Chapter 158: Ethpeal
My grandmother's face lit up, a happy giggle escaping her. "I knew you did," she whispered, gripping my face between her hands. "I knew."
Still holding the crystal, I gently pushed toward the glowing core of power sitting so deep inside my mind I never knew it was there. It pulsed like a heartbeat, foreign to me, but yet so familiar after spending my entire life with it protecting me. It shaped me, guided me, but most importantly had done everything it could to keep me safe so I could one day do this.
My demon's hand found mine as I opened my mind and let my grandmother in.
She sighed deeply, blue eyes full of gratitude and rimmed with tears as the core of magic recognized her and reached for her. I felt her explore inside my head, drawing it out, pulling the magic back where it belonged.
There was a surge of power as my body flooded with Sidhe magic before I jerked back, the last line between me and the ball of protective power snapping.
Gram glowed like a small star, tinted green and blue. Her whole body seemed to fill out and expand as she rose from her crouch and stood at her full height. I never knew she was taller than me or Mom, or that she was so very beautiful.
Still glowing, she took hold of my face in her hands and kissed me softly before hugging me very hard. "Thank you."
I hugged her back, still clinging to my demon's hand. "I just wish I'd figured it out years ago."
She laughed, a rich, warm sound reminding me of Mom. "Better late than never."
"Mother?" Mom's eyes were huge, mouth hanging open, tears on her cheeks.
Gram reached for Mom's hand and squeezed it. "I have a lot of explaining to do." She looked up at the wards and frowned as if seeing them for the first time. "And very little time to do so." Green magic flowed out of her in a surge, flooding the yard with its light as it bonded to the wards. Her eyes dropped to mine, a new urgency on her face.
"You must listen," she said. "When the Puritys came to attack, I knew I would lose, but in doing so could save the family."
That choked me up even more. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to sacrifice myself for the coven.
"My only chance to recover was to hide the part of me holding my true power." She glanced at my demon with real regret. "And the only one of the family who had inherited my Sidhe blood was just a baby."
Mom gasped. "What are you talking about?"
Gram shook her head. "I'll deal with you later," she said. "Syd, you now know you were that baby. But in giving you the core of my Sidhe power, by activating yours, I severed your connection to your demon." She sighed softly, but despite her obvious distress there was a hardness to her that told me she still thought she did the right thing. "I intended to return to reclaim that power when the battle was over. But as you also know, the fight left me unable to remember and in a struggle with sanity."
"That's why you kept asking me," I said.
She nodded. "I knew you had it but had no idea what 'it' was."
"Why didn't it make me stronger?"
"I wanted it back," she smiled at me, "and wanted to be sure you'd willingly give it up. So I implanted a suggestion with it that if you tried to accept it fully, you would only want the reverse."
"That's why I've resisted my magic." It made total sense. "And why it felt so horrible when I did use my power."
She nodded. "What I didn't count on was the way you and your demon interacted. Because there was a third power inside you, not just witch magic, but your own Sidhe and also demon, the part of me I wanted to protect fled deep into your mind where it took my orders literally. Protect the family, protect you, but keep you from integrating it so I could get it back. Your demon meanwhile was fighting not only your natural magic, but mine as well."
It made total sense. I flexed my mind and felt the family magic inside me for the first time really ever. It was lovely and blue and wrapped itself around me like an embrace. Threaded through it, under it and supporting me was the warmth and incredible power of the Sidhe.
I turned to my demon. "Can we be one now?" Was it too late? Already the magic inside me was solidifying its hold, the two power sources reforming bonds broken by my grandmother's magic.
I felt my demon's power inside me as she touched my mind. And my magic opened up to welcome her home.
She smiled at me. A real smile. "Don't forget me." And opened her arms as she dissolved in a rush of amber light and slid inside me, settling perfectly like she was meant to be there.
Because she was. And I was whole.
***
