The Line

THIRTY-ONE

Three of the witches arrived early to prepare the house and grounds for the investment. The ceremony would take place outside, so I sought sanctuary from their activities in one of the library’s wingback chairs. But in spite of my best efforts, I found myself at least momentarily in the thick of it. Rivkah Levi, a tornado from New York, swept past me, Emmet in tow. The two were meticulously searching the house for energy leaks or ingresses. It was important for all of the psychic energies be balanced and accounted for before the anchor energy was settled on Maisie. “It’s worse than cleaning for Pesach,” Rivkah said to me cheerfully as she dragged Emmet away.

Bodaway Jones, who was loaded down with enough silver and turquoise to fill a jewelry store, drifted by me, chanting and fanning a smudge stick with a feather. He nodded an acknowledgment of my presence without stopping his chant. His intent was to drive all of the negative presences from the house. I wondered if I should warn him about Connor, but I didn’t have the heart to tear another layer of skin off Iris. If he was doing his job correctly, he might catch Connor up in his net without Iris ever having to know.

Ekala Maringar had arrived with the other two, but she’d disappeared into a guest room soon afterward and hadn’t come out for food, water, or anything since. I occasionally caught snatches of her voice from behind the closed door. Ekala was living in dreamtime, working with her ancestors to weave the silver cord that would bind the line to Maisie, or at least that’s what Bodaway had told me. It was of the utmost importance for no one to disturb her, so I gave her room a wide berth when I could.

The truth of the matter was that the whole process struck me as absurd. In the end, the whole event would probably hold all the charm and allure of a justice of the peace wedding, but they were all building it up to be a full-fledged coronation. I’d never had the taste for pomp and circumstance, so I wasn’t in the least bit hurt when they sat me down and explained that only those born of the power could be present for the ceremony. Rivkah had very diplomatically requested that I find some other place to be while it was taking place, and I was more than happy to oblige. “We’ll skip all this, won’t we, buddy?” I asked my child, not sure if there was a soul in there yet to respond to me. Even if there wasn’t, something about knowing that Colin was growing inside of me made me feel at peace.

“Who are you talking to?” Oliver asked, stopping to place a kiss on my forehead.

“I am talking to Colin,” I said proudly. “And we both think we should get out of the way of all of these witches for a while.”

“Well, Mr. Colin,” Oliver said. “I figure that you are about the luckiest soon-to-be-in-the-world boy for having such a beautiful and understanding mother. I hate that you are being chased out of here,” he said, meeting my eyes. “But you saw what happened at the drawing of the lots. We like to pretend that everything is cut-and-dried, but things can easily go wrong when you have ten strong personalities playing volleyball with a nuclear bomb.”

“How can this be safe for Maisie?” I asked. “She was sent off for less than two weeks of training, and now she’s expected to come back and anchor our end of the line.”

Oliver smiled. “Gingersnap, this may seem like a strange concept to you, but even though she’s only been gone for a few days on our timeline, she’s been gone for years on her timeline. She’s had plenty of training, and the training has been with the anchor. Maisie has received very special treatment. Gudrun does not make herself available to just anyone.”

I wasn’t in the mood to get into how well acquainted I was with time’s capriciousness. Suddenly I realized that the loud ticking of Ginny’s discount store clock had served some purpose for her. The incessant and repetitive noise must have been like a subconscious metronome that had helped her keep the line in sync with our dimension. I wondered if Maisie would find such a tool useful, and whether I should get one for her. Or maybe the other anchors would include one in her welcome basket. Congratulations on your investment and good luck with taking on the weight of the world!

“Will this Gudrun be part of the investment ceremony?” I asked instead.

“No, she no longer exists on our plane,” Oliver said. I could tell that there was a lot he wasn’t saying.

“I saw her once,” I said.

Oliver’s face turned gray. “That can’t be,” he said.

“No, I did. I saw her and Maisie through the mirror when I was borrowing your power.”

