Instead, though, it’s Nadia, the big white mug in her hand.
“Here, mija,” she says, and I hold back a wince from her calling me that.My daughter.Most times, I hardly feel like some cousin she’s never met.
Even after that night when I returned from St. Theresa’s withAdam, and my sisters all greeted me crying and shrieking, so much so that we accidentally scared poor Oak, and then Tenn had to go take him on a little walk down Catalina Street to get him to calm down…even after that, things with Nadia returned very quickly to how it had been. Her being gone all the time.
And while it’s better now, with Adam keeping me company, and I’m seeing my sisters more and more…I still don’t like her calling me that. I’m no one’s daughter. That’s how it’s always been.
Even Amá Sonya has been kinder to me. She took me out to brunch at her favorite spot, the spot where she always takes Teal, right in the middle of town. She told the server I was her granddaughter. And sure, she looked around to see who was listening to this scandalous reveal, but it shows me that she wants to be better.
So I take the mug from Nadia, but I don’t say anything. She pulls a sheet of paper around from seemingly nowhere and gives it to me.
“Uh—” I say, rubbing my eyes to read. I nearly drop the paper when the words on it register. I take a big sip of coffee, because maybe I’m reading it all wrong and surely caffeine will help. But nope. Even after that enormous glug, the words have remained unchanged.
“This is the deed to the house,” I say.
She nods. “It is.”
“And it says it’s mine.”
Nadia nods again. “It is. All yours.”
I choke up. My eyes fill with tears. I can’t help it. “Why? But why? You’re not dying, are you?”
Nadia laughs and shakes her head. “No. I’m in good health. But I’m also closer to eighty than seventy, Sky. And I think thishouse belongs to you.” She pauses. “Can’t you feel it? Of all your sisters, you’ve been firmly rooted with this place. Even when you were a spirit, asleep in the woods.” She looks me over, at my jaw still dropped. “Drink your coffee before it gets cold.”
I obey her, taking another long sip. The coffee is perfect—the perfect balance of the raspberry and chocolate flavors, with the bitterness of the dark brew all marrying together. She even put a little bit of whipped cream on top.
After my next sip, I place the mug at my side table. “I—I don’t know what to say, Nadia.”
“Say nothing. Because I’m not done yet.” She nods toward me. “I’m sure you have questions about what you discovered under the church.”
I frown. “Questions? Church? There’s something under the church? What?” Adam and I both agreed that we’d say I found exactly nothing under the church. The story was, I had just gotten locked in the director’s office while looking for Nadia that night. Naturally, I told my sisters the truth, but I didn’t want the cult—whoever they were, wherever they were—to figure out I’d been snooping around.
From the look on Nadia’s face, I’m not doing the best job convincing her I don’t know what she means. “The old gods have told me that one day, you’ll join us.”
I gasp. “Join you?” I lower my voice to a whisper. “So the cult is real?”
Nadia smiles. “It’s not a cult. Not the way you’re thinking.”
“But it’s something. Where you get together with other women and dance naked in the woods? Right? And you have been, for decades and decades? Right?”
Nadia laughs this time, placing a hand on her belly. “You’ll find out. You will.”
I shake my head. “I—hold on. I don’t understand how you’ve been in a cult…or whatever you want to call it…basically our whole lives and somehow we never found out?” Even as a ghost, I only remember Nadia’s grief, and how she started going to the church even more than usual. Granted, I didn’t feel compelled to follow her and watch her pray and whatnot, but surely something…culty…would’ve stood out?
Nadia raises an eyebrow. “You really think a community of brujas wouldn’t have protections in place? Secrecy? Logistical as well as magical ways to keep anyone from finding out?”
I slump back in bed. I mean, I should’ve guessed. I straighten my back once more, though, when a thought occurs to me. “ButIgot into the top-secret underground chamber. That means it wasn’tthatprotected, was it?”
Nadia scoffs. “That’s because you’re destined to join us, and it was time for you to learn. If it had been anyone else, they couldn’t have gotten through.”
I know that’s all she’s going to tell me, so I push down all the questions bubbling up inside me. She gestures behind me, beyond the walls and out there. “Your sisters and their husbands have arrived.” She raises an eyebrow. “Adam’s here, too. Your soon-to-be husband, no?”
Nadia and herknowing. Adam and I aren’t engaged, but…it feels like it will happen sooner or later. And I’m so okay with that, I can’t help but grin, even as I say, “Shit. I’m not dressed yet. What time is the baptism, again?” Sage wasn’t keen on getting Oak baptized at the church, but she decided she wanted to welcome Oak earthside in a better kind of way. We’re going to the Finger Lakes to bless his head with lake water, and then we’re having a cookout and celebrating his beautiful new life. Me, Adam, Teal, Carter, and Sage and Tenn. Nadia declined, naturally,blaming her knees. Amá Sonya thinks beach cookouts are for plebeians. But that’s okay. With the seven of us, it will still be awesome.
“They’re early. Don’t stress out.” She stands. “You know, once I’m gone, there is plenty of room for them and all their families here at your home.” She nods toward the deed in my hand. “I always thought you sisters were at your happiest when you were together.”
With that, Nadia leaves. And I think, maybe in this way—I clutch the deed tighter in my hands—I do have a mother figure. Not someone who would make sure to have meals with me and just hang out while watchingGilmore Girlssurrounded by bowls of junk food. But someone who checks that I’m safe at a quarter till midnight every night. Someone who gives me a whole flipping house because she senses this house loves me as much as I love it. And someone who makes room for the maybe of one day, my sisters rejoining me here with their families.
