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“What’s the matter?” Tei asks.
I point to the ghost. “Do we have time to help them?”
A gentle smile spreads on Tei’s lips. “Of course, little gem.”
I start making my way toward them. Tei and Marta exchange a glance right before Tei’s warm fingers wrap around my arm and hold me back.
“Let me do it,” Marta says.
“You don’t have to —” I try to counter, but Marta cuts me off.
“I want to. I haven’t done it nearly enough in my life, and it’s time I start making up for it.”
Tei and I stay a few steps back as Marta approaches the ghost, who’s a flighty little thing. As it’s usually the case with cemetery ghosts, it’s a newly departed soul, and they tend to be more scared and disoriented than ghosts that have hung around for a while. But Marta handles it well. She’s patient, speaking softly, and she helps the ghost talk through the reasons why they’re holding on and realize they won’t be able to find a resolution to those concerns in the limbo they’re in.
I see the moment the ghost lets go, as the baggage that kept them tethered releases and they become ready for flight. When they cross over, Marta picks up the marble that’s left behind.
“Eat it,” I say. “It’ll feel good. It’s a nice boost of power.”
She exchanges another glance with Tei, who nods so subtly I’m not even sure it’s an actual movement. Then she swallows the marble, sucking in a breath when it slides down her throat.
Tei scoffs. “And you witches think shepherding souls is so beneath you these days.”
Marta waves a hand in the air. “Point taken, Acuran. We’ve forgotten our ways. Come, let’s keep going.”
We make it to the mausoleum, and Marta is the one to prickle her finger to let the three of us in. We pass the niched wall and step all the way into the center of the marble room, where the four sarcophagi sit. Instinctively, I reach for Raquela, running a finger over her marble cheek.
“Hello, great-grandmother,” I whisper. It hadn’t dawned on me until now that all the witches in this room will be in the Beyond. I can meet my entire family, generations past. That thought makes death just a touch less bitter.
Marta takes her place in front of Ginebra’s grave, our great-great-grandmother and last common shared ancestor. Slinging her crossbody bag to the floor, she pulls candles from it and places them on each corner of the sarcophagus, with one in the very center, right on Ginebra’s chest. With her hands there, it looks as if she’s holding it. With a piece of red string, she connects the four corners, then each of them to the center candle. My cousin hasn’t exactly explained to me what it is we are doing here today, other than the fact that this is an All Soul’s Day tradition that has something to do with giving thanks, or maybe it was offering respects, to our elders who have passed.
After lighting each candle, she goes to stand at the head of the sarcophagus, right over Ginebra’s face. She places one last object right above the center candle — is that… wait, is that a dragon key?
Marta closes her eyes, stretching her arms over the circle of fire. “Entre boires i ombres, l’essència flueix, un regal celestial que em commou l’ànima, del més enllà, una connexió sorgeix.”
My eyebrows pull low over my eyes. She’s reciting a spell, something about a gift from the Beyond? That’s… not what I was expecting. I turn to Tei, who watches Marta with his jaw clenched so tight he looks like he might chip a tooth.
Laying a hand on his forearm, I lean in close. “What is going on? Have you ever heard this spell before?”
All I get is a mumble of assent.
Marta continues chanting. “Amb humilitat, l’ofrena arriba a la meva palma, llampant el cor amb llum divina, un pont s’entreteixe amb aquesta calma.”
“And what is it? She said we were here to give thanks.”
Tei’s entire focus is on the ritual. His fists are clenched tightly, making the muscles in his forearms cord. “That’s… not quite it.”
“Not quite it?” I scream-whisper. “Teizel, tell me what’s going on, right now.”
The Prince of the Beyond is completely unfazed by my order. His sole focus are Marta’s hands, which are currently being enveloped by the flames of the central candle.
I yelp and jump forward. Tei’s arms are around my waist in a second, holding me firmly against his chest. “She’s fine. Don’t distract her.”
“What is she doing?”
But I don’t get an answer. All I get to do, held completely immobile in my monster’s grasp, is watch as the flames turn a deep shade of onyx. Once they subside, the candle is no more. In its place, right on top of Ginebra’s hands, is a pitch-black leather bound book decorated with small star-shaped bright red gems.
Marta staggers back, obviously spent by the amount of energy the spellwork demanded of her.
