The Line (35 page)

When the power of the line had brushed past Emmet on its way to me, it had broken the nine intelligences he’d embodied off from their sources and had somehow melded them together into a single consciousness. Emmet was no longer a mere golem. He might not exactly be a real man, but for all intents and purposes he was close enough. I wasn’t sure if he had what you might call a soul, but who was I to judge?

“No,” I replied. “I was a little weirded out by him before, but now he seems
right
to me. And he’s the best teacher I could have hoped for,” I said. After all, he had maintained the knowledge of each of his nine creators.

After the investment, my aunts, uncle, and I had made a pact: no more lies or secrets, even if they were well-intentioned. I decided that the present would be as good at time as any to live up to my side of the bargain. “Listen, y’all. I’ve been thinking about something. Well, more than thinking about it…I’ve been working with Emmet on it.”

“And what might this ‘it’ be?” Iris asked, folding her arms and leaning back against the sink.

“I want to find Maisie,” I managed to say before the others piled up on me.

“The families will never allow it,” Ellen said, as if that should be the end of it.

“To hell with the families,” I responded. “I mean it. To hell with what they want and with what they’ll allow.”

“Gingersnap,” Oliver said, “you have to think about what’s best for you and your baby. We all loved Maisie, but you have to realize she’s probably dead. And even if she isn’t, I’m not sure you’d recognize what’s left of her as Maisie.”

“It’s out of the question,” Iris said. “She was going to sacrifice you. She lost her place in this family and her right to be in this world.”

“You said she tried to stop the investment at the last minute,” I said. “I heard her ask you all to stop it. I don’t believe she was capable of going through with her plans. You said something to her, Ellen. Right before. Something that changed her mind. What was it?”

Ellen looked at me, the corner of her mouth twitching as she spoke. “I told her that you and Peter were having a baby.”

“From what you’ve told us, Mercy,” Oliver said, “she may not have tried to stop the ceremony to save you. Maybe she just had second thoughts about harming Peter’s child.”

“I see,” I said, pushing my chair away from the table. “If you will all excuse me for a moment, I think I could use a little time alone.”

“You go on, sugar,” Iris said. “If you need anything, you call out, okay? I’ll be right there for you.”

Oliver had dedicated himself full time to clearing, cleaning, and painting the room across the hall from mine, getting it ready to serve as Colin’s nursery. Toys—some old, some new—lined a shelf that Peter had mounted the previous weekend. Peter’s old fire engine had pride of place, and I found myself unable to resist the urge to add something of my own to sit by its side.

I crossed the hall to my room and dug out the box of toys I’d been saving ever since I’d outgrown them myself. As I rifled through it, the old Ball jar Maisie had given me for our birthday pressed itself into my hand. I pulled it free. Inside danced the flames of the nineteen memories that Maisie had captured for me before the drawing of the lots, back when I had still believed she loved me in spite of my selfish heart. I opened the lid and watched as they flew out. With trepidation I reached out and touched the closest. I found myself sitting in this very same room at an incredibly small table. Maisie and I were having a tea party for the new dolls Aunt Ellen and “Uncle” Erik had brought us from their vacation in Europe. The memory faded.

I reached out again, this time with more determination, and touched a spark that seemed to be trying to escape me. Warmth flooded through me, and I relived the experience of my first dance recital with my sister. Our performances were laughable, but we were both certain that we were destined to be ballerinas when we grew up. It was written in the stars. And then it was over.

I looked at the remaining flames and gasped. It took a moment for me to realize that it wasn’t just my imagination—they had lined up in a single row and were moving away from me. No, they weren’t just moving away from me, they were trying to lead me to Maisie. As the realization hit me, the flames flew back to me and danced around me. “All right,” I said. “But for now, I need to wait.” The flames obediently returned to the jar. I closed the lid on them and returned the jar to the box of toys, burying it deep inside the closet.

I would go to her, and I would find a way to bring her back. I didn’t know how we had gone so wrong, but in spite of everything I still loved her, and somehow I’d find a way to set things right. But first I needed to learn how to control not only my own powers, but those of the line. If I was going to go find my sister, I was sure that I’d have to go through the nine other families, and maybe even my own as well.

THIRTY-FOUR

“Jilo been wonderin’ when you were goin’ to come for her,” the old woman said when she spotted me entering Bonaventure.

“And when I came for you, you figured I’d be bringing flowers,” I said, lifting the bouquet I’d brought with me up so that she could see it. I dismounted my bike and began to walk it.

“No, Jilo reckon as not,” she said, falling in step next to me. I slowed my pace so that she could keep up with me comfortably. After a few steps she took a breath and said. “I didn’t know what your sister was up to. I thought that Jackson was for real. Jilo didn’t know he had anything to do with that worthless boo hag.”

“I know that,” I said and kept walking.

“And I didn’t know that the power Ginny gave me in that stone was yours. I didn’t know that I was stealing from anybody, especially you.”

“And if you had known, would you have accepted it anyway?” I asked.

“Damn girl, you know I would have,” she said, and we both stopped dead in our tracks and laughed. Her laugh dissolved into a hacking cough, and it took a few moments for her to compose herself. “I don’t have much time left here in this world, Mercy. Don’t make me spend what I got left watching over my shoulder for you. You want to get even with this old woman, you do it here. You do it now.”

I pulled a rose from the bouquet and handed it to her. “I got no need for revenge. I figure there has been more than enough hurt hanging around me lately.”

“Well, you tell me, girl. You tell me what I can do to make it right to you.”

“All right,” I said. “First of all, leave those poor souls at Candler alone. I just heard that it’s been bought for use as a law school. I’m going to do my best to free the spirits before that tragedy befalls them.”

