The Shadow Stealer (Silver Moon Saga Book 3) (21 page)

Chapter Thirty-seven

As promised, I filled Mom in on my early demon hunting adventures with Rafe. She laughed at all the right parts, and grew sober during the scary moments. I could tell she regretted all the bad stuff I’d been forced to go through, but I didn’t omit anything. She’d asked to hear it all, and that’s what I was going to tell her.

When I finished, she leaned back and stretched out her legs. I couldn’t believe we were still sitting outside, but I’d stopped feeling the cold a long time ago. Weird. “I hate that you had to face all of that alone,” Mom said.

“If I’d been by myself, it would have sucked, but Rafe and the others have been supporting me, so it wasn’t too bad.” (Okay, getting kidnapped sucked, and watching my boyfriend nearly die twice
really
sucked, but I decided to keep that to myself.)

The look she gave me told me she didn’t believe me. I shrugged. What could I do? It was in the past. Did she want me to scream at her again, like I had in the office building? Because if that was the case, then she was in for a huge disappointment. I wanted to move on from that. Start over fresh, if we could.

“Mom?” I squirmed in my seat. Once again, I was too afraid to see her expression, so I directed my words to the ground. “What happens next? You said you aren’t going to leave, but you can’t exactly move back in…” My insides were clenched with fear as I waited for her answer.

She chuckled. “No, definitely not. Your father made it very clear last night that I’m no longer welcome here.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was the one who left. You were right, you know, when you said I should have made an effort to contact you. But I was so afraid of what I’d find. What if your dad had moved on, gotten remarried?” Mom’s voice lowered. “I didn’t want to see that. Even though I wanted you all to be happy, the idea of you moving on without me destroyed me.”

“We didn’t. Move on, I mean. Not really.” I didn’t want to tell her about the years of sadness, or how Dad had destroyed nearly all traces of Mom after she left. Even though the pain was her fault, I didn’t want her to feel guilty, not when I could see she’d suffered as much as we had.

“But in answer to your question,” Mom said, “I haven’t decided what I want to do next yet. As hard as it is for me to leave you, I also have my friends in Manhattan. I can’t just abandon them, especially now when Silver Moon knows we exist. I need to make sure they’re safe.”

“But shouldn’t you stay away for a little bit?” I knew how desperate I sounded, but I didn’t care. “If they’re looking for you, you shouldn’t go back!”

“I managed to elude them once. I can do it again.”

“How did you do that, anyway? Charles one hundred percent believed you died that day.” Again I wondered how Charles would react if he knew Mom was, in fact, alive.

Mom smiled wickedly. “He thought he killed me, but instead I was just showing him what I wanted him to see.”

“Is that like what Evan did to Chloe?” I asked. “She thought she stumbled down the stairs, instead of being kidnapped by a demon.”

“Exactly. You manipulate the mind, show it new memories. It takes talent, but that’s always been my strong point.” She looked proud when she said that, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. She’d obviously used that same magic on me, to erase my memories of the demon in our shed. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that. Even after witnessing it from the sidelines yesterday, I still couldn’t remember that happening. It was like it had happened to someone else entirely, and it was bizarre and unnerving.

Then again, could I blame her? How could she expect a nine-year-old to recover from such a traumatic event?

“Honey?” Mom was watching me carefully, and I wondered if she knew what I was thinking about.

I worried that she would think I was angry with her, when mostly I was just confused, so I changed the subject. “That day in the park… Charles killed a demon before he saw you. Did you summon that one too?”

“No, of course not,” she said. “I’ve only summoned one demon. I was at the park that day because I needed a moment to myself, to think about what I’d done to this family. I was by the lake—you remember how much I loved that part of the park, right? I used to take you girls there all the time.” I nodded. “I had never expected to see Charles. He should have been with Philip; he was only just recovering from his wounds!” Mom laughed bitterly. “I didn’t want to fight him, but I knew Charles. He always followed the rules, no matter what. If I didn’t silence him, if I ran away, he’d track me down and bring Silver Moon straight to you. And I couldn’t have that, so I struck first. He was surprised, and he didn’t want to fight back, but when he realized I was serious, he did.” She slumped back against the bench, staring up at the overcast sky. “I didn’t want to kill him. Who would Phil have left in the world if I murdered his father?”

“Charles said the same thing. The reason he fought back, I mean. He didn’t want Phil to be an orphan.”

Mom looked surprised at that. Had she really thought the only reason Charles had attacked her was because of his loyalty to Silver Moon?
She really doesn’t know him, does she?
“Anyway, I faked my death—”

“What about a body?” I interrupted.

“What?”

