“Emptiness?”
It was just… nothing. Silent. No sky, no ground, nothing except me and the birdbath and…”
“And?”
“And Asteria. At least… I think it was her.”
“You’re not sure?” Xiomara pressed, scowling ferociously.
“She wasn’t facing me. It looked like her from the back. But when I saw her face she…” I swallowed hard, and suddenly I was fighting the urge tocry.
“Go on,” Xiomara urged, her voice much gentler than usual.
“Her face… it was just … gone. Like everything else that had disappeared. She had no features, just a smooth blankness.”
Xiomara tried to control her face, but I didn’t miss the spasm of horror that rippled over her features. She composed it almost at once. “I see. Go on.”
“Her voice sounded very far away, and she still seemed confused, like the last time we spoke to her. She told me the Source is in danger, and that we have to protect it, and…”
I swallowed hard against a lump in my throat. A tiny sound escaped me, something between a whimper and a sob, and Xiomara tightened her grip on my hand.
“You can tell me,mija. It’s all right.”
“That’s it though, I… don’t think it is all right. Asteria said that it was dark and ‘they’ were lost and that ‘all of us were trapped.’ But she was alone, Xiomara. So who’s ‘they’ and ‘us’?”
Xiomara did not answer right away. Her brow was furrowed in concentration as she mulled over what I had just said to her. Within her grip, my fingers were starting to go numb.
“Your grandmother is troubled, that much is clear. She is also disoriented—something has happened that has confused and frightened her. She ought to know you,mija, but it seems she doesn’t even know herself.”
“But why?”
“I cannot say. I wish I could.”
“Who is it she’s trapped with?” I asked. “Is she talking about us? Is this a warning, like we’ve all been trapped somehow?”
“I do not think so. Remember child, your grandmother is not of this living world anymore. She is no longer a part of ‘we’ here on this plane.”
A realization clicked into place. “Your spirit guides… you haven’t been able to reach them.”
“No.”
“Do you think… when she says ‘we’… could she be talking about other spirits?”
“I cannot say for sure. But I think it is a very real possibility.”
“What about the Source? Why did she say it was in danger?”
Xiomara pressed her lips together contemplatively. “It seems to me that she could be speaking of the dangers we already know.”
“You mean the Kildare coven?”
“I do. You said Asteria was with you that day, under the Playhouse. She spoke to you, even warned you in a crucial moment. Is that right?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. It had been Asteria’s voice that had kept me calm in those moments, that had encouraged me not to give in to Veronica’s demands.
“And she displayed none of the confusion she seems wrapped in now, is that so?”
“Yes.”
