“You already know, even though you think you don’t,” the old man told me. “But the power is waking in you. Did you ever wonder why it was that you could speak with ghosts? Nizhoni is not a ghost, precisely — not in the way you might think, not like the earthbound spirits who have been your companions since you were a child. But her soul is a restless one, trapped on this plane, the strength of her ill will ensuring that the curse continues, generation after generation. You must convince her that it is time to move on. When her soul ascends, the curse will be broken, since she will no longer exist on this plane.”
Convince her that it is time to move on. His words shook me, because that was exactly what I’d done with Mary Mullen. However, it was one thing to convince sweet Mary, already missing her husband and children, that it was time for her to finally go and join them, and quite another to do the same thing with this Nizhoni, whose hurt and anger and sorrow had fueled a curse that had lasted for many generations. Also, Mary had always come to me; I’d never been forced to seek her out.
“Okay,” I said at length. “I suppose that makes some sense. Any idea where this Nizhoni might be hanging out so we can have a chat?”
At my question, my father shook his head, and Lawrence let out a rusty chuckle. “Angela, you know it is not that easy. She is not haunting any one place, but rather is all around us.”
“Well, unless you can tell me how to pin her down somehow, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to make this work. I’m used to dealing with regular garden-variety ghosts. They all have their particular haunts, so to speak.”
Apparently unperturbed, the old man responded, “Soon the time will come when the veil between the worlds will thin, and you will use the power of the longest day to give you the strength to approach her on her own ground.”
By “longest day,” I had to assume he meant the solstice, now less than two weeks away. I opened my mouth to confirm this, but he had already moved on, saying,
“Not only is it the solstice, but it is also a new moon. Many years will pass before such a combination comes again. In the time of the dark moon, you will meet with Nizhoni, and use your powers to convince her to move on to the next world. This is what I have seen, and what I know will come to pass.”
It must be nice to have that kind of confidence. Personally, I wasn’t feeling it, but I couldn’t deny the potent combination of the summer solstice, with its power of the light, joining with a new moon and its shadowy strength. Would it be enough to propel me into the dark world of the spirits, to the place where Nizhoni’s tormented soul had wandered all these years?
Instinctively, my hand moved to my belly, as if to protect the two tiny souls that lived within me and who depended on me for everything. What would happen to them if I failed, if somehow I remained imprisoned in the same limbo that had trapped Nizhoni for more than a century?
“Yes, you risk much,” Lawrence said, apparently catching my gesture. “But the reward will be all the greater — that you will be here to see these two grow up, and the ones to come after them. No longer will the Wilcox clan experience grief at imminent death mingled with the joy of knowing a new primus has been born to them. It is a time for healing. You have already begun it, with this mingling of McAllister and Wilcox. Yes, the blood of those two clans was joined in you as well, but this is different. This is no secret, but an open bond between the prima of the McAllisters and the primus of the Wilcox. To you, progress may still feel slow, but sometimes it is the tiniest of breaches that bring a great dam tumbling down.”
I didn’t bother to ask how he knew the struggles I’d been facing, trying to convince my clan that things would be very different from now on. True, the McAllisters didn’t have a seer, but I’d seen Marie’s powers in this area, and Lawrence’s seemed to be even greater than hers. Clearly he knew what had been happening in my own world. For all I knew, he’d been watching over me for years, relaying that information to my father so at least he’d know I was well, and thriving.
“Yeah, it’s easy for you to ask her to risk her life and that of her unborn children,” Connor snapped. His green eyes were narrowed, and I could tell by the way his fingers were clutching the edge of the worn leather sofa that he was doing so to keep himself from launching right off that couch and getting in the old man’s face. “You get to sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens. But you’re asking too much of her.”
“Of course your instinct is to protect her. This is good. But would you really prevent her from making the attempt when you know it is the only thing that will guarantee you two can grow old together? Don’t let fear rule you, Connor Wilcox, as that same fear can only lead to you stopping Angela from doing this…which means you will be looking for a new mother for your children in a year or two.”