I skidded to a stop in front of Xiomara’s garden gate, sending sand and pebbles flying. I didn’t bother with the chain, just resting the bike against the fence before charging up the stairs and, before I could lose my newly acquired nerve, lifted my fist to knock sharply on the front door.
Instead, I stumbled forward as the door fell open, and almost fell face-first into Xiomara’s living room. I steadied myself, and looked up to see Xiomara herself holding the door open, not atrace of surprise on her face that I was standing on her front steps at nearly one o’clock in the morning.
“I thought I might see you tonight,” Xiomara said, stepping back from the door and gesturing me inside.
I didn’t move. “You did? How?”
Xiomara didn’t answer, just cocked her head toward the living room. I swallowed hard, and walked past her. She closed the door behind us, and then gestured for me to follow her. Memories of the previous night tried to overwhelm me as we walked through the very room where I’d relived every detail for the Conclave. I shoved those memories aside. They would only slow me down and cause me to lose focus.
We walked through the living room to the kitchen, and then to a small back room that looked like it had been converted from a three-season porch. Windows looked out over the back garden on three sides. The windowsills were lined with a staggering assortment of candles, bottles, statues, and stones, and yet nothing about it was cluttered; on the contrary, each item looked as though it had been carefully, mindfully chosen, positioned just so as to compliment all the other objects around it. I stared in fascination, feeling a sort of calm wash over me.
The room had a round table in the center, with a red tablecloth draped over it, and two wooden chairs pulled up to it, directly across from one another. Above the table, an ornate gold lamp with multi-colored glass shades hung from the ceiling, bathing the room in a warm, patchwork light. Xiomara gestured to the closest chair, and I sank into it without thinking. It felt natural. Xiomara moved to the chair opposite me, and settled herself into it with a creaking groan. Then she placed her hands on the table and looked me in the eye, waiting.
“How did you know I would be coming?” I asked.
“Because I’ve sensed what I imagine you’ve been sensing,” Xiomara replied. Her features were relaxed except for her eyes, which had a sharpness to them, almost like a bird.
“What I’ve been…”
“You have an energy attached to you,mija. But you know that.”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
Xiomara nodded solemnly in return. She didn’t ask me who I was talking about.
“She came to you.”
I nodded again.
“In a dream.”
It hadn’t really sounded like a question, so it felt strange to contradict her. “The first time, I thought it might have been. I thought I imagined it. But then I saw her again during the day, and I knew it couldn’t be a dream.”
Xiomara’s eyebrows shot up. “You saw her?”
“Yes.”
“How did she appear to you? Can you describe it?” The urgency in her voice made me edgy, but I answered truthfully.
“She looked… solid. Alive. If I hadn’t already known she was dead, I would have thought she was really standing there, waiting for me. Well, except for her voice.”
“You heard her as well?”
“Yeah, but it didn’t sound like her voice was coming from her. It didn’t sound far away. It sounded like it was coming from… from inside my own head, but also from outside it? Sorry, it’s kind of hard to explain.”
But Xiomara didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding what I was trying to say. In fact, she almost seemed to expect the words, like there was only one correct answer and I was repeating it back to her in class. She nodded along as each word dropped neatly into place. Her expression was grimly satisfied.
“Is that normal?” I asked. “To see or hear a ghost like that?”
Xiomara snorted. “Mija,we don’t traffic in normal here. Now, you said ‘the first time.’ Does that mean you’ve seen her more than once?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Once in the garden at Lightkeep Cottage. And then again, standing in the garden at Shadowkeep. And then, finally, tonight. This time, it was a dream, but the dream took place in my mother’s garden.”
Xiomara grunted in satisfaction. “Asteria was a green witch. It follows that she would manifest in places, not only that she is tied to, but that she can draw power from.”
