Haunts and Howls Where Demons Dwell by Kat Simons

Author:Kat Simons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: T&D Publishing

CHAPTER THREE

When Riana opened her eyes, their shadows were with her. She smiled.

Her maternal grandmother, Grandma Baker, stood to the left, her hands clasped in front of her. She was small and straight and softly rounded, her eyes glowed in the translucence of her shadow. Next to her, her daughter, Riana’s mother, smiling. She was taller than her own mother, but as rounded and soft, a contented grandmother in her own right now.

On the right, her paternal grandmother, Gran Owen, joined in shadow, taller and thinner but more hunched at the shoulders. Her smile was bright, though, as she accepted a place in a celebration she hadn’t grown up with, a holiday she’d embraced when her son married Riana’s mother. Next to her, Riana’s sister. Lisa was still in the height of her Mother period, had taken on found family and a collection of orphaned animals to care for and fiercely protect—the Mother didn’t have to birth or raise children to be Mother. Lisa was years away from this transition, still, but Riana looked forward to that celebration when the time finally rolled around. She gave her sister’s shadow a little finger wave before focusing on the two waiting just before her.

Her daughters.

Dale, tall and contained, narrowly built but full of accepting energy. She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. Ann even taller than her older sister but less willowy, sturdy and solid—more so now that she’d gotten through her more difficult teenage years and those early twenties. Their shadows filled her with another wave of love, and she thought, yes. A good way to start this phase.

“Thanks for joining me,” she said to the shadows of her loved ones.

“Wouldn’t miss this celebration for anything,” her mother said. “How do you feel?”

“Exhausted,” she said, with feeling. That earned her a few chuckles and a snort of amusement from her Grandma Baker. “But good. Content.”

“The fire?” Grandma asked.

“Warmly crackling over the wood as it burns safely inside a stone circle.” That was the image of her fire in her heart and inner eye now. No bonfires. No raging sunbursts. Just a lovely, dancing campfire that kept her face and hands warmed.

Grandma sighed, her smile relieved.

Riana’s mother patted Grandma Baker’s shoulder, the movements familiar even in their shadow forms. “I almost couldn’t make this transition,” her mother said. “It was a close thing for me. I’m glad yours went so well.”

Riana snorted. “Oh, it was hard. But…worth it, I think.”

“A life fully lived, even with the ups and downs,” Gran Owen said. “Always worth it.”

Riana smiled, the contentment and exhaustion settling over her. “Thank you again for joining me.”

“We’ll be there in person in a few hours,” her mother said. “Rest. Eat.”

“Don’t drink all the wine until we get there, though,” her sister said.

Their shadows faded slowly, her daughter’s shadows holding on a few moments longer.

“Dad’s already waiting in the car,” Ann said. “We’ll be there in about an hour.”

“Drive carefully,” Riana said. “It’s snowing.”

Ann snorted and rolled her eyes. Riana gave her an unrepentant shrug.

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