know, and I was way out of my depth here.
“Hey,” Circe said softly, and I opened my eyes, looking over my shoulder at my friend coming from the stairs. “Here.” She handed me a cup of hot cocoa.
“You’re a saint,” I said and took the cup from her. The warmth bled into my hands, and when I took a sip of the rich, chocolaty goodness, the warmth spread through my body, too.
We walked to the living room together. When Wesley wasn’t here, we used the living room, and I liked spending time here more and more lately.
I curled onto the couch and tucked my feet under me after kicking off my shoes.
Circe did the same, mirroring me, and sipped her own cocoa.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, talking about Emmie. “I don’t know how to raise a girl with this much magic.” I chuckled dryly. “As if I know how to raise a girl with any amount of magic.”
Circe smiled sympathetically at me. “You’re doing a good job, Danna. This isn’t easy, and you’re really taking this in your stride so much better than I thought you would.”
I shook my head and rubbed my fingers along my forehead. “I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job.” I was suddenly emotional. “I have no idea what’s going on. You should have seen her today…” I wished Circe had been with me at the park so that she could have felt the magic that had spilled out of Emmie as if she’d been made of nothing but power.
Everyone had been terrified. The parents had collected their kids and left the park in record time. They hadn’t known exactly what they were feeling, I was willing to bet, but they’d known something was wrong, and they’d headed out like lightning.
