Yet she’d implied I had a choice to return. “What am I to do?”
Brigid rested a hand on my back, and the cavern burst to life in my mind. “Catria is rushing to you now, but she will be too late to save you in time. Ailish, Cailleach’s whelp, calls your name. Nora, daughter of Nuada, weeps for the friend she believes lost. Your Englishman, Lughson, holds you, begs you to return.”
I stared at her, too stunned by the image to speak. Each person was just as she described, though they appeared stuck in a sort of still life. I even saw Tom, his face twisted with rage and his broadsword leveled at a large stone. Sean and Marin hadn’t moved from where Julian had left them. A man with an eye patch huddled in the shadows.
“It is time to choose, Selah. You may leave your human form behind forever and cross with me now, or return, but at great cost.”
Her words crowded together in my head. In one hand, she offered me peace and the Otherworld. In the other, Henry and love. “What is the cost?”
Reaching beside her, she picked up a silver cup I hadn’t seen before. Liquid fire swirled inside, lapping at the edges. “You must accept my second gift to loosen the bands of mortality, otherwise you will not survive the process long enough to heal yourself.”
My mouth tensed with frustration. “I’ve not learned to do that yet.” Not even a bruise or a cracked nail. How was I supposed to heal wounds so severe to render a body near uninhabitable?
She smiled and brushed a slender finger along my cheek. “You would have with time.”
But that time had been stolen from me. “Is it too late then?”
“Not if you drink, then you will be able to heal yourself when you return.” Her finger moved under my chin, and she tilted my head up until I was staring at dark blue eyes that perfectly matched my own. “But be warned, as one of my strongest children, you will be taking a great risk remaining in the mortal world once you have been released from the spring. Others have tried and failed.” Her gaze held mine, and I felt a sudden pulse of heat. “Your heart is similar to Catria’s, though, and I believe you capable of avoiding corruption as she has done for so long.”
I gaped at her, just now grasping the full extent of the gift she offered me—an opportunity to defy death. While aboard the Sea Witch, I’d decided one life would be enough. But that was before I learned Henry carried Tuatha Dé blood.
“What about Lugh’s son? Can his life be extended as well?”
“Yes, so long as he chooses. Though the gift must come from his first father.”
My thoughts snagged on something Ailish had shared while riding from Deidre’s cottage. “The stories say that Lugh rarely visits the mortal world.”
“The stories speak true.”
Well, Henry and I didn’t have centuries to wait for the sun god to come around again. “Would you tell him that his son needs an audience?”
Her nod was barely perceptible. “Some things are too important to leave to chance.”
She released my chin, and my gaze returned to the cup. Could I remain true to my gift as Brigid believed? Or would I follow in Julian’s footsteps on a path to corruption? And what if I consented only to have Henry refuse the second gift, choosing instead to die at the end of a natural lifespan?
There were so many risks, I would have turned away from Brigid’s offer if not for my great-grandparents. From their example, I glimpsed the possibility of happiness and a future greater than anything I’d ever imagined before. The path forward became clear, and I set my shoulders, determined not to look back.
“I accept the gift.”
A faint smile curved on her lovely mouth. “You must act the moment you return. The pain will be difficult to overcome. Hesitate and you shall die. Are you ready?”
I nodded and she passed the cup to me. “Then drink, Daughter, that you may live.”
My fingers curled around the smooth silver. Lifting it to my mouth, I closed my eyes and allowed the liquid to flow into me.
Fire erupted, swelled to an inferno that pushed outward. My spirit expanded in its wake, pulsating against the invisible bands that bound me tighter than any stays I had ever worn. The pressure increased, heaved and strained in equal measure as my two sides warred, one for balance, the other for supremacy.
Human and divine.
Fed by Brigid’s second gift, my goddess blood would not be suppressed. The barrier collapsed, and a groan rose up through the fire, low and mournful at first, but growing to a gut-wrenching wail as mortality’s bands loosened from around me. The garden began to shift, green melding into brilliant blue. The sunlight faded, and the last thing I saw was Brigid’s face before I was pulled back into the blackness.
“Farewell, Selah, until we meet on the other side.”