“All right, I’ll do that for you, even though it means you are leaving Mother Jilo dry.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” I said, and I held out my hand, palm facing up. A pearl of energy began to form in my hand, and I let it grow to the size of a golf ball before handing it to her. “A little gift for your crossroads,” I said, but then snapped it back from her quivering reach. “This one comes with a couple of conditions though.”

She grimaced and gave me a sour look but concluded, “Okay, name them.”

“One,” I said as I dropped the ball into her outstretched palm. “No killing.”

“Okay, there goes half my business, but you’ve got me between a rock and hard place. What’s the second?”

“Two, if someone comes back to you and tells you they’ve changed their mind, you had better let them, you hear me?”

“I hear you,” she responded, her eyes gleaming as she stared at the luminous ball in her hand.

“Good, now get on out of here and leave me and my family alone,” I said, trying to hide a smile as she turned from me and hobbled off toward the cemetery’s gate.

“Come on, Martell,” I heard her addressing what appeared to be thin air. “Now Granny gone be able to make it so folk can see you again.”

I turned away and carried on toward the river. Section K was where my people were buried, just on the far side of Evergreen Circle. I curved off Bonaventure Way and followed down Tattnall, taking in the live oaks and blocking out the sound of the lawnmowers that were busy growling from one grave to another.

I wasn’t even sure what had brought me here today, but I had an overpowering desire to introduce my as yet unborn son to his great-grandparents, whom I myself had never met. Even more than that, though, I wanted to be near my own mother. Regardless of her faults or her sins, I wanted—no, needed—to be near her grave and to tell her about Maisie, ask her advice about Peter, and give her a chance to say hello to Colin. Part of me felt like I was being foolish. I’d never felt her spirit lingering, and I knew that she was one of the souls Savannah had let escape her grasp.

I found my way to their graves and leaned my bike on its kickstand. I split the bouquet into three separate bundles, a few for my grandfather, a few for my grandmother, and the lion’s share for my mama.

“Mama,” I said, taking a seat on the ground above her grave. “I’d like you to meet your grandson Colin.” I smiled as I put my hand over my stomach. “He isn’t very big yet, but he’s starting to show a little.” I paused to watch the play of light and shadow as the wind blew through the live oaks, and unconsciously I crossed my arms, hugging myself, hugging my child.

“I don’t know quite how I’m going to do it, Mama, but I’m going to make this world a better place for him,” I said. “Peter and I will work something out, somehow. He’s a good man. I know it. He made one monumentally poor decision, but I will learn to look past it. I’ll forgive him and forget.” I smiled at her headstone. “He’s your grandbaby’s father, so I’ve got to find some way to do it.”

I took advantage of my unhurried solitude to probe my feelings for Peter once again. And that was where I found my answer. “It does help that I love him,” I said. An unexpected happiness rushed up through me. “Colin deserves to have his father, and I don’t think I could ever see myself settling down with anyone besides Peter anyway.” The truth spoken, I pulled my knees up to my chest, and sat there enjoying the moment of peace that this revelation had brought me.

Then I remembered Maisie. I leaned over and placed my hand on my mother’s marker. All my life, this had been the only physical contact I could have with her. This time the gesture was a hug, a childish tug at her skirt, and a scream at waking from a bad dream all rolled into one. The nightmare was over, all except for the cleanup. “I am going to find some way to fix this entire mess, Mama. I’ll find Maisie.” My voice failed me as I said her name. “I promise you that,” I said more firmly. “And I will take care of her. I know things have gone badly between us,” I said and then laughed. “Well I guess you know that is a bit of an understatement. But don’t you worry. I will fix things.”

The smell of the river was carried over to me on a breeze, and my thoughts turned from Maisie toward the rest of my family. “I will look after Iris too. And Ellen.” The two of them had been doing their best to hide their pain from me, pouring all of their energies into preparing for Colin’s arrival. “They’ve both lost the people they loved most on this earth. I don’t know what I can do for them yet, but I’ll figure something out to get them back on track. Uncle Oliver too. He may not show it, but he’s as lost as the rest of them.”

Somehow I was going to do all of this and still find a way to work with the other witch families who had been hounding me since the moment the line’s energy had taken me. “I am almost ready to take over as anchor. It’s time for me to grow up, I guess. No more Liar’s Tours,” I said. “No more lies at all. I’ll make you proud of me, Mama. That’s not to say I’m just going to do as I’m told. I’m going to do things my own way. I have to believe that the line chose me because it wants something different going forward. If it had wanted more of the same, it had plenty of that to choose from. I’m not just going to pick up where Ginny left off.”

The thought of my great-aunt stirred up a whole brew of conflicting emotions, most of them bad. Anger, a desire for revenge. I did not deny that the feelings were there; I acknowledged their presence, but I would not give in to them. Yes, I had been wronged, but I was never going to find happiness for my family or myself if I focused my energies on that. I knew what that meant, even if I didn’t like it.

“I’m going to forgive Ginny too,” I said. I knew from what had happened with Maisie that forgiveness was not a one-time act. It was a decision to move on and focus on a person’s good features each time the hurt over what they’ve done crept back up on you. Ginny hadn’t left me much to work with. “It’s going to take me a while, but I will not let her poison live on in me,” I assured my mama. “Somehow, I will move past what she did to me, what she did to us,” I said and then realized out loud, “and I guess today is as good of a day to start as any.”

I stood and brushed the earth from my skirt. “I’m going to say good-bye for now, Mama, but I’ll be back real soon,” I said. I reached down and removed a single rose from the flowers I had put on my mother’s grave. “I’m gonna go and spend a little time with Ginny now. She always did love roses.” Flower in hand, I hopped back on my bike. I pedaled farther down toward the river, where I turned left and headed up to Greenwich Cemetery.