The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, #2)(9)
“Umm . . . right. It was a big day. But anyway, the point is that ever since New Year’s, Aidan’s been trying to get me to start working with him.”
“And you don’t want to?” Mom asks gently, leaning forward. She swallows. I’m sure the idea of me doing much of anything with this near-stranger is scary for her. I know it is for me.
“I don’t know what I want,” I answer honestly. “Actually I want to go back to six months ago when you and I still lived in Austin and I didn’t know anything about ghosts or ancient Celtic words or mentors or demons or any of it. I want to un-become a luiseach.”
“Honey, it sounds to me like this isn’t something you can un-become. You didn’t even become it to begin with. You were born this way.” Before I can explain you can (sort of) un-become a luiseach, Mom continues. “But maybe . . .” She takes a deep breath, hesitating, like whatever she’s about to say next is going to be difficult. “Maybe you should start working with Aidan.”
“Really?”
“I’ve been thinking about this all night.” She nods solemnly. “I know Aidan helped me see what you two are, but I still don’t fully understand what happened to you yesterday, and I know it wasn’t safe. Your heart was beating so fast, I thought that you couldn’t possibly survive it. So . . . if there’s some sort of luiseach training that can get your body under control so whatever happened to you in the parking lot never happens again, then I don’t think you should risk going another second without learning everything you can.”
I close my eyes, remembering how it felt yesterday. I thought I’d never catch my breath; I thought my heart would explode from the effort of beating so quickly. What will I do if there’s another accident nearby, maybe a bigger one? What if next time Aidan doesn’t show up in time to help all those spirits move on before they become too overwhelming?
“I’m new to all this, but I know I want my daughter safe. And,” Mom adds shyly, dropping her gaze, “it will give you a chance to get to know Aidan, to find out all the bits and pieces of your history that I can’t tell you. To ask all of those questions you haven’t had a chance to ask yet.”
I reach out and take her hand in mine. She’s right, of course. Training with Aidan would be the perfect chance to start going through my list of questions one by one.
As long as I am a luiseach, I need to get these spirit-sensations under control. Seriously, that should be lesson number one on the very first day of luiseach training, right?
“How do we get in touch with him to let him know what you’ve decided? Do you have his cell phone number?”
The idea of Aidan with a cell phone at his ear is so absurd that I almost burst out laughing. Instead I just shake my head and blink, looking around the empty hospital room. A lost spirit hasn’t visited me since yesterday, which can only mean one thing: Aidan is close. I’m pretty sure he already knows.
That Woman
That woman approached me today, the one who worked alongside Aidan for all those years, nearly as close to him as I used to be.
She claims she was married. She claims she had a child of her own, one whose life was taken by a demon. And she claims that after years of standing by Aidan’s side, he forced her to give up her powers in exchange for helping her poor daughter’s beleaguered spirit move on.
She says Aidan never made good on his promise. She says her daughter’s spirit still lingers here on Earth. Yet that woman can’t find it, so even I can’t help the poor child move on.
That woman won’t stop crying.
I want to turn her away, but I know how it feels to be betrayed by Aidan, just as I know how it feels to trust him with the most sacred parts of yourself. After the things we exposed to that child while she was in the womb . . . just thinking about it makes me tremble. That baby, and the things we did to her—all of it was a mistake.
As became crystal clear the very instant she was born.
I trusted Aidan to do what had to be done. I trusted that woman too. I thought they understood the girl had to be destroyed, no matter how tiny her pink hands and feet, how piercing her cries, how round her little mouth, or how green her enormous eyes.
It was months before I realized he didn’t do what we’d discussed. That he’d allowed the child to thrive. I must admit it: for one selfish instant I was relieved. More than relieved—I was overjoyed. But I shoved my joy aside. Such feelings didn’t matter: the child must be eliminated, no matter my personal feelings on the matter. There was the greater good to bear in mind.
Aidan refused to see reason. He wouldn’t reveal the child’s location. I did everything in my power to find her. Most of our people rallied to my side, but even our collective powers weren’t enough to locate her. The child was only an infant when Aidan took her, and by the time I discovered what he had done, it was impossible to distinguish her from the other lost and abandoned children. We checked every foster home, every adoption record, but there was no sign of her. Aidan erased all traces of the girl.
So I waited. It was only a matter of time. Now that she has come into her powers, I can sense her. After all, my blood pumps through her veins as well.
And now, here is that woman telling me that Aidan used her offspring for the girl’s test. Telling me she knows where the girl is now. Weeping as she admits that for all these years her loyalties were misplaced. She offers to lead me to her.