Divine by Blood

“We know that, Shannon. This isn’t our first time around the dance floor.” Then he smiled at me. “Dark gods or no dark gods, parenting is a damn tough job. You’ll see.”

I frowned at him. “I’m talking about an evil deity sniffing around, not about the terrible twos or an obnoxious teenager.”

“Obnoxious teenager is redundant,” Dad said automatically, and I had to force myself not to smile. Dad had been teaching and coaching for about a zillion years. He and I definitely saw eye to eye on teenagers.

“You know what I mean,” I said.

“I do.” He paused and then sighed. “What would you have me do, Bugsy, give her to the state to raise? I imagine that would be playing right into Pryderi’s hands.” He shook his head before I could answer. “Nope, nope. I won’t do that. Mama Parker and I decided. We’re going to raise her and do our best by her.” He smiled at me and his eyes were shiny with familiar love. “It worked once before. You didn’t go over to the Dark Side. It’ll work again, Bugsy old girl.” He cleared his throat and added quietly, “This little girl is all I’ll ever have of you or my granddaughter. In this world, it’s the closest I’ll come to leaving a part of me behind. You can’t really mean to ask me to give that up, can you?”

I blinked fast, trying to clear the tears from my eyes. “No, Dad. I can’t ask you to give that up. I just want you to be really, really careful.”

“I will. I give you my word on it. Plus—” he grinned “—Rhiannon’s ghost is supposed to be around somewhere. I imagine she’ll help out with the more boogerman-like aspects of parenting Morrigan.”

I glanced around, almost afraid I’d see a spooky version of myself lurking about. “Dad, that’s just weird.”

He barked a laugh. “No weirder than your spirit floating around my living room while your body’s in another world.”

I shrugged. “You have a point.”

Tell him he has my blessing, Beloved. You should not stay any longer. Having your spirit separated so far from your body is not healthy.

“Dad,” I said hastily. “Epona says I gotta go in a second. But she wants me to tell you that you have her blessing.”

Dad bowed his head respectfully. “Tell Epona I appreciate that, and I’ll be sure Morrigan is raised spending plenty of time in the country around trees, and that she knows the Goddess’s name.”

“And horses,” I added, intuitively knowing Epona would approve. “Be sure she’s around horses.”

“Yep, yep. Just like you,” he said. “I’ll be sure she has her own mare.”

“It’d be cool if you could make it a gray mare. Epona’s Chosen mare is always a silver-gray.”

“Yep, I can do that.”

I felt my spirit body begin to shiver, and I knew I would soon disappear. “I love you, Dad! Don’t ever forget that. And I miss you! And remember that in Partholon there’s a part of you that lives on there.”

“I love you, too, Bugsy old girl. Try to come back and see me again.”

“I will, Dad. Tell Mama Parker I love her, too.”

“I’ll tell her. Oh! And happy birthday, Shannon!”

“Thanks, Dad, and don’t forget to be careful…” I called. The living room and Dad faded from my view as I lifted through the house and then, before I could steady myself, I was sucked back into the tunnel of fire.

“Oh, shit!” I sat up too fast and grimaced at the tenderness in my body.

“Rhea? What is it?” ClanFintan hurried up to our bed. He’d obviously just gotten back from the Sacred Grove. He smelled vaguely of damp earth and sweat.

Shakily, I pushed my wild hair out of my face. “The Magic Sleep. It was just especially disconcerting tonight. Epona sent me back to Oklahoma.”

Concern narrowed his dark eyes. “Why there?”

I answered him with a question of my own. “You didn’t find Rhiannon’s body, did you?”

“No.” And then I saw understanding flash on his face. “She died in your old world.”

I nodded. “But not until giving birth. Today. To a daughter my parents have decided to raise.”

ClanFintan looked almost as shocked as I’d felt when I’d discovered Morrigan in my father’s arms. Then my eyes followed his and we gazed at the perfect baby girl who slept so peacefully in the cradle beside our bed.

“Rhiannon’s daughter looks just like Myrna,” I said.

I saw ClanFintan jerk in surprise. Then his eyes found mine, and I saw they were shadowed with worry. “Why did Epona send your spirit to your father?”

“She wanted me to warn him. Pryderi freed Rhiannon from the tree. She was supposed to be his minion or whatever, but the birth of her daughter changed her…fixed her…” Emotions made my voice choke and I had to clear my throat before I could continue. “Rhiannon was forgiven by Epona before her death, and her bonds to the dark god were broken, but it seems Pryderi is still after a Chosen of Epona—or the daughter of a Chosen.”

“That dark creature had better look elsewhere. He will not touch our daughter with his evil whisperings.”

“Which is exactly why Epona had me warn Dad. He can’t have me. He can’t have Myrna or any other children we may have. So his next logical choice would be—”

“Rhiannon’s daughter,” he finished for me.

“Exactly,” I said.

“Is your father prepared to fight a dark god for the soul of the child?”

I smiled grimly at ClanFintan. “Dad’s not about to let someone he loves give in to the Dark Side.” He, of course, hadn’t seen the Star Wars movies (not even the old ones), but he totally got the gist of what I was saying.

“But can he stop her? The MacCallan wasn’t able to stop Rhiannon from being seduced by darkness.”

I felt cold, and shivered. “I don’t know. I think all we can do is wait and see.”

“And pray for Epona’s aid,” he said.

“And pray for Epona’s aid,” I echoed. Silently I added, Please, Epona, somehow, even though that’s not your world, help Dad and Mama Parker and little Morrigan.

Then my own daughter began to stir and my attention shifted from Oklahoma and darkness to Partholon and the light of new beginnings.

PART II

1

Oklahoma

From her earliest thoughts Morrigan knew she was different. It wasn’t just because she was being raised by her grandparents. She knew other kids whose parents were losers and their grandparents had to raise them. It wasn’t just because her mom and dad were dead, even though she didn’t know anyone else whose parents were both dead. And it wasn’t because G-ma and G-pa taught her kinda weird stuff when it came to religion. Oklahoma was the Bible Belt, but even in Broken Arrow there were kids in school who believed in different stuff. Okay, not many. But still.

She was different because she heard things other people didn’t hear, and because she felt things other people didn’t feel.

Morrigan sighed and continued to pull the journals out of her closet and stack them neatly in storage boxes.