I'm not sure what I expected to happen. Nothing, maybe. But certainly not the pulse of power that rippled out from Mom in a sonic blast, rocking through me as I held onto her for balance and she to me.
Her transformation happened almost instantaneously, though I had time to watch her shift in the heartbeats between. How her skin faded to a more normal hue, deep wrinkles plumping and vanishing as her youthful appearance returned. The way the silver traces in her hair flashed before darkening back to black. But it was her eyes, the deep blue of them, once tormented and full of rage that changed the most.
Mom's hands squeezed my shoulders as the last of the power wave left her, those beautiful eyes welling with tears. One hand lifted to her throat, to the pentagram necklace, before touching my cheek so gently I barely felt the pressure of her skin.
"Syd?"