“Your body! Charles said he killed you! Wouldn’t there be a body, I don’t know,
lying on the ground
that he needed to bury?”

Mom covered her mouth, stifling a laugh.

My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. It was cruel, really.” She waved her hand flippantly. “Charles thought he stabbed me, and thought he saw my body fall to the ground. As he tried to resuscitate me, I used magic to convince him that he needed to go.” Mom paused. “Have your friends explained veils to you? And how they deter humans from entering the area?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s what you did to Charles? You told him to go away with your magic?” My voice rose in astonishment.

Mom shrugged. “More or less. I let him remember killing me, but everything that happened next would be a blur. He probably thought he buried me in the park, and would have taken you to use your powers as a ‘Soul Healer’ to resurrect me.” To my horror, she laughed again. “What an idiot.”

“
Mom
,” I chided. “That’s mean. Like, really,
really
mean. You shouldn’t laugh. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but poor Charles! You screwed with his brain! No wonder he’s crazy!”

“Oh, he’s fine.” Mom brushed aside my accusations. “It’s his fault for being so loyal to Silver Moon. He was going to report me!”

“He’s changed now, though. He doesn’t think Silver Moon is so perfect anymore.”

“Really.” Mom raised her eyebrows skeptically. “What changed his mind?”

“Did you know Liam and Rose Fitzgerald?”

“Rafe’s parents?” Mom asked. “Yes. I mean, when I knew them they weren’t even married yet, but they were together. Liam was Charles’s best friend.”

“You said ‘was,’” I pointed out. “So that means you know what happened to them.”

“Yes. I heard about it through my sources. It was awful. And poor Rafe. I can only imagine the pain he must have felt. But what do they have to do with Charles and his newfound hatred for Silver Moon?”

Even though Rafe had granted me permission to share this with Mom, I still had to steady myself before plunging ahead. “Well, last year, when we fought Davenport—the hunter-turned-demon who kidnapped Chloe—he told us Silver Moon had sent a demon to test Rafe. Most of the hunters had issues with Rafe for being Sightless, and they used the demon to prove that he didn’t belong in the organization.”

Mom’s face hardened. “And people wonder why I never wanted to be part of Silver Moon. These big bad hunters throw their edicts in everyone’s faces, and meanwhile they’re breaking the rules left and right.” Her brown eyes flashed angrily, and I knew she wasn’t just thinking about Silver Moon persecuting Rafe. “Do you know who ordered Rafe’s sick test?”

“Would you be surprised if I said it was Collins?” I watched her while I said that, waiting for a reaction, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Her body went rigid while her eyes narrowed. “Collins.
Of course
it was him,” she hissed. “He just
loves
befriending demons, doesn’t he?”

“You said you knew him when you were… seeing Charles. What was he like?” I asked.

Mom ran a finger over the side of the bench, following the curves of the metal. “He didn’t live in New York, but he visited enough times to make me feel uncomfortable. At first, he wanted me to work with him as an apprentice. When I refused, he started making disparaging remarks, like I was beneath him, and Charles should leave me. Gabi, you need to promise me right now that you won’t go looking for him. You were lucky enough to get away from him once, but we can’t risk a second time.”

“I promise.” And I meant it. Seeing Collins once was enough to last me a lifetime. But this wasn’t over, not by a longshot, and something told me Rafe and Charles wouldn’t be able to rest easily until Collins was out of the picture. Permanently. “If everyone hates him so much, how come he’s still around?”

Mom snorted. “Because Silver Moon is run by idiots.”

“Oh. Good point.” I shifted on the bench. “Hey, Mom? Can demons visit you in your dreams?”

Mom blinked at my random question. “Not that I’ve heard of. Why?”

“Because I’ve been dreaming about the demon you summoned. Since December, when I healed Alex.”

“Tell me.”

So I related everything—the shadows, the way the demon had tried to kill me in the latest dream—and it sounded stupid during the day. “It
seemed
real,” I finished lamely.

“I’m sure it did. And after everything you’ve been through, I’m not surprised that you’re having dreams like that,” she said.

“Where is the demon right now?” I asked. “After it healed Phil, did you send it back to its world? Or is it hanging around, watching me or something?” I shuddered.

“After it finished the job, I sent it back. I didn’t want it anywhere near you or your brother and sister. And demons are happier in their realms. Keeping it here, against its will, is a form of torture.” She sighed heavily. “Now, it does have a link to you thanks to the deal I made, but it can only use that link to come here once. It can’t pop up on Earth, haunt your dreams, and then go back to its realm to wait. Does that make sense?”

I nodded. “I guess I feel a little better knowing it’s not here, but the idea of it keeping tabs on me is horrible.”

