Page 29

SAMINA DIANA CRACKSTONE WAS BORN at seven minutes past three in the morning of May 7 th , and though slightly premature, was pronounced healthy. While everyone cooed and ahhed over the baby in the incubator that Ben had insisted be used for the first few hours of Samina’s life, and while Ghaliya slept, I walked back to the hotel and climbed the stairs to my apartment, stiff, aching and tired.

I seriously considered flopping onto the sofa. Climbing six more steps up to my bedroom and changing into a nightgown seemed like far too much effort.

I sat on the wingchair for a moment, debating upon the bed or the sofa.

“Finally. You took your sweet time, didn’t you?”

I swiveled on the chair, then lurched to my feet. The woman standing barefoot at the end of the apartment wore a white, old-fashioned nightgown. Her silvery white hair hung to her waist. She wore a long chain around her neck from which dangled an iron pendant shaped like a stag’s head.

I took in the high cheekbones, and the square chin. The green eyes that were just like mine and the strongly arched brows over them.

“Mom?” I whispered.

The third book in the Witchtown Crossing series will be released soon.