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Gwen lay her head back, as if she were looking at the sky. “Mab’s gone?”Advertisement

“I took her to the airport last night.”

She nodded and rocked a few minutes more. “Too many things are changing—Maria, my feelings, even the past.” She shook her head in bemusement. “You’d think the past, at least, would stay put. How on earth did that woman manage to change it?”

“She didn’t. She just showed you something you missed at the time.”

“I know. And I even know it’s the truth. Gut-level.” She smiled distantly. “I may have lost shapeshifting when I became a mother, but I gained intuition.”

Silence settled again.

“I can’t let go of the past all at once, Vicky.”

I thought about Myrddin’s curse on Mab, how she carried the pain of her sister’s death with her through time. “But you can let it go eventually. Just do it a little at a time.”

“Should I have said good-bye to her? I thought about it. I had the keys in my hand to drive to that farewell party before I chickened out.”

In that corner of my mind, my sense of Mab stirred, like she could feel Gwen’s regret. “I don’t think she’s bothered you didn’t say good-bye. I think she’d rather you start with hello.”

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Later, after Gwen had gone, a dream unfolded in my dreamscape. I didn’t try to shape or control it. I just let it happen. It was a simple dream. Mab stood beside me. Then Gwen appeared on my other side, holding Maria’s hand. Four Cerddorion women, each one different, but standing together and looking forward, not back. pqdm.com