Chapter Twenty-Nine
I burst from the forest, weaving through the homes in the Landing, heading straight for the Gathering Tree. My desperation intensified knowing Nana Ama had beaten me back, and they had gotten to Hailey before I could and were taking Hailey to her.
The ring of the lighted torches creating a square of illumination to cast off the darkness.
The crowd huddled around the front with the tree looming above everyone.
I searched for signs of Hailey or Sekou, but I couldn’t see either, assuming that they were at the front of the standing bodies, craning for a good view of the spectacle happening up front.
With each passing moment, my anxiety grew.
I started toward the front, but stopped when I looked down and saw the blood on my skin and clothes.
They may know what Nana Ama and I were and swore to hide our secret, but they’d never seen those versions of us, the firefly traveling the night or the full-form being we could become—neither of which I could become because I had yet to Light.
Even though the Kinfolk knew, I still didn’t want them to see me bloody.
Taking a pitcher of water from off a table of trays of emptied serving dishes of food, I washed my hands and face and brushed off my skirt as best as I could, hoping nothing would be too noticeable.
There were still specks of blood and smudges of dirt and grass on my clothing, but I was presentable enough.
I hurried through the crowd, people straining on their feet to see what caused the disruption.
They parted for me as I walked through, trying to exude purpose instead of defeat and shame for exposing myself, for my poor decisions, and for my inability to control myself.
My steps slowed as I approached the front and saw what was there.
Normally, there were two chairs and Nyame’s stool at the front beneath the Gathering Tree.
Nana always sat in her wicker chair next to Elder James, or stood when addressing the rest of the Kin.
Though Nana Ama was the leader of the Kin, essentially the “woman king” in Nyame’s absence, she had never sat in the stool of the Sky God, the king of all gods.
It was reserved for him alone and nothing serious enough had warranted her to sit in Nyame’s place.
Until tonight.
When I saw her sitting upright on the stool, her expression stone cold gazing at the expanse of jittery Kin, my blood froze.
Their chorus of thoughts crowded my mind, and I fought to push them out, wishing for my earbuds, which rested at home.
Across the square, Nana Ama’s eyes found me, her anger kept in check with preternatural ability, and followed me as I wound my way forward to accept my fate.
Nana Ama didn’t have to say aloud what she was thinking. Though her face was wiped clear of anything discernible, her entire vibe was clear.
I was in the deepest of shit.
Hailey stood in front of Nana Ama and Elder James. Sekou was positioned near Hailey as her protector or guard, I wasn’t sure, but by the way his jaw tensed, maybe it was the latter.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Nana?”
James was looking at me like I wasn’t much of anything. Hostility and disapproval sloughed off him and onto me. I didn’t know what I’d ever done to him except exist.
I channeled my inner Nana and Sekou too, wiping my expression clean. I wouldn’t give James or anyone who doubted me the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.
Nana Ama inclined her head, indicating that Elder James could begin.
“Your guest was found within the Landing perimeters unaccompanied and in a restricted area of the forest during the festival,” James said, his voice reedy and accusatory. He fixed his bushy-eyebrow-covered eyes on me.
“I told her to stay in her bungalow at Freeman’s.”
“And yet here she stands,” he said.
I didn’t dignify that with a response. We could all see Hailey was there. James just wanted to flex his authority.
Nana Ama regarded me coolly. No special treatment just because I was next in line. I was not above anyone else when it came to reprimands and consequences. And I shouldn’t be.
Hailey was a mess of dirt with the stains from her battle with the island’s foliage, and I guess with me too, standing as evidence of her crime.
Her body was riddled with scratches. I could smell the drying blood, saw the two contact points on her neck, and fought both guilt and thirst as I forced myself to focus elsewhere.
“What were you doing out of your quarters?” James demanded.
Hailey flinched at that question being directed at her, the once cool, dismissive rich girl who lived in the big city of Charleston a thing of the past. She trembled so hard I thought she wouldn’t be able to stay upright for much longer.
“Ada and I … we…” She swallowed again. “We had an argument. I wanted to apologize.”
“By coming to something she told you not to attend?”
