Centaur Legacy by Nancy Straight

“Finding Hercules’ arrow seems like a long shot.
Is this what we should be looking for?”
    “Follow your instincts. If
that’s where your instincts tell you to go, then you’re on the
right path .”
    “Can’t you just tell me what the right
path is?”
    “All the skills I possessed
while alive and a Centauride did not follow me to the spirit world.
I no longer see the future. I trust you. You need to trust in
yourself, as well.”
    A feeling of déjà vu crept up on me,
and I remembered something else she said in her dream. “Mom, you
told me if I loved Drake, I needed to let him go, the same way you
stayed away from Kyle Richardson.”
    “Yes. ”
    “I can’t do that. If he’ll have me, I’m
going to marry him.”
    She smiled at me, and it
filled me with a warmth I hadn’t felt in months.
“ He’s already made it very clear to you
that he wants you as his wife; why do you think he would change his
mind? ”
    Wow, a conversation I never wanted to
have with my mom when she was alive, I certainly didn’t want this
one now. I didn’t have much of a choice. I needed to know. “Okay,
from everything I’ve gathered, when Centaurs marry, they’re um. . .
each other’s firsts.” She nodded at me affirming what I already
believed. I took a deep breath, “Drake wouldn’t be my
first.”
    “I see. Have you told him ?”
    “No. So, am I right? He won’t marry me,
will he?”
    “I don’t know. That’s up
to him. I wouldn’t keep it from him. It’s a part of your past. He’s
in love with you now. Your past experiences are what make you who
you are now .”
    “So you’re saying it isn’t that big of
a deal?”
    “I’m saying you need to
trust Drake enough to tell him the truth. Never be ashamed of who
you are. ”
    Another question had been burning
inside me. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this, Mom? All those
months you knew you were sick. We were at the apartment together
watching stupid re-runs on television. There’s so much I should
have learned from you.”
    She looked sad; her voice
was a little lower when she said, “ I
didn’t want this for you. I didn’t want any of it. I always hoped
you and Daniel would grow beyond friends and none of this would
matter. Before I died, he promised me he’d always be there for you.
I believed any hole you felt when I was gone would be filled in, in
a different way . I
also hoped that Aphrodite’s magic would still cloak you after I
died.”
    “But you gave me William’s name. You
told me where he lived. You didn’t think I’d contact
him?”
    “It was a possibility. By
the time I had decided to give you the one thing I had always
denied you, I was too weak to look into the future, to see what
would happen. I trusted that whatever happened, you would draw from
your inner strength. You would make the life that you chose your
own, whether that life be as a human or a
Centauride .”
    “So you wanted Daniel and me to hook
up? Ewww, Mom, he’s like my brother.”
    “Yet you keep secrets from
Drake that I’m sure you willingly shared with Daniel. Do you
question your decision to marry Drake ?”
    “No. Drake is different.” I tried to
think of a way to put my feelings for Drake into words: the rush I
get from him when I catch him watching me, or the tingles that rip
through my body when he holds my hand. “He’s so serious all the
time, you know? I’ve never met anyone more conservative in my life.
He has a way of pushing these images in my head that are – I don’t
know. . . lifelike. Like whatever he’s showing me is reality if we
just make it that way. I know what you said, but I won’t leave him.
I can’t.”
    “Are you convincing me or
yourself ?”
    I smiled at her. This was one of her
favorite questions when she was alive, and I’d heard the same
question at least once a week my whole life, and I couldn’t help
but let the smile loose. “Both. I’m convincing us both,
Mom.
    I saw her image begin to fade. I wanted
to