Chapter 46 #2
“My power is yours to take if you let my mother leave with me,” I whispered my assent, and the buzzing receded. This was our chance. I reached for the specter, and this time it didn’t pull away.
The tatters were like a cold breeze blowing over my fingers. I could sense but not touch them. “How can I take her if I can’t touch her?”
“You have to grab her heart,” Ranth whispered in my head. The flickering silver flashed in front of me and then disappeared again in the folds of darkness.
I darted forward to reach the flash, but two times I failed. The third time, my fingers grabbed the cold silver heart which had the weight of origami paper.
“Your power now, witch.”
“You can have what you deserve,” I shouted, crushing the leaf in my other hand and screaming the power words at them.
Shrieks from the Sisters knifed through me, shredding me from the inside.
Blood trickled from my nose, but I kept chanting the power words with the leaf pressed flat against one palm. The outline of a frozen heart seared into my hand. I was not letting Mom go.
My throat was raw as I repeated the words over and over. The energy from the leaf was almost gone.
With a silver flash, the cave darkened and then dropped away. Ranth’s hand gripped my shoulder as my insides sloshed, and my head throbbed. When my vision cleared, there was blue sky.
The Garden.
Ranth’s hand left my shoulder, and my teeth chattered.
“You can let go. Your mother can’t escape here, and the Sisters cannot reach her.”
With the trust of someone who has just rescued their mother from death, I let go of the burning silver heart. I sank to the ground, wrapping my arms around myself as the specter twirled upwards, then whipped away toward the shadows of the trees.
“Mom!” I yelled, about to race after her into the trees, but Ranth pulled me back.
His touch sent waves of warmth through me. “Wait, let her go for now.”
The voice boomed. “What have you done?”
Ranth replied, “We have brought a soul who requires rescue. She was taken by the Tene to another world, and her death does not meet the laws.”
The voice boomed again. “She should not be here.”
I straightened up. “But she is here. Expel her back to her original place and form.”
This time the boom echoed in my head and dissipated, as if it were leaving us. “I cannot. She is no longer of that world nor this one. She must return to the Tene.”
“Nooooo! I bargained for her. You need to make her whole again and send her home with me. That was what you promised.”
From a distance, the voice carried. “We did not make any promise. She is past return.”
“Sorrel?” My mom’s voice sent shivers down my spine.
I turned and blinked, not believing as my mother, with her gorgeous long, brown hair and huge, green eyes, walked out of the forest toward us.
I ran to her and threw myself into her arms. Warmed resin, rosemary, and champaca flowers flooded my senses.
She smelled like home, like Mom. I sobbed against her chest as she stroked my head.
“Let’s go home,” I said, pulling back from her. I met her eyes, huge and green, with heavy lashes.
“Home? Yes. We can go home and sit in the garden. Antimony will be waiting. How I’ve missed her. Is the Lady Banks rose blooming or the clematis?”
“The Lady Banks is just starting. The garden is full of the scent.” Tears poured down my face. I couldn’t tell her the garden was ruined, and the house was burned. We could rebuild it together when we got home. Home was here, or there, or wherever she was.
“Oh sweetheart, how I’ve missed you.” Her hand grazing my shoulder ripped me apart.
I laced my fingers through her fine-boned ones. Fingers I knew from my first day. “I missed you so much, Mom.” My voice was cracks and bumps. My mother’s skin pulsed under my touch as if I had found part of me again.
Her other hand cradled my cheek, but her gaze swept over my shoulder, and I turned.
Ranth’s jaw was tight and his stance rigid as if he were rooted to the ground.
“How do we get home now?” I asked Ranth.
“Come on,” I said, tugging Mom forward. “It’s time to go.”
Ranth shook his head, and tears streaked his cheeks. “She can’t go back.”
“What are you talking about? That was the plan the whole time.”
“I’m sorry, Sorrel. She can’t return as she was. She’s dead to your world. Bringing her out of the Sisters’ caves did not change that her life has passed.”
“She’s alive. Look at her.” I raised my voice, as if that would make a difference.
“She’s alive here. That is the power of the Trees.”
I hugged Mom. She felt so real and warm, like home. “Then the Trees can grant that. Technically, you were dead here, and you were alive in our world. She can be like you were.”
“It’s not the same. I was cursed, and my power came from the Trees. I was born to be in the Garden and to take care of it. Your mother does not have a place here. She can’t stay.”
I turned away from Mom. “If she’s dead, then what now…” My voice wavered.
“She can pass through to the place of rest and prepare for rebirth if she passes the tests.” Ranth’s voice wasn’t his again.
