Page 15 of The Zagorath (Shadowed Dreams #3)

L iv stood in the midst of the forest, holding a small bouquet of freshly gathered wildflowers in her hands as she stared at the mirror.

There was nothing but gray mist swirling in the mirror at the moment but moments before she’d been engaged in a lively discussion with Jessie.

Life in the heart of the forest—which she’d discovered was quite literally what it was, the very heart of the vastness of that which was the forest—made it difficult for her to keep tabs on those she cared about in her own world, but she did try and Dahtao encouraged the connection after they discovered how to open a communication channel between mirrors.

A few times they had even ventured through the portal, but most times her mate gave her the privacy to enjoy girl talk with Jessie alone, though he could be coaxed to join her when she talked with her parents.

Unsurprisingly, it had taken her mother some time to become used to the idea that her dreams for Liv were never going to happen.

For years in the mortal world, her mother clung to the hope that Liv would just one day come home and resume her old life, no matter how often Liv explained that it wasn’t going to happen.

Introducing Dahtao to them—and forcing her reluctant mate to come out of the shadows so that they could see for themselves how much she loved him and how much he loved her—had been the first painful step.

Her mother had of course cried and Dahtao and her dad had both been equally uncomfortable for the remainder of the conversation.

And it didn’t get much better over the next several conversations until surprisingly one day her mother seemed calmer and more accepting.

Perhaps it was because Jessie had eventually also become untangled with someone non-human that changed things.

Since her best friend hadn’t needed to dwell elsewhere and decided to deal with people who may or may not freak out at the sight of her mate, she became the embodiment of human-nonhuman relationships to her mother, as well as to many others.

Jessie certainly wasn’t shy about forcing her way in and showing her mate off at every opportunity, or so she confided amid much laughter while she cuddled an adorable blue baby with tiny wings and nubs where horns would eventually grow.

Of course, there was no stopping the fact that time passed much faster there than she liked.

It always seemed like months or even a couple of years had passed between each communication.

She was horrified to find ten years to have passed when she was caught up within a particular lengthy feeding cycle with the forest. By that time, Jessie’s baby was almost grown, and three others had joined the family in succession creating a whole nest full of beasties.

At least she didn’t have to worry about Jessie growing old, that was at least one benefit of her friend mating with a creature that would live for thousands of years, but time wasn’t so kind to her parents.

She watched the bloom of youth fall and fade as their wrinkles grew more defined and their hair turned white.

Somehow her mother managed to be as beautiful as ever despite going on to have a pair of twins late in life in a surprising turn of events.

Liv had watched from a distance through glimpses through the mirror as those children grew up and had children of their own and watched as her mother relaxed to enjoy life.

But the day she had dreaded had come. According to Jessie, her mother had died peacefully in her sleep at the grand age of eighty-two and the family was currently consoling her dad in his grief after she’d been lain to rest. And so, Liv had gathered the most beautiful flowers she could find and stood there, facing the mirror, uncertain if she really wanted to step through the portal and stand before her mother’s grave.

It was a taste of mortality she would never experience.

It turned out that Dahtao had been quite literal when he said that she was the forest’s queen.

She would never age but nor would she ever have children—the life she offered and had to give sustained the eternal life of the forests and all forests and the numerous races had begun to refer to her as the Great Mother of the Wood and viewed her with much reverence in contrast to the fear they held of her mate.

But now she was afraid.

“Do not be afraid, my love,” Dahtao whispered, his hand settling on her shoulder. “You do not have to face this alone.”

She glanced back at him. “You will go with me?” she whispered.

He nodded, his hand sliding down as his arm curled lovingly around her. “Our lives may not be like theirs but what makes life worth living is those that we love. Despite everything, your mother loved you and you love her. Do not be afraid of what is left to send her off on her next journey.”

Liv nodded and lifted her hand to the portal.

She no longer needed the key. The forest recognized and obeyed her as it did Dahtao.

The mist shimmered and they stepped through, the graveyard looming ahead of them.

It didn’t take long for Liv to find her mother’s headstone, but she found it difficult to look at as she bent and set the flowers in front of it.

“I’m sorry I’m late, mother, but I came as soon as I heard. May the gods speed you quickly onto the next world.”

“Not likely,” a familiar voice said cheerfully from behind her.

Liv jumped, whirling around in surprise as her mate drew her protectively against his body with a growl.

He abruptly silenced, however, with the same surprise that Liv felt as she stared at the spectral apparition of her mother floating just a few feet away.

Her mother who looked not a day over thirty again and dressed in her favorite gown smiled smugly.

“M… mother? What are you doing?” she asked and glanced back toward the tomb helplessly. “Aren’t you supposed to be traveling to the next world to sit with the ancestors and?—”

“Oh please, dear,” her mother tutted. “There is plenty of time for that. I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without your father, after all.

Knowing him he would take the wrong turn on the way.

You do realize that the man depends on me to keep him organized,” she added with a laugh.

“I figure I will go haunt that old fart a bit and maybe explore this side of the afterlife. The dinner party in the land of the dead can wait. Besides, you know how I like to appear fashionably late.”

“Y… yes, of course,” Liv stammered as she looked over at Dahtao with confusion.

The big male shrugged, the corners of his mouth twitching. “The rules among the worlds of the spirits are perhaps more flexible than I bothered to mention. Your mother seems to have it all planned out.”

“Of course,” her mother huffed in amusement. “I always have been a meticulous planner. Well tah dears. I have a date with your father. With any luck I will coax him into having a romantic date on the beach with me.”

“The beach... mother that is three states away,” Liv replied weakly.

“Exactly, which is why we need to leave immediately. He promised me for years we would have a romantic beach vacation. Well now, I’m going to get it before he has the audacity to die first,” she said cheerfully and blinked out, leaving Liv standing there alone at the grave with her mate.

“That was…” she tried to search for the right word to convey the oddness of the experience.

“That was your mother,” he replied drily. “That female never ceases to surprise me.” Shaking his head, he glanced over at his mate and smiled. “Ready to go home.”

Liv blinked rapidly and rubbed her temple. “Gods yes. Let’s get the hell out of here. But first let’s look in on dad and warn him.”

And so, time passed as they lived and loved within their forest. And if Liv looked in from time to time on her siblings and their families, it only made her love for them, and the world she left behind, grow richer.

She never forgot her bonds there and, through her, Dahtao was anchored as well, expending compassion for as long as he could before the forest called on the hand of the Zagorath to bring blood again.