Daughters of Sea and Storm (The Vesper Coven Book 1) by E.E. Holmes

Author:E.E. Holmes [Holmes, E.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairhaven Press LLC
Published: 2023-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

13

I almost lost my nerve when I saw my mother’s reaction to Persi’s handiwork. She looked for a moment like she might actually burst into tears at the sight of me.

“Is it really that bad? I thought it was… I can go change…” I mumbled, turning on my heel and making to sprint up the stairs in humiliation; but my mom reached out and caught my arm.

“No! I’m sorry, honey, it’s just… my goodness, you look like your grandmother,” my mom choked out.

“Is that… bad?” I asked, squirming under the emotion in her gaze.

“No. It’s… it’s perfect,” my mom said, and planted a kiss on my cheek. “You’re beautiful, Wren.”

I felt the color rise to my cheeks and I smothered a smile. I didn’t think she was lying to me or anything, but it was hard to feel good about a compliment that couldn’t be delivered without tears. Nevertheless, when it was time to go and my mom came downstairs, she too had abandoned the black dress I’d seen in her bag for a long, purple skirt and a blousy white top, her usually pony-tailed hair falling in loose waves over her shoulders. She caught Rhi smiling at her and pointed an accusatory finger.

“Don’t. I just don’t want to deal with Persi’s comments,” she insisted.

“I didn’t say anything,” Rhi insisted, but a smile played on her lips for the next few minutes.

That liminal space of twilight seemed, to me, the right time to hold a funeral. There was something wrong about standing around a coffin at ten o’clock in the morning, and then having to just… continue with your day. Eat lunch. Run errands. Twilight felt more fitting somehow—saying goodbye as the day says goodbye, and letting the stars rise over a quiet night of reflection. If you simply wanted to tumble into bed and cry yourself to sleep, you could; and no one would expect you to make conversation or politely pick at a plate of buffet pasta. Still, as the sun reddened the horizon and we walked quietly up the road together, it was hard to feel anything but dread and sadness.

The four of us walked side by side in the sand. Rhi had given us each a small lantern with a candle burning inside, and we carried them swinging from our hands up the winding path to the clifftop. As we got nearer the top of the path, more lanterns began to appear, shining like stars in the gathering darkness. They came from the direction of the woods, from the beach, from the road behind us; and as they drew closer, I could make out the people carrying them.

A few of the faces were familiar from the time I’d spent downtown. Lydian rolled past us in her rickshaw, lanterns hanging from the corners. The woman from the gallery, whose name I’d already forgotten—Penelope? No, Phoebe—smiled gently at me as she passed. The lanterns all began to converge on a point ahead, moving into an evenly spaced formation

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