Crescent Legacy Nicole Taylor (top young adult novels .TXT) 📖

Opening the cupboard under the sink, I fossicked through the tubes of ointment and soaps Aileen had collected like a pack rat and found a tube of salve that said it worked for bug bites. Cooling burns and insect nibbles. That ought to cover it.

Sitting on the edge of the bath, I rubbed it into the… What should I call it? A suck mark? I shivered and made a face. Whatever it was, it was a close call. The closest I’d had since that swarm of sluagh tried to drown me at Croagh Patrick.

I seriously felt like imploding. I couldn’t do this anymore! I was the last of the most badass coven to have ever lived? Yeah, right! I couldn’t even stop a craglorn from sucking my magic let alone keep a magical barrier in working order. I was supposed to be able to do the impossible, right? Ugh.

The sound of furious knocking at the front door broke through my inner tantrum, and my heart skipped a dozen beats. Dropping the tube of ointment, it landed on the floor with a plop.

“I’m so over this!” I shrieked, barreling out of the bathroom and down the stairs. “I’ll kick your ass, then I’ll fry you to a crisp! Just you wait!”

Wrenching open the front door, I froze, not expecting what was standing on the stoop. A woman was waiting patiently, and when she saw me, her face lit up.

Her hair was long, black and streaked with silver, her face was wrinkled with age, her clothes were rumpled and caked with dirt… She looked like an older version of me. Either I was in a time warp and had come back to visit myself or… Aileen. It couldn’t be her because she’d been drowned in the earth by a spriggan, which meant a fae had taken her form to trick me. A fae brought here by the barrier, which was no longer working thanks to that hungry craglorn.

For a split second, I was dazed, but my instincts kicked in, and it was on like Donkey Kong.

I raised my hands and forced my magic to flare around my fingers. The moment it shot out toward her, the woman returned fire. Her magic collided with mine, gold and bright. I stumbled back a step as I realized this wasn’t a trick. No one had stolen her face.

It was Aileen.

“Mum?” I whispered, my hands falling to my side.

She smiled as our magic faded from the air, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Skye,” she said. “I come back to you now at the turnin’ of the tide.”

I frowned. “Wait. Isn’t that a line from Lord of the Rings?”

“Yes, but it’s a good one. Very fittin’, don’t you think?”

I was flabbergasted, and my mouth flapped uselessly. “What… How… When…”

“Can I come inside? It’s rather chilly out here.”

I stood aside as she came in, the reality of her being alive not hitting me as hard as it should have. Not yet, anyway. I was sure I would be visiting the toilet bowl again soon.

The moment the door closed, Aileen pulled me into a tight hug, squashing the air out of my lungs. “My daughter,” she murmured. “Why do you smell like midge cream?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Aileen… Carman’s here. She’s in Ireland.”

She pulled away, staring at me with unguarded concern. “How?”

“Aileen…” My bottom lip trembled, and suddenly, I was two years old again with a scraped knee. “I stuffed everything up.”

“I seriously doubt that. You’re my daughter.” She glanced over my shoulder and frowned. “Why is there a dead tree in my living room?”

I’d totally forgotten about the Christmas tree that had turned brown a week ago. “I think you’ll find the cottage is legally mine.”

“Hmm. You’re right…” Aileen wrapped her arm around my waist and led me into the lounge room.

“Are you hungry? You must be.” Wriggling out of her grasp, I legged it into the kitchen.

Leaning against the counter, I drew in a breath, my lungs burning. Aileen was alive. Aileen was alive and in the next room. My mother. I’d hated her for leaving for so long but had then come to understand her and the Crescent Calling—maybe I even loved her a little—and now she’d come back to life. She better not be a zombie because I was fresh out of brains.

Reaching for the last packet of chocolate biscuits, I went back into the lounge room and set them on the coffee table.

“Oohh, Chocolate Kimberleys,” Aileen exclaimed, opening the packet.

“How are you here?” I asked. “I mean… I’ve seen a lot of weird shit but resurrection? This is a new bag of crazy.”

“I never made it to the ancestors,” she replied, nibbling on a chocolate biscuit. “I was in between, and it took me a while to find my way back. I didn’t expect it, to be honest. When I told Boone to protect you, I thought I was a goner.” She humphed. “Luckily, I didn’t arrive because they’re the most difficult bunch of spirits I’ve ever dealt with. I wasn’t ready for an eternity with them. It would drive me around the bend and back.”

I screwed my face up, wondering why that sounded so familiar. “I think I was there.”

Aileen almost dropped her biscuit. “What? On the other side?”

“In the hawthorn, you mean? That’s where they are, right?”

Aileen nodded.

“Uh… There was a thing with a craglorn and…” I didn’t want to say Boone’s name because then I would have to explain, and I was humiliated enough with all my stabbing in the dark and nonsense dreams.

“And?” she prodded.

I lifted up my T-shirt, stopping an inch away from flashing her.

“Skye!” Her hand flew to her mouth.

“This was another one,” I said lamely. “Today. I put midge cream on it. It seems to be helping.”

“There was another one?”

“Three, if you want to get specific. Wait. Five. Yeah, there were five.”

“Skye Williams,” Aileen exclaimed, getting all motherly.

“Am I grounded?”

“I think we’re past that