Colby nods her head and offers me a watery smile as she wipes her eyes. “Thank you,” she tells me, raw emotion and gratitude pouring out of her. “I’ve been floating in this abyss of fucked up shit since they found her body. The Order said it was a robbery but could never tell me what was stolen. Everything has felt off about her case from the beginning. I’ve been slowly sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but then I thought maybe I need to let this go. It could be just a fluke horrible thing and I’m holding on for nothing,” she admits.
I want to wrap her up in a hug, but that’s not what she needs. It won’t help her navigate the difficulties she’s going to face.
“I get it,” I start, my smile empathetic. “But here’s the thing, Colby, if you don’t learn to trust the voice inside of you, trust the things you feel, the instincts that scream for your attention, then this hunt for justicewillget you killed. Diem never saw it coming, but you won’t be so lucky. It will be vicious and painful unless you really trust yourself and let your heart guide you. It knows the way, but you have to be valiant enough to follow it,” I warn, but the bones tell me more, and it seems my inner positive Pollyanna isn’t quite done. “This will be dangerous and at times feel insurmountable. It will harden you, play on your mistrust, and occasionally bring you to your knees. But the answers you find will change everything for you. The life you deserve will fall into place because of this.”
I fill each word with hard love and driven purpose, hoping it will work to help hold her together to drive home what she needs to do and the only way she’ll succeed. Colby stares off in the distance for a moment, contemplating what I’m saying to her, and I can practically hear the debate in her heart as it settles into a fortified decision.
“Diem says to begin with her cases, that’s where she would start. She wishes she could be of more help, but she has no idea why someone would want to kill her, just that they did and the reasons are important.”
“Is she okay? You know, where she’s at?” Colby asks me softly after a moment.
My smile turns sad, wistful, as Diem’s reply fills my mind. “You know, she’ll never be okay until you are,” I answer honestly, touched by the bond these two witches have.
I expect Colby to break at some point with all these heavy revelations. I know I’d be a hot mess, crying and snotting all over the place if I were in her shoes. I can see how hard she’s working to keep it together, but I’ve clearly underestimated her strength.
She hardens in front of me, wrapping herself up in her loss and pain until they’re an impenetrable suit of armor. I know one day she’ll take it off. That she’ll breathe easier as the weight of all she’s been through falls from her shoulders. But today isn’t that day. Today isn’t the end of this brutal journey of heartache and hurt. Today...is the start of it.
I lean back, letting everything I’ve said settle between us, giving her time to really think through our exchange and the messages I just shoved her way. I scan the bones again, looking for anything that I might have missed. There’s no financial guides. Nothing pointing to relationships, other than small indicators that romantic love will come in time, and only then if she’ll open herself up to it. But none of that feels relevant to the crossroads it seems she’s at.
I know the bones and the path in front of Colby won’t ease her suffering or help her find peace, at least not at first. Acceptance, understanding, solace, all of that will be a choice for her, one that will come much further down the road. It’s not theeverything will get better, and this is howkind of reading I’ve had before. And yet, as I study the witch across from me, I don’t regret giving her this message. If she’s brave enough to listen to her instincts, she’ll find happiness, and it will be worth all the hardships she’ll go through to find it.
A fragile tranquility rises up around me, keeping me from saying more to Colby. The silence stretching on between us tempts me to lay more information at her feet, but Diem and the bones reassure me that it’s not needed, that this exchange was always meant to be brief but profound.
“How are you doing? Regret saying yes to a reading yet?” I ask with a concerned but teasing tone.
Colby offers me a large smile and shakes her head. “No, never. It’s exactly what I needed,” she assures me.
Relief washes through me, and I feel a little less awkward about the intensity of everything that just happened. “Do you have any questions? Anything you want me to look at more?” I ask, knowing I need to wrap things up but not knowing the best way to do that. I just chucked a lot at her and yelled catch. I can’t just wish her luck with everything and duck out.
Colby studies the moonstone earring as though it’s whispering things only she can hear. Or maybe she’s just in shock; I doubt she expected an Osteomancer to approach her on her lunch break, declare the presence of her dead best friend, and then spew a bunch of meme-worthy Disney-level shit about trusting who you are and following your heart. That could take anyone for a ride towhat the fuck-ville.
A couple blinks later, Colby’s green-brown gaze meets mine again. “No. I don’t know how to thank you for this,” she starts, gesturing to the bones and us sitting together at the picnic table. I wave her away awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.
