The Devil's Soulmark - Ch 3
βMama!β
Claire was yanked from slumber by her childβs call with only the briefest warning before Briannaβs long limbs were cutting a path up the middle of the bed.
βWhatβs wrong?β Claire pushed herself up onto an elbow, heart hammering in her ribs. Some corner of her still-tired mind registered that it was early β much earlier than Brianna would usually be up. She brushed the wild spray of red curls away from her daughterβs distraught face. βDid you have a bad dream?β
Briannaβs face crumpled and she hauled herself forward into Claireβs chest as she began to cry.
βOh, loveyβ¦β
She cradled her daughter to her, faintly alarmed but yet oddly tender over Breeβs apparent need for her. At thirteen, Brianna so often felt she understood the world better than Claire, and any motherly advice was rarely heeded. But the salt in the wound was that this attitude did not extend to Briannaβs father; the two had always been thick as thieves and adolescence hadnβt seemed to disturb that for them.
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