“I know.” Her mouth turned down. “Believe me, honey, I know. I’ve put every type of ward I could think of on you to protect you, but that demon is strong. It can break them.”

“But it hasn’t yet, so that’s a good thing, right?” And the demon
had
allowed me save three lives. Something that did that couldn’t be all evil, right?

But then I remembered the vision Mom had shown me yesterday, and how happy it had been to torture a little girl. No, it
was
evil.

“I hope so,” Mom said. “I’d been hoping it would get itself killed over in its realm, and you’d be free from its curse. But obviously that hasn’t happened, or else you wouldn’t be healing. That’s why I sealed your powers. I know you hated that I did that without asking, but it had to be done, Gabi.”

“No, I get it. I knew something was wrong with me or my powers or both, with my hair turning white and being so exhausted I could barely move every time I healed.” I clenched my hands into fists. “But I don’t regret healing them, Mom. Any of them. Even if it means the demon is one step closer to snatching me up. If I’d known the truth from the start, I still would have done it. I still would have healed them.”

She blinked rapidly as she sucked in a shaky breath. “You are so brave and good, Gabi. My Gabiella…”

When was the last time I heard her call me by my full name? Now I was the one struggling to keep my tears in. I stared at the ground, pretending to be fascinated by a crack in the bricks.

“I’m sorry I did this to you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I used your life to save your brother’s. I was fully prepared to sacrifice my own life in exchange for his. It was the least I could do, after abandoning him as a baby.”

“It’s okay.” That was a pretty lame thing to say because it really wasn’t okay, but I wasn’t going to hold a grudge against her forever. Besides, together we had saved Philip. Did I regret that? No way. “And you’re helping me now, and that’s all that matters.” Better late than never, right?

Mom put an arm around my shoulders and hugged me to her side. It was the first time we had had any sort of real physical contact, and I froze, uncertain of what to do. Mom noticed my hesitation and began pulling away. Realizing I didn’t want that, I threw my arms around her and hugged her back tightly.

“Oh, Gabi,” she whispered in my hair. “I’ll never let anything happen to you again. I swear it.”

My throat was too clogged with tears to answer, but I knew she understood how much those words meant to me.

Chapter Thirty-eight

We talked some more after that, but when my fingers and toes began tingling with the cold, we went back inside and made ourselves some tomato soup to warm up. It felt so weird, but so
normal
to be sharing this experience with her. Other girls probably did this all the time with their moms, taking something so simple for granted, but not me. After missing out on it for seven years, I was going to treasure every moment from this point on.

With my back to Mom as I stirred the soup, I asked, “So tell me what happened next, after you faked your death and left.”

I heard her walking around the kitchen, taking her time to answer my question. “I went back to the city. I could have gone anywhere, but unlike the other times when I packed up and moved to a new state, I couldn’t bear being away from all of you.

“So I found myself in Manhattan. I knew the places Charles liked to frequent, so I avoided those. I got a job at Central Park, working as a gardener.”

I whirled around, jealous. “Did you really!”

She smiled at my reaction. “I did, and it was nice. I mean, it wasn’t our garden, but it was everything I’ve always loved doing.” Her smile slipped away as she joined me at the stove and opened up one of the cabinets to take out two bowls. Even after being absent for years, she still knew exactly where everything was. “But despite working, I was still desperately lonely. Leaving Phil had been more devastating than I ever imagined, and to do it again, with you girls? I felt like my heart, which I’d only just mended back together, had been shattered into pieces.”

Mom handed me the bowls, which I filled with soup. We each grabbed a spoon and napkin and carried everything over to the table. She had that faraway look on her face again, and I instinctively knew she was thinking about the past. Maybe she was even thinking about the day she left us, right before we were supposed to go to Disney World. That had been the worst day of my life, and I was eager to change to subject and focus on something else. “So how did you meet the sorcerers?” I asked. “Jared and your other…extremely unfriendly friends.”

Mom laughed at my description. “Like I said, the job was something, but it wasn’t enough to fill the holes. I was living in the same city as Phil, but I wouldn’t dare go see him. That hurt more than I can describe, and I knew I needed some distractions before I did something drastic.” She dipped her spoon into her bowl. “So I started looking for other people like me.”

“Are there a lot of sorcerers running around?”

“More than you’d expect,” she said. “People have the talent, but they can go through their entire lives without realizing it. Like you with the Sight and healing. If you’d never Seen that demon…”

Life would still be normal. And Rafe-less. Which, no way. I would never want a life without Rafe.