She searched for an answer and spoke after a moment. “To apologize.”
I swallowed a groan. Hailey’s argument was weak, even she had to know it.
“And this all-so-important apology couldn’t wait until morning. It was”—he paused for effect, pulling himself to the edge of his chair—“that urgent.”
Hailey thought about it. There was no correct answer.
She whispered, “I thought it was.”
The old man shot from his seat, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.
He implored the crowd. “Do you hear her? She says she thought some trivial argument was so important she had to come out in a place she didn’t know, sneaking around people she only just met, to clear her troubled conscience. ”
Hailey’s face crumpled.
“Your privilege knows no bounds.” He pointed his short staff at her.
It was topped with feather and horsehair, one of the ceremonial artifacts we used during ceremonies.
“She wanted to apologize. She couldn’t wait.
So, she decided to reject the wishes of her host and seek her out to force an apology on Ada, forget this silly little traditional thing we had going on. Isn’t that so, girl?”
“No.” Hailey shook her head fiercely. “It wasn’t like that at all. I just … I just…” Her words failed and she let out a sob. “Please.” Hailey stepped backward into one of the men who stood guard behind her. They surrounded her like she was some kind of real threat. Like she’d run or something.
“Then explain,” James said. “Silence is evidence of your guilt.”
“Or of her fear, Elder James,” I spoke up. “She’s in a place where she doesn’t know anyone.” Hailey was dead wrong, but I’d had enough of his bullying. The crowd around me talked among themselves, surprised I had addressed him in that manner.
Elder James was about to address me when Hailey spoke again.
“I heard the drumming. It was beautiful and I only wanted to see what it was. I only wanted to apologize to Ada for being a—a jerk earlier. I am sorry I didn’t listen to her. I am sorry for disrespecting you and not following your rules. I’ll go home. I won’t say anything about Ada bit—”
She stopped, her hand flying to her neck as she realized she’d said too much.
Dread rose in me. Hailey had cut herself off too late, confirming she’d seen something she shouldn’t when no one really knew she had.
She could have been lost and running aimlessly in the dense forest, trying to find me, for all they knew.
But now Elder James—and Nana Ama—knew for sure that Hailey knew too much.
Even Elder James, usually so smug, was speechless.
The mood was shifting from questioning to decisive action—permanent action. The last time there’d been an outsider who’d seen too much was decades ago. That person never left, their bones claimed by the island and lore among the young of what happened when an enemy came in.
Finally, my grandmother spoke, ending Elder James’s inquisition and display of the little bit of power he wielded as head ceremonial priest and her second-in-command.
“What did you expect to see here, Hailey?” Nana Ama asked, her voice rich, smooth, and velvety with all of her knowledge and experience from a hundred and sixty years’ worth of living.
Nana Ama wasn’t sitting in her wicker chair as usual.
Tonight, she sat on Nyame’s golden stool, preparing to pass judgment on his behalf.
Unlike my golden flecks of failure, her eyes were a deeper iridescent golden hue which I knew was from when she stepped out—feeding somewhere along the coast of the mainland—before I was discovered and thoughtlessly interrupted her and made her rush back early.
I looked away to hide my guilt because she took so little, and so rarely, and I had messed all of that up.
I hadn’t Lighted, because of interruption or fear once again, and I stood before her a failure.
I took a spot near the front of the crowd.
I didn’t go to her because tonight my place was in front of my grandmother, not beside her.
If Sekou knew I was there, he didn’t show it, his face tight with anger, his hands fisted at his side. His jaw tightened and released, then repeated. There was judgment against me and Hailey coming from all angles, even my best friend.
I had fucked up royally.
Sekou wouldn’t look at me. He was like a closed book.
All I wanted to do was go to him and tell him sorry.
If I had only listened to him back in Charleston, if I had heeded his warnings, we wouldn’t be here.
I didn’t need him to say, “I told you so.” The words radiated from his pores and from the way he held his fist so tight I thought it would break.
How would he ever be my confidant like Elder James was to Nana, if I never took what he said into account?
Had Naira said as much the night before she left?
Curiosity and fear rippled through the group as we all waited to see what she would do with this trespasser, and with me.