“I just…” The void in me tightened. “I’m really glad all of you are here. But I wish Charlie was with me. And Oberi. That’s the only thing that would make it better.”
When Elementai died, they took their Familiars with them to the other side. I somewhat felt like the odd one out, being the only Hawkei without one.
“Your spirit will be made whole again,” Grandpa Liwanu said kindly. “Twin flames can never be separated for long.”
Uncle Ezra smacked my arm playfully. “Come on. You’re still not done being shown around, and there’s a lot more to take in.”
I think he was just trying to distract me from Charlie, but I wanted to be distracted, because he wasn’t here right now, so I got up. The three of them led me out of the village, and the dirt path changed into a silver brick road. The trees gave way to the plains again, and I noticed a skyline touching the clouds. They were leading me into some kind of glistening city, which was far off in the distance.
We started to come up on the other side of a hill. “So is this city a Hawkei city, or— OH MY GAWD!!!”
Conversation fell out of my mind, as the sight before me was extraordinary. The most blessed thing I’d ever seen came into view. It was better than the fucking supernova.
It was amall.A goddamn beautiful mall, right smack in the middle of heaven. I was rendered completely speechless. Oh glory hallelujah.
Grandpa Liwanu shrugged, like he didn’t see the big deal. “We don’t need material things here, but you can create or have anything you want, so if you wish—”
I didn’t hear the rest of what he said, because Iranfull speed at the doors. Time didn’t exist here, but I’d just come from earth, and I hadn’t seen the inside of a mall in two damn years. This was my eternal reward. I slammed against the glass doors and peered inside. Ancestors, there were dozens of stores, and lots of different restaurants, and right in the middle of it was a huge spa, right next to a dazzling fountain. People were scheduling spa treatments and getting their nails done right beside designer purse stores and fro-yo stands.
I could get a pedicure. I could spend as much money as I wanted and get as many outfits as I pleased. Ancestors, theshoes. I could buy so many shoes!
… But Charlie wouldn't be here to carry my bags, so was it even worth it?
That weird feeling came over me again, and I had to shove it down, but the empty hole remained. I stepped away from the door and wrapped my arms around my middle.
“Youcango to the mall… later,” Uncle Ezra said. “Right now, you have class.”
“Ugh, I have to go toschoolin heaven, too?” I thought I’d earned the right to be done with it.
“You’re never done learning,” Aunt Stevie said. “None of us are.”
“It’s not your typical school,” Uncle Ezra explained. “It’s a school for you to learn about your life, to go over the lessons you experienced and understand why you went through the things you did.”
So I’d finally get some answers on why my life had been so fucked up.Thatwas going to be nice.
“You can also attend the school to learn how to be a spirit guide, if you so wish. I’ll be one of your teachers, along with your other spirit guides. They’re waiting for you there,” Grandpa Liwanu explained.
I hoped this didn’t take too long, because I was planning on getting a massage, stat. We left the mall (sadly) and started proceeding toward the city again, which is where I assumed the school was.
“Hey, Uncle Ez?” I asked.
“What is it, sweetheart?” he asked. He reached up to pluck a fruit off a nearby tree and started eating it along the path.
“Stevie died nearly a year after you did,” I said. “How did you cope while waiting for her?”
He looked at Aunt Stevie, then reached out to take her hand. “It really wasn’t that long to wait. Time moves differently here. It had been a year on earth, but really, it felt like a few days here, by the time I went back to get her.”
“Charlie and Oberi will arrive soon,” Grandpa said. “Even if they live to be a hundred years, and then pass on, it will only seem like moments to you.”
It might be a short time to me, but to Charlie… it would be anything but. “Is there like, a board or something I can check to see when they’re supposed to die, and how?”
“It’s actually more like a book,” Stevie said. “You’ll get access to it once you complete your orientation.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Am I going to run into Jaymin in there?” It’d be a bitch if I’d blown myself up to get away from her, just to run into her again.
“Oh, no.” Uncle Ezra laughed. “She’s in the bad place. That particular incarnation of herself is, anyhow.”
“It takes a lot to get banished from the Ancestral Lands,” Stevie said with slight disgust. “Jaymin earned it.”