“Did she see you?” Oliver asked, his usually smooth forehead crinkling.

“Yes, but only for a moment. She waved her hand and broke the connection.”

“I see,” he said. “Listen, Mercy, it would be best if you didn’t even think about Gudrun again.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said unimpressed. “Ellen already warned me. Force of nature and all that.”

“No, sweetheart, you need to listen. Don’t do anything to draw Gudrun’s attention.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Listen, Gudrun is not where she is by choice but as punishment. She won’t be a part of the investment because she isn’t allowed back into our world. Working with Maisie was less of a goodwill gesture than it was an act of penance on her part. And,” he added, “a warning on Maisie’s part. For your sake, for Colin’s sake, leave this one alone.”

“Okay,” I said, appropriately chastened. “I won’t pull any more loose strings.”

“Good,” he said, relief transforming his face back into a youthful mask. “And while we’re on the subject of people you should stay away from, I don’t want to hear about you hanging out with Jilo again.” He pointed upstairs. “We’ve broken her link to the linen closet. You should have never kept it secret from us.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

He looked at me through narrowed eyes. “Nothing about her is real, you know? It’s all a show,” he said. “And I don’t just mean that she has to borrow her power. I knew her granddaughter, remember, and I know things about her. She might go around acting like some backwoods Hoodoo priestess who can’t use a personal pronoun or conjugate a verb, but it’s all an act. It’s good for business. It’s what people expect. Truth is, the woman’s a graduate of Spelman College. She holds a degree in chemistry. If she’d been born twenty years later, she would have most likely ended up a medical doctor, not a root doctor.” He read the surprise on my face. “That’s right, nothing’s real about Jilo other than the trouble she can land you in if you don’t keep clear of her.”

“I’ll stay away,” I said, somehow knowing it was a lie. I was connected to the old woman now. Even if everything about her was a lie, there was some ineffable link between us, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to shake it off. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

“Good,” he responded, too distracted to read me as he usually might. “Your sister comes home in a few hours. You ready for that?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“She’s going to want to talk to you, but I’m afraid you two won’t have much time together. The representatives from the rest of the families will be arriving just before she does, and they’re going to keep her busy.”

“Does she know about Connor?” I asked.

“Yes, she’s aware of what he did. She knows about Wren as well. I know she’s desperate to lay eyes on you, to see for herself that you’re okay.” He paused. “We haven’t mentioned the baby. We figured you’d want to tell her yourself.”

“And Jackson?”

“She knows he’s gone,” Oliver said. “Remember, Gingersnap, from her perspective, she’s been gone for a very long time. She’s had time to grieve for Connor, in whatever form that grieving might have taken. And she’s had time to get over Jackson too. I think that both of you girls have realized that although he came in a very nice package, there wasn’t much substance there. If there had been, he would have at least waited to tell Maisie good-bye face-to-face.”

I just nodded my head in agreement. “Okay, my girl. I have to get back to business,” he said and started to walk away. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks, and swiveled around. “Wait!” he said. “I have a surprise for you first.” I looked at him warily, and he laughed. “No, this one is good. Your aunts and I made a reservation for you at the Mansion tomorrow. While we’re dealing with the families, you’ll spend the day at the spa and then enjoy a night in your very own park view suite,” he said, doing his best imitation of a game show host.

“That sounds wonderful,” I said. “Thank you.”

He winked at me. “Anything for my favorite niece,” he said blithely. He paused for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, his voice had taken on a more serious tone. “And I want you to know that I mean that. Maisie has always been the apple of everyone’s eye, and don’t get me wrong, I love that girl to bits, but you’re my little Gingersnap, you hear me?”

He was the black sheep, and I was the dud. Deep down I’d always known I was his favorite, but it felt good to hear it anyway. I smiled. “Yeah, I hear you,” I said. “Now get out of here before we both start crying like little girls.” He laughed and left the room. I followed him out a few minutes later and went outside to sit on the side porch. The past few weeks had caught up to me all at once, and I felt a thousand years older than the age on my driver’s license. I sat quietly, focusing on controlling my breath. The cicadas did a wonderful job of drowning out the sounds coming from inside the house, and the warmth of the sun lulled me into a mercifully dreamless sleep.