I turned away and buried my face in the indigo shibori dress Mom had been buried in. Her favorite. I choked remembering the funeral where I could barely breathe. “I need you. You can’t leave me. You have to come back.” Tears soaked the fabric.
“Sunshine, no more crying. You did way more than any mother could imagine a daughter would do. You literally crossed worlds to save me. The love is so deep in you. I am so incredibly proud of you. But your friend is right. This is no longer my time, and my place is no longer with you. I must go to our ancestors and beat their drums and dance with them. I want to dance now. I want to see my Mother and Father.” She covered my heart with her hand, and I covered it with both of mine.
“But Mom, I need you. There’s so much I don’t know, so much you can still teach me. We can stay here in the garden, together.”
“My sunshine. I have experienced the greatest joy watching you grow into the amazing woman you are. The world is your teacher, and you only need what’s inside of you.
I will always be here in your heart. I cannot stay here, and you must go back.
There is so much more of your life to live.
” She trailed her fingers over my moon pendant, then gently pushed me back.
The garden was a blur of green as I covered her hand with mine.
My chest felt rocks were piled on it. “NO. There must be a way.” I tore out of her grasp and launched myself at Ranth, shoving him with both hands.
“You can make this happen. Stick your hands in the ground and ask the Trees or the Serpent to fix this. Or let us stay here and live with you. Fix this!”
Ranth grabbed my wrists as I fought against him.
His voice was a soft caress. “I cannot. Asking will not change it. You know this in your heart. Accept it or it will destroy you.”
I stopped struggling. “Like the whispers,” I thought.
He answered, “Yes,” in my head as he pulled me against his chest. I breathed in his scent, his skin silky under my cheek.
I did know this.
My mother could not return to life. Her time on earth had passed. Sparing her from an eternity with the Sisters was the best I could do.
Ranth’s hands smoothed down my back to my waist, and he whispered into my hair, “You can do more. You can prevent the Sisters from hunting on your world.”
I leaned into him. “What do you mean? How can I do that?”
“In your time, there is a tablet. With it, you can close the portals, and the demons won’t be able to pass back through the other worlds. That includes the Sisters.”
“Where is it?”
“I can only tell you what it looks like and where it was last.”
Images of Egypt flickered through my head.
I blinked. “The Queen’s Tomb? Wasn’t that lost?”
“The location given was not the right one, so thieves would not find it and ravish it.”
“But someone must have known?”
“All who were part of it were entombed, and the ones who did the deed, sacrificed. The location was kept hidden even from the royal chamberlain who oversaw it.”
“You’re telling me you know where it is?”
“I’m telling you I know where the tablet should be.”
“That’s not exactly an address. If no one knows where the tomb is hidden, that’s an impossible task.”
“It’s all I have. If you can get that, then you can block the Sisters. Until then…”
“Yeah, I know, I have a job. Got it.” I looked at my mom longingly. She stared at the clouds that weren’t really there. “What will happen…” I couldn’t say it.
“She will move forward with her journey.”
I choked back a sob. This would be the last time I would see her—ever. I ran back to her. She enveloped me in her arms. Her familiar scent intensified as if impressing on my memory.
“Sunshine, it’s okay. I accept my new phase, as you must too. I believe in you. Go be the witch you desire to be.”
“Your book, the one you gave Bud. Why do I have to wait until I’m twenty-five?”
“Twenty-five is a special time for our family. I wish I could be there for you, but I know you will be the witch your grandmother dreamed of. Your ancestors are with you, my dear heart.” She was crying now too.
I nodded against her, sobbing, unable to speak.
“Sorrel, the time is running out. You promised…” Ranth’s delicate whisper inside my head was like an itch I couldn’t ignore.
“Come with me. We’ll find a way.” I pulled back from my mother and looked around for him.
“I cannot. I must stay.”
Ranth wasn’t anywhere I could see. When I turned back to my mother, she was gone.
“Mom? Ranth?” I ran into the trees.
“She is gone, Sorrel.” It was Ranth’s voice, but he wasn’t there.
I stopped. “Where are you!” I screamed.
You promised me.
I bent over sucking in breaths. I had to go; I was literally dying. People waiting for me. People I loved and couldn’t abandon.
Mom was gone forever, and I had to go back. But I didn’t want to leave Ranth.
“This time, things are beyond your choice. You cannot stay here. You do not belong here. But when you look to the stars, remember you will always shine in my heart.”
Ranth’s words echoed in the distance.
“Noooo. I don’t want to leave you!” I ran into the trees, desperate to find him as the light began to fade.