“I’m just a bone messenger,” I reassure her and then cringe. “Well, that sounded dirtier than it did in my head,” I admit with a chuckle.
Ugh, and I was doing so well. Bone messenger? That sounds like a creepy escort service.
Colby laughs, her smile is wide and her burden just a little lighter, and Diem gets brighter with appreciation. I reach over to the borrowed totem, rotating the bone bangle in my hand until it clicks into the right position for what I feel driven to do. I close my eyes, focusing on the bracelet, and call on my magic to braid protections into its very essence. This offering is different from the one I bestowed on Theresa in my aunt’s damaged foyer. This isn’t just my line of magic blessing her and offering its appreciation, thisis all magic at its purest working to safeguard the wearer. I don’t know how I know that or how I could have access to more than just my line, but I don’t think twice as I create a shield for Colby, one that she desperately needs.
The bangle heats in my hands and starts to change. I open my eyes and witness as it goes from rare and priceless bone relic to simple, delicate, gold-chain bracelet. I blink a couple times as I stare down at the now innocuous looking piece of jewelry. In my hands, I can still feel the weight of the bone, still run my finger over the intricate carvings, but my eyes now tell me that none of that exists. The truth of it is camouflaged, and it feels like a perfect totem for what Colby’s about to take on.
“This is for you,” I offer, extending my hands and the tiny gold chain pinched between my fingers and thumbs. Colby looks surprised but doesn’t hesitate to lift her arm and proffer her wrist. I slip the bone bracelet disguised as a chain down her hand, like I would a bangle, and her eyes widen as she feels the truth of the illusion now around her wrist. “When it’s served its purpose, it will fall off,” I tell her cryptically, handing her the pin and the moonstone earring too. Her reverent stare is filled with questions, but she simply nods once, closes her fist around her precious items, and then returns her hand to her lap.
I look over to see if Diem has anything else she’d like to communicate, but the ghost is gone. I look around for her, just in case she moved or something, but I don’t see her anywhere.
“She just left, didn’t she?” Colby asks me, an amused smile on her face. “She used to do that shit all the time, no goodbyes, just there one minute and gone the next. Worst wing-woman ever,” she tells me playfully as she pushes up from the table.
I chuckle and stand up too. For a few seconds, we stand across from each other, two soldiers who have seen some shit and are forever bonded even though we’re strangers. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again or know the details of what she’ll discover, but I’m okay with that. She holds her arm out, and I reach out and grab her forearm. Reassurance and peace move through me as we shake, and I can tell by the look on her face that she feels it too. I give her a nod of recognition and understanding, and she returns the gesture, hers filled with gratitude and respect. And then just like that, we drop our arms, and she walks away.
Her steps are quick and obdurate, and I send all theyou got this, girlvibes I can, trailing after her in her wake. Just like with Paul, I know I’ll never forget this moment, that it changed me for the better, and that I can learn from the messages meant for others too. I smile, a flicker of pride moving through me as I start to pick up bones and place them gently back in the pouch. I once again thank them for what they’ve done here today, and promise to honor each and every one of them until long after my magic has passed to the next in line.
No one says anything to me as I pack up the bones and head back toward the building, done with my outside adventure for the day. Silence wraps protectively around me, and I can feel a subtle change as my guards move assuredly to get me safely where I need to go. Somehow, I’m not as much of an outsider as I was before, like my nuisance factor has been severely reduced. It’s an odd feeling that comes over me as we all walk in tandem, but I think it’s the first time I’ve felt as though I’ve risen in their general estimation. That I’m less something they’ve been assigned to watch over and more someone deserving of protection.
I pat the bones once again tied to my hip and thank my ancestors for guiding the way. Maybe things here will start to feel a lot less lonely and I’ll stop feeling like I don’t belong. I look around at the men and women potentially putting themselves in harm’s way for me. I could get on board with this wholeeverything happens for a reasontheory. I just wish I could figure this one out.
7
Something shines in my eyes, and I shrink away from it. It’s too damn early for someone to be fucking around with a flashlight. I attempt to shut my sudden awareness down and go back to sleep, but warning skitters its way up my spine, and suddenly I’m wide awake. I open my eyes, assessing silently what’s setting me off, but it’s pitch black in my room, and I can’t make anything out.
