Chapter One
Lilith
Four cups of coffee brought no relief. The dream clung to Lilith like a cobweb, the odor of smoke lingering despite the humid
July morning air. She perched on the bottom step of her back porch and pulled in a deep breath to clear the phantom smell.
The dream always left her disoriented and weighted with an ache over her mother whose death had changed everything.
The sun’s brilliance hummed within Lilith before the golden light filtered through layers of draped Spanish moss to splash
across the lawn. Beneath her feet, the earth vibrated with life and vitality.
She’d always been sensitive to the rhythm of the moon and the sun as day blossomed and then rolled back into night. Never
with such intensity as now though. Not until Mama’s death only months before.
Guilt tugged at Lilith. Mama had never been kind, not even when Lilith dropped out of college to care for her. Still, she had expected grief.
Instead, there was only that heaviness in her chest and something she hated to name.
Relief.
After four years of cancer eating away at her mother, after her meanness curdled into cruelty, after Lilith’s self-confidence
had been whittled to nothing, Mama had finally died.
That’s when the strange happenings began.
Frustration crowded Lilith’s thoughts and the clouds swelled overhead, blotting out the sun.
As soon as the life sighed out of Mama, something snapped inside Lilith, a cracking dam that sent a current of energy roaring
through her veins, amplifying everything in nature. Suddenly animals followed her in adoration, plants stretched toward her
as she passed, and the earth’s pulse thrummed in an ever-present lyrical tune just for her.
Lilith pulled in another breath, forcing her clenched muscles to loosen. The clouds overhead broke apart.
The rest of the world had become amplified as well. The sun imbued her with vigor, and the moon gave her strength. The breeze
whispered in her ear, guiding her in a way she could understand, but couldn’t explain.
That had been three months ago.
The same time the nightmares had started.
A shiver squeezed down Lilith’s spine despite the muggy heat. Her gaze wandered to the honeysuckle, the hardy wooden vines
coiled tightly around the fence sending tendrils threading through the garden, lush with healthy green leaves and bristling
with brilliant red flowers. It hadn’t always looked that way.
Her heartbeat spiked.
A thrill. A jab of curiosity.
A needling of fear.
All this weirdness creeped her out. Nature stalked her, injecting itself into her every thought, every breath.
Why couldn’t she just have her quiet life back and be boringly normal again?
The rattling of her phone on the painted boards next to her drew her attention.
A text showed on the screen from Essie: Amara’s already up. Did I ever sleep in before motherhood?
Lilith snorted and tapped back a reply. You’ve always been too much of a go-getter to sleep in.
Essie: What a waste. I want those mornings back.
A smile pulled at Lilith’s lips. Her best friend could never not be a go-getter. She’d even tried to get the elementary school
to have a student counsel when they were in second grade, launching a one-person campaign that had been vastly ignored by
the administration and their fellow students alike.
Lilith’s fingers flew over her phone screen: Coming to story hour?
Essie: We wouldn’t miss it!
Lilith’s job at Shelver’s Books was a great opportunity to see Essie and Amara regularly despite their packed schedule. Lilith
set her phone aside and the smile melted from her face.
A soft breeze swept behind her. A distinct nudge toward the honeysuckle.
With a sigh, she pushed to standing and strode over dew-damp grass that prickled against her feet. Memories of the dream flooded
back, a reminder of how the splintered wood stabbed against her soles.
The heady fragrance of the honeysuckle mingled with the redolent notes of smoke. The vines quivered as she approached.
As though excited she was near.
But that was ridiculous, right?
Just like the plant itself, being so unnaturally wild and healthy.
The honeysuckle had been a nub of a thing for almost two decades, since Mama hacked it down to the roots when Lilith was a
girl. When Lilith had claimed the plant had stretched itself toward her.
The sad remnants of vine remained in the backyard, a memory of its former glory, like a Christmas tree tucked away after the
holidays. But after Mama’s death, after the hum of the earth filled Lilith’s veins, vines had regrown overnight, scaling the
fence and pushing out beyond the barrier of the garden.
Her head ached, exhaustion blunting any logical explanation of how the plant could have grown again after all these years.
She reached for a leaf and the vine stretched to her fingertips; red flowers sprouted outward like a series of small fireworks.
Her hand jerked back and an icy breeze lanced through the thick humidity.
The hair on her arms stood on end.
Plants grew all the time.
Not like that though. Not that fast.
Surely, she hadn’t imagined that the plant had just grown toward her.
Like when she’d been a little girl. Back when Mama said there was no such thing as magic, that Lilith was being foolish.
But if she was a fool, why had she suddenly been cursed with all this…strangeness?
And why did she feel like the world and that dream were trying to tell her something?