I awoke to the sensation of a soft hand pushing my hair back from my forehead. “Hey, you,” Maisie’s voice instantly wrested me from sleep. Before I had the chance to remember our horrifying last encounter, before I could feel the guilt of helping to drive Jackson from her life, I felt a surge of love—the kind of love that could only be understood by those born a twin. The person I’d come into this world with had been returned to me, and I pulled her close. Nothing mattered beyond the comfort of her presence.

I loosened my hold after a moment so that I could get a good look at her. She was my sister, all right, but she had changed. She had an air of serenity and maturity about her that I’d never sensed before.

“I need to apologize to you, Mercy,” she said.

“No, I should to apologize to you!” I replied.

“For what? For Jackson?” she said and laughed. “I know it’s still fresh for you, but I’ve had a long time to get over what happened with Jackson.”

“He’s gone,” I said, hearing the detachment in her voice but not emotionally capable of comprehending it.

“For now, but I’m certain we haven’t seen the last of him. He ran away, but once he’s had time to think things through, he’ll come back to me.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about his last request—that I go with him. All I could do was hope that for her sake he was well and truly gone and that someone better would come along to take his place.

“They’re going to be looking for me soon,” Maisie said. “And I won’t have time to talk to you again until after the investment, so please listen to me.” I met her eyes to let her know that she had my full attention. “I need to apologize to you for how I behaved on the night of the drawing. I must have been out of my mind to treat you that way. When you ran from me, I realized how much I must have scared and hurt you. I wanted to call you back, but…”

“It’s all right,” I said.

“No, it isn’t. You are my sister. My best friend. Sometimes I think my only real friend. The way I treated you, the way I treated the entire family, was unforgiveable.”

“I can’t speak for the rest of the family, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re forgiven.”

“You sure do live up to your name, don’t you,” she said, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “You have no idea what your forgiveness means to me.” She paused. “You know, some of the family felt that the line had chosen you as anchor and I was stealing its power from you.”

I laughed. “I am pretty darned sure that the line never intended me to be anchor. And frankly, even if it did, both of us know that you’re the better choice. I know Ginny shared things with you that she shouldn’t have, but maybe it’s for the best. You’ve been training for this your whole life, and you’re going to be the best anchor the line has ever known.”

“So you’re saying that you wouldn’t object to the power falling to me even if you were the one who was selected? I don’t care what the others think, but I need to know that you don’t feel that I’m stealing from you.”

“You,” I said, “are stealing nothing from me. Anybody who thinks otherwise will see how wrong they are after you’ve had time to settle in as anchor. You are going to be wonderful.”

“Thank you,” Maisie said and kissed me once more. “I can feel the others tugging at me,” she said. “I need to go join them, but when all of this is over, I want the two of us to take a couple of days to talk about what happened with Connor,” she said and held up her hand to fend off any protest I might make. “You need to be able to tell someone exactly how much you hate him for what he did, and Iris is not going to be up for that. And given Wren’s involvement in the whole thing, we should spare Ellen and Oliver as well. They created and nurtured a murderer. They may be acting like they don’t feel horrible about that fact, but they’re just trying to shield you from any further pain. Now, I’ve got to go.”

“Wait!” I said, reaching out and grabbing her skirt like a little kid. She looked down at me with an amused expression on her face. “There’s something important I need to tell you.”

“Okay, but make it fast.”

“No,” I said, letting go of her. “You go on, it can wait.” I smiled at her, and she shimmered and disappeared right before my eyes.

Soon the investment would be over, and we’d have the rest of our lives to catch up. “We can wait to tell her about you, can’t we, buddy?” I asked, placing my hand over my stomach. “You are well worth waiting for.”