Beautiful Darkness
Page 85

The three of them were sitting cross-legged in a circle, headstones dotting the dirt around them. Their hands were joined in the center of the circle. Amma had her back to us, but I had no doubt she knew I was there.
"It took you long enough. We've been waitin', and you know how I hate to wait." Amma's voice was no more agitated than usual, which didn't make any sense, since I had disappeared without even a note.
"Amma, I'm real y sorry --"
She waved her hand as if she was swatting a fly. "No time for that now." Amma shook the bone in her hand -- a graveyard bone, I was wil ing to bet.
I looked at Amma. "Did you bring us here?"
"Can't say I did. Somethin' else brought you, somethin' stronger than me. I just knew you were comin'."
"How?"
Amma gave me some of her best stinkeye. "How does a bird know to fly south? How does a catfish know how to swim? I don't know how many times I have to tel you, Ethan Wate. They don't cal me a Seer for nothin'."
"I foresaw your arrival, too." Arelia was stating a fact, but it annoyed Amma just the same. I could tel by the look on her face.
Amma raised her chin. "After I mentioned it." Amma was used to being the only Seer in Gatlin, and she didn't like being trumped, even if it was by a Diviner with supernatural gifts.
The other woman, the one I didn't know, turned to Amma. "We bes' get started, Amarie. They're waitin'."
"Come sit down here." Amma motioned to us. "Twyla's ready." Twyla. I recognized the name.
Arelia answered the question before I asked. "This is my sister, Twyla. She's come a long way to be with us here tonight." I remembered. Lena had mentioned her Great-Aunt Twyla, the one who had never left New Orleans. Until now.
" 'At's right. Now you come on sit by me, cher. Don't be 'fraid. It's only a Circle a Sight." Twyla patted the space next to her. Amma was sitting on Twyla's other side, giving me the Look. Liv stepped back, looking pretty freaked out, even if she was training to be a Keeper. Link stayed right behind her. Amma had that effect on people, and from the looks of things, Twyla and Arelia did, too.
"My sister is a powerful Necromancer." Arelia's voice was proud.
Link made a face and whispered to Liv. "She gets with dead people? That's the kinda thing a person should keep to themselves."
Liv rol ed her eyes. "Not a necrophiliac, stupid. A Necromancer, a Caster capable of cal ing and communicating with the dead."
Arelia nodded. "That's right, and we need help from someone who's already left this world."
I knew right away who she was talking about, or at least I hoped I did. "Amma, are we trying to cal Macon?"
Sadness passed across her face. "I wish I could say we were, but wherever Melchizedek's gone, we can't go."
"It's time." Twyla pul ed something out of her pocket and looked at Amma and Arelia. You could feel the shift in their demeanor. The three of them were al business now, even if it was the business of waking the dead.
Arelia opened her hands in front of her lips and spoke softly into them. "My power is your power, sisters." She tossed tiny stones into the center of the circle.
"Moonstones," Liv whispered.
Amma pul ed out a sack of chicken bones. I would know that smel anywhere. It was the smel of my kitchen back home. "My power's your power, sisters."
Amma tossed the bones into the circle with the moonstones. Twyla opened her own hand, revealing a tiny carving in the shape of a bird. She spoke the words that gave it power.
"One unto this world, one unto da next.
Open the door to da one who's annexed."
She started to chant, loud and feverish, the unfamiliar words rippling through the air. Her eyes rol ed back in her head, but her eyelids remained open. Arelia began to chant as wel , shaking long strands of tasseled beads.
Amma grabbed my chin so she could look me in the eye. "I know this isn't goin' to be easy, but there are things you need to know."
The air in the center of the Circle of Sight began to swirl and churn, creating a thin white mist. Twyla, Arelia, and Amma continued to chant, their voices reaching a crescendo. The mist seemed to act on their command, gaining speed and density, swirling upward like a growing tornado.
Without warning, Twyla inhaled sharply, as if she was taking her last breath. The mist seemed to fol ow, disappearing into her mouth. For a minute, I thought she was going to drop dead. She sat there, her back so straight you would've thought she was tied to a rack, eyes rol ed back in her head, mouth stil open.
Link retreated to a safe distance while Liv scrambled forward to help, reaching for Twyla. But Amma grabbed her arm in midair. "Wait."
Twyla exhaled. The white mist raced from her lips, rising over the circle. Taking form. The mist swirled upward, creating a body as it moved. The bare feet, peeking out beneath a white dress, the torso fil ing the dress as if inflating a bal oon. It was a Sheer, rising from the haze. I watched as the mist snaked upward, creating a torso, a delicate neck, and final y a face.
It was --
My mother.
Staring back at me with the same luminous, ethereal quality unique to Sheers. But beyond the translucence, she looked exactly like my mother. Her eyelids fluttered, and she looked at me. The Sheer didn't just look like my mother. It was my mother.
She spoke, and her voice was as soft and melodic as I remembered. "Ethan, sweetheart, I've been waiting for you."