Free See No Evil (Alpha Guardians Book 1) by Vivian Wood Page B

hundreds or perhaps thousands of ghosts that Echo had encountered, some only once and some over and over again, her mother had never made an appearance. No matter how much thirteen year old Echo had wished it, she’d never once heard so much as a whisper from her mother after her passing.
    “Echo,” her mother whispered. “Echo, darling.”
    “Mama?” Echo gasped, her hand flying to cover her lips. “Is that you?”
    Cadence looked just as Echo remembered, her thick blonde hair held back in a French braid with gentle curls framing her face. While her face was crystal clear, the rest of her body was fuzzy and distorted, as if Echo was seeing her from a great distance. She must be far, far into the next realm, and Echo supposed she was exerting a great deal of effort to come through the Veil.
    “Echo, I don’t—” Cadence flickered for a moment, and Echo nearly cried out before her mother reappeared, her image stronger this time.
    “Mama,” Echo said again, not knowing what else to say. “Shhhh.”
    Echo slipped out of bed and beckoned her mother to follow her out of the bedroom and through Rhys’s rooms. In the guest room, Echo closed the door and turned to face her mother.
    “We can, um… talk here, I guess,” Echo said. She wished she could have prepared herself more for this, but she’d long since given up on ever making contact with her mother.
    With any other ghost, she just let them talk. Their lives and issues didn’t really effect Echo in any way, so there was no harm done in merely listening and nodding. With her own mother, though… What were you supposed to say to your mother’s ghost?
    “I don’t have much time,” Cadence said, giving Echo a pleading look. “You must listen. You’re in danger, darling.”
    “I know, Mama. I was attacked twice today,” Echo said, trying to ignore the knot of emotion forming in her chest.
    “You must be protected at all costs. You are the First Light, darling.”
    Echo paused a beat, confused.
    “What is the First Light?” she asked.
    “Your Aunt Ella and I researched the legacy of Baron Samedi, just as a laugh. Tee-Elle and I were both too strong, though. We discovered more than we were meant to, discovered the sacred places where the Baron hid the secrets of how to open the Veil.”
    Echo wrinkled her nose, not comprehending.
    “I don’t understand what that means, Mama.”
    “We were caught up in something bigger and more powerful than we understood. We communed with Baron Samedi himself, and he was furious that we found his secret. He hid the secrets of Veil again, but this time he hid the secrets inside three people instead of three sacred places. The Three Lights, he called you.”
    Echo’s mouth opened and closed several times as she struggled to understand. Her mother wasn’t here to warn her daughter of peril. Cadence was here to tell Echo that she herself was some kind of fucked up secret Voodoo talisman, and that the secret needed to be protected.
    Echo actually laughed. Of course her mother wouldn’t come here for her after all this time.
    “Right. So if I’m taken, the Veil is in danger. Which means you’re in danger somehow, right? Is that it?” Echo asked, her gaze narrowing.
    Her mother’s lips twitched down into a frown.
    “That’s not why I’m here.”
    “So you screwed around with stuff you didn’t understand, and now I’m in mortal danger because Pere Mal knows that I can…. Do what, exactly?” Echo asked.
    Cadence seemed to take a moment to collect herself before answering.
    “The First Light leads to the Second and the Third. With all three in hand, a strong enough witch could open the Veil. It would be the end of the human and spirit realms as we know them,” Echo’s mother said.
    “Sounds bad for you,” Echo said, bitterness filling her mouth.
    “Bad for every soul, Echo, living or dead.”
    Echo thought for a moment.
    “How did you know to come now?” she asked.
    Cadence’s expression grew