by Lynne Ewing
Then Maggie walked around the table until she stood behind Tianna. “And now, my dear, I have one for you, too.”
“Me?” Tianna looked at her in disbelief.
Maggie clasped the amulet around Tianna’s neck. The silver stone felt good on her skin and gave her comfort.
“Thanks.” Tianna touched it. “It’s pretty.”
“It’s more than style,” Vanessa said.
“You’d better tell her, Maggie,” Jimena coaxed.
Maggie moved a candle to the middle of the table and stared across the flame at Tianna, her blue eyes intense. “Selene has looked down and decided to make you a goddess because of the courage and fearlessness and the talent you have shown in using your telekinetic powers to fight evil.”
Tianna laughed and held up her hands. “Does a goddess have cuts and bruises and ripped fingernails?”
Maggie nodded. “Tu es dea, filia lunae. You are a goddess, a Daughter of the Moon.”
Tianna stopped laughing.
“We told her the story already,” Serena put in.
“And about the Atrox, too,” Vanessa added. “But I think that was a little harder for her to believe.”
Maggie nodded. “The greatest strength of the Atrox is that people no longer believe that the demonic walk among us. So you see why it is so important that you help fight it.”
“Me?” Tianna whispered.
Maggie nodded. “Catty, Vanessa, Jimena, and Serena have no choice. That is what they were born to do and it is my responsibility to guide them and to help them understand their powers. But you are being offered a choice.”
Tianna felt happy. Since she had lost her family, she had wanted to belong somewhere.
“That mysterious voice that seemed like an inner guide,” Tianna asked. “Was that Selene?”
Maggie nodded. “Selene was always guiding you. She looked down on you that first night and felt pity for what the Followers had done and for what you were going to endure. And now because you have proved yourself, she is allowing you to become—”
“A goddess,” Tianna whispered.
“A Daughter of the Moon.” Maggie corrected her with a smile.
“But what about Justin and Mason?” Tianna wondered if she would always be on the run. “Will they still be after me?”
“No,” Maggie assured her. “You have succeeded in fulfilling what you were meant to do. You brought the four Daughters of the Moon together again.”
“And now we’re five,” Catty added.
“But why did they have to take my family from me?” Tianna asked.
“Evil doesn’t have a rational explanation. I do know the Atrox sent them into the past to correct what it had seen happening in the future. But by altering the past, they actually created the future that was always meant to be.”
Tianna looked down. “So the Atrox saw me saving Catty in the future and it sent Justin and Mason back into the past to destroy me.”
“Yes,” Maggie said. “Now all of you must go home. You have families who are worried about you.”
Tianna looked down.
Maggie’s soft hand cupped her chin. “You most of all, my dear. Mary and Shannon and Todd care about you very much. You need to go home at once and let them know you’re all right.”
“Home?” Tianna repeated the word so softly, she wasn’t even sure she had said it aloud.
“Yes,” Maggie answered. “I’ll come with you, if you like.”
Maggie and Tianna stood outside the large brick Tudor home. A line of smoke wafted from the massive chimney.
“I believe Mary is sitting up waiting for you,” Maggie encouraged. “I’ll wait here until you go inside.”
“I’m nervous, “ Tianna said. “What if the things she said about me coming back were just talk? Maybe she doesn’t really want me.”
“She does,” Maggie answered simply. “She lost all the family she had, and now she desperately needs you children.”
Tianna looked up at the window, then took a deep breath and walked up to the house.
Mary answered the door tentatively, looking over Tianna’s head, then up and down the street. “You’re alone?”
“They’re gone,” Tianna said. “Can I stay here?”
In response, Mary smiled and opened the door wide. Tianna walked inside. Flames flickered in the hearth, and the smell of popcorn wrapped around her.
Shannon and Todd looked up in surprise when they saw her. Shannon ran to her with arms spread as wide as wings, and Todd did happy wheelies around the room.
Hours later, stomach filled with popcorn and Pepsi, Tianna crawled onto the soft cotton-flowered sheet and pulled the comforter over her head. Her bed smelled fresh and new, and she had a cozy feeling that she hadn’t felt for a long time. Tears stung her eyes. She missed her parents and Jamie, but now at least she had a chance to start to live a normal life after so many years of running and living on the street.
She stared out the window at the dark night sky and touched the amulet hanging around her neck.
“Goddess,” she murmured. The word felt so right.
Lynne Ewing is a screenplay writer who also counsels troubled teens. In addition to the Daughters of the Moon series, she is the author of two companion series: Sons of the Dark and Sisters of Isis. She lives in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
