Page 115 of Anywhere

“Aye, da power be growin’ in a way dat I feel in me chest.”

“Okay, are you scared? Because I can find someone for you to talk to.” Her face pulled into a worried frown.

“Naw, da spirits dinne scare me. I wanna know if ya wanna speak ta ya ma again?” I asked.

I’d never tried to awaken and summon a spirit to the surface, but I wanted to do this for Mari.

“You can do that? You can let me speak to her?” She asked her eyes shining with excitement.

“Aye, I tink I can for a short time.” I laid my hand on the statue, feeling the presence of the spirit that lingered. I waited for Mari to say if this was what she wanted.

“Then yes, please. Whatever you can give me, I will happily take.”

“Da only ting is I dinnie want a bunch a people knowin’ dis be sometin’ I’z able ta do. Do ya understand?” I felt a little guilty leaving out her sister and da, but it wasn’t something I was comfortable with them knowing yet.

“Yes, I understand a little something about secrets,” she said and winked. “Yours is safe with me.” She clasped her hands and smiled.

Turning to the statue, I called the power but thought about the spirit and asked her to come forward from her slumber. The power tingled in my fingertips before it sank into the shiny white stone. People thought the dead didn’t need sleep, but that wasn’t true. They just didn’t rest like the living did. At least, that is what some of them had whispered in my ear.

Wisps of smoke began to rise from the grass around the statue. She could’ve been anywhere, but it felt like she was rising toward me from beneath the statue. It took time to make the image of Mari’s ma clear in my mind. As she took shape behind my eyes, she slowly formed in front of me. The air around me shimmered as the woman in the white dress appeared, her face confused as to why she’d suddenly been summoned.

Mari gasped, and her wide-eyed expression told me she saw her ma. Her eyes filled with tears as her ma looked at her.

“Mari? Can ya see me?” her ma asked, the voice as light and airy as the spirit herself.

“Dear spirits, it really is you?” Mari said, tears streaming from her eyes. They reached out, but their hands slipped through each other.

“I’za sorry, I cannie make ya be able ta touch her. Dat is beyond me ability. Maybe as I git stronger, but dis took a lot ta do,” I said, and both women looked at me.

“You’ve done more than I ever could’ve imagined. Thank you,” Mari said, her eyes finding her ma again. To give the two women some privacy, I moved to the little bench not far away. If I moved too far away, the connection would be lost, and the image of Mari’s ma would fade.

My body suddenly began to warm again. More intense this time, like a fire had been lit in the pit of my stomach. Wiping my forehead with the back of my hand, I looked at the dampness and wondered why I was getting so hot when it was so cool out. My heart felt like a small rabbit racing around inside my chest. Fanning myself still wasn’t enough. I pulled on the front of the dress to relieve the heat coming from within.

I worried that I was coming down with an illness when I felt the inside of my thighs become very wet. It wasn’t that time in the moon cycle. So it couldn’t be that. As the wetness persisted, so did the rising temperature in my body. Then the throbbing in my womanhood started, and all I could think about was Rook and his magical fingers and tongue. Then I wondered if Rhys would be just as talented.

I sat up straighter and looked back at the castle. It was them. Whatever they were doing was causing this reaction in me. I was sure of it. It was very tempting to find them as if whatever they were doing was calling to me. But as Mari laughed with her ma, I knew I couldn’t leave now and forced myself to sit still as the torturous aching increased between my legs.

Rhys

I didn’t think this would be so hard. Watching the boxes leave in a single file, pushed into large vans, like the workers were a procession of ants, made me feel sick. Panic began to build in my chest at the thought of leaving the home I’d known since I was six. It was stupid. My castle was only an hour away, but it didn’t feel like home, and the people who lived there didn’t like me any more than I liked them. They weren’t my family, even though we shared the same name. Any place that only reminded you of death and pain was hard to think of as home.

Mari was a lesson in love, and all those dreams secretly held in my heart had steadily crumbled down around me. There was nothing I could do to stop it. My eyes found Rook. He looked my way, and I knew where my future lay and what I wanted. I knew we would build our own castle of hopes and dreams, but it still hurt to leave.

He smiled, and I knew that no matter how much I tried to keep the pang of sadness from being seen, he could feel what was within me. It bothered me that he could feel my fears. I always battled any that cropped up alone. I was happy that people thought I was fearless. When really, I held fear for everyone and everything in my heart. Now Rook would help carry that burden. I didn’t want to put that on him, yet now I had no choice.

“So dis is it, son. Ya’va come full circle,” Gregory said as he walked up behind me and squeezed my shoulder.

“Aye, it would seem that way,” I said.

“Ya dinnie ‘ave ta go. Dis as much yer home as it be anyone else’s. Besides, ya know we all love havin’ ya here,” he said.

I took a deep breath, fixed my gaze on the front garden, and shook my head no.

“‘Tis time. Ya know it, and dis be for da better.”

I never spoke of my feelings for Mari to Gregory, though I was sure he knew my heart. Everyone around us seemed to know what we both desired and tried to hide. We hadn’t done a very good job.

“Aye.” Gregory sighed. “I ‘ave secretly and selfishly hoped dat ya woulda never be paired and ya could’ve been wed ta Mari. Eight more years and ya woulda been over da natural pairin’ age,” he said softly.