Nightwish (An Echoes of Eternity Novel Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her, taking in her scent, which reminded me of pinecones and pumpkins, of the winter holidays and… what I always imagined having family would feel like. A ray of sunshine shot into my heart. I held her tightly, just as Grams had always done with me before her illness stole her memory.
    “Okay,” said Alexis, irritated. “Enough of that. Get back here.”
    Celestina left my embrace. She craned her neck to the side, glancing at her mother and grandmother, seeking assurance and hoping for acceptance. But she got neither, so she lowered her head, as though silently punished for acknowledging my existence.
    “What’s the matter?” I asked.
    Alexis let out an exasperated sigh. “She doesn’t know you. I don’t know you.” She looked down at Celestina and curled a protective arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. “I just don’t want her to get her hopes up about someone who…may not play a role in her life.”
    “Who says I won’t?”
    She opened her mouth to speak but paused for a long beat, as though reconsidering the response that came naturally in favor of one with more prudence. “We just met. Let’s take things slowly.”
    “You don’t trust me. Is that it?”
    “You got it, sister!” She glanced at Delphine. “I don’t like this. Any of it.”
    “On that, I agree.” Then it dawned on me that if Celestina was a teenager and Alexis was my twin sister, that meant my sister gave birth at…eight years old! But how could that be possible?
    As though understanding my insight, Alexis’s cheeks became as puffy and dark as a storm cloud covering the sun. “Do. Not. Go. There!”
    Shocked by her outburst, I almost wavered in place at the barely bottled fury that crossed her face. I found it both startling and frightening that, a moment after contemplating the age at which my sister delivered her child, I felt like someone had plucked my brain with a spoon, as though trying to carve out my thoughts.
    It was as if Alexis had read my mind! That thought left me unexpectedly gasping for air. Of course, the idea was ludicrous. But was it any more unheard of than surviving a demon attack?
    I set my eyes on Alexis, but she looked up at Delphine, who gave her full concentration to Grams. How odd! In contrast to my sister, who shrugged off my existence as of little consequence, Delphine looked at Grams with great respect. This seemed out of place because, Grams once admitted to wishing she’d had a chance to correct the mistakes she’d made in raising my mother. Based on that response, I had presumed that Grams had inadvertently driven Delphine out of her life.
    Therefore, it surprised me to see Delphine look at Grams with reverence. I’d always imagined that they never understood each other, resulting in countless arguments and fights. Of course, my interpretation was based on very little information and lots of conjecture, but I would never have expected my mother to regard Grams with anything but spite. So to see Delphine giving her the utmost respect made it nearly impossible for me to speak. But sensing that she’d kept in contact with them behind my back loosened my tongue quickly.
    “Why didn’t you tell me about them, Grams?”
    Grams removed her gaze from Delphine, but looked at Alexis instead of me.
    “My mother and sister want nothing to do with me, so why am I here?” Despite that realization, I was hurt that Grams kept this part of our lives from me.
    It seemed she’d kept a lot from me, especially an insignificant fact that… I’m a witch! But again, why? Something must have dissuaded her from revealing the truth. So why had she introduced us now, only to remain silent? It didn’t make any sense.
    Coming from a place without power (in the sense of information), I needed to establish myself and demand that the trio recognize me. I looked at Alexis. “How long have you known about me?”
    “All my life.”
    Even though her response made it difficult to swallow, I did my best to