“But I was under the impression that sorcerers are bad,” I said. “Aren’t they the reason that Silver Moon even exists? Because they like to bring those creepy things over here for shits and giggles?”

“Some sorcerers, yes, enjoy doing that,” Mom said with a roll of her eyes. “And they’ve given
all
sorcerers a bad name. You saw what it was like, and how your friends immediately attacked mine.” I opened my mouth to say we thought they’d taken Kain, but Mom spoke over me. “You can wield magic and never summon a demon, Gabi. If Phil hadn’t been hurt that day, I never would have. But here’s the difference: I summoned a demon to save a life. That’s why Jared and the others accepted me. They knew I wasn’t trying to bring evil into this world.”

“You’re trying to help it,” I said as I slowly stirred my soup.

She seemed pleased to hear me say that. “Exactly.”

“So after you found other sorcerers, what did you do?”

“I found Jared first. He was a lost soul, like me,” she said fondly. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, wondering if Jared was her friend, or something more. Actually, I didn’t want to know. “He knew others like us, and we began meeting up on the weekends, sharing what we could do with each other. Everyone learned new tricks, new spells, and it was…nice.” Mom wiped her lips with her napkin before setting it down on the table. “I had something to look forward to each week. And before long, we’d created a little community, and we started selling our trade to those in need.” At my skeptical look, she nodded. “You’d be surprised, Gabi, at how many people out there have problems that can only be fixed by magic. Before long word had spread, and we had more money than we knew what to do with. I was the one who suggested we move to the office building you saw yesterday. We work out of there, meeting with potential clients and discussing cases amongst ourselves. I wanted a place where we could be ourselves, without worrying about hunters or neighbors interfering. We warded the building, set up traps for both hunters and demons, and existed peacefully. Until…”

“Until Silver Moon tracked you to your office building,” I finished. “Will you be able to go back? Or will you have to move somewhere else?”

“I’ve been discussing the very same thing with Jared,” she said. “We’ve agreed the best thing to do right now is lay low, stay off Silver Moon’s radar. When things finally blow over, we’ll set up shop again, but somewhere else.” Mom shrugged. “Maybe we’ll go back to operating out of our apartment buildings. Who knows? Right now, that’s not important. Keeping you safe is.”

I swallowed against the sudden lump that had formed in my throat. “So what do I need to do?”

She patted my hand and gave me a smile, as if she’d sensed my discomfort. “Nothing, sweetie. Go to school, date Rafe, and act like a regular teenage girl. I’ll handle the rest.”

“And you’ll really stay here?” Even though I’d already asked her that, I needed to hear her answer again. I hated sounding like a needy girl who couldn’t survive without her mommy because I’d been doing just fine for the past seven years, but the thought of having to say goodbye really freaking scared me.

“Yes.” She swallowed a few times. “I promise. I’ll always be here for you.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. The front door banged open and I jumped.

“I’m home!” my sister called out as my stomach soured. What would she say when she saw Mom in the kitchen? Should I make Mom leave out the back door? No—that wasn’t fair to either of them.

But Mom was already standing, making the decision for me. “We’re in here, Chloe.”

Chloe’s footsteps halted. I got up as well and rushed out of the room, meeting her in the hallway.

“What’s
she
doing here?” Chloe hissed.

“She wanted to talk.”

“About what?” She narrowed her eyes. “Why she left? Or is she trying to come up with a plan to win Dad back?”

I sputtered. “Win him
back
? Do you honestly think that’s going to happen?”

“Hmm, after hearing them fight yesterday, probably not,” Chloe said. “So what does she want?”

“To talk,” Mom said, also emerging from the kitchen, “with my beautiful, grown-up daughters.”

Some of the misgiving on Chloe’s face melted away. I shook my head. Leave it to Mom to know exactly what Chloe wanted to hear. My sister always complained about how Dad treated us like a couple of kids, and now Mom had just declared we were grown-ups. I could already picture Chloe telling Dad, “But Mom said there’s nothing wrong with learning how to drive when you’re fifteen!” or some other equally ridiculous thing.

“Dad won’t like it if he sees you here,” Chloe protested weakly.

“I’ll leave before he comes home. He’s going to be late, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he won’t be home for another couple of hours.” Chloe glanced at the clock on the wall and shrugged. “Okay, let’s talk.” And just like that, the two of them went into the kitchen, already chatting about Chloe’s day like a normal mother and daughter. I watched them go, my mouth slightly ajar. And then I shrugged. This was what I wanted, wasn’t it? If Mom was going to be in our lives, then she needed to make peace with us.

All
of us.

Crossing my fingers, I walked away, leaving Chloe and Mom alone so they could start mending seven years of hurt.