AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Messengers of the dead. Move between worlds. Promised she’d watch over you from beyond.
For a price.
“Berenice?” Memphis said, and it felt as if the world had narrowed to just him and the bird blinking at him from the ledge. “No. Can’t be.”
But then he held out his hand. “Mama?” he whispered.
The bird hopped onto his open palm and nuzzled its head against his skin, leaving small streaks of the gangsters’ blood.
“I’m gonna heal you, Mama.” He put his hand on the bird and it squawked away with a great ruffling of feathers. The bird moved its beak back and forth, as if shaking its head. “Okay. Okay, Mama. I’m sorry.”
The bird hopped back onto Memphis’s open hand.
“But I promise you this: I’m going to free you, Mama. I will free you.”
But first he was going to free his brother.
“Mama, I need to know—is there something not right about Blind Bill? Is he hurting Isaiah? Tap the ledge twice for yes.”
The crow blinked at him. Memphis felt ridiculous talking to a bird. He’d hit a new low. But then, very deliberately, it tapped its beak against the stone—once, twice.
THE VOICE OF TOMORROW
Memphis found Blind Bill at home on Octavia’s settee listening to a radio program with Isaiah. Just the sight of the old man next to his brother made his stomach turn.
“Need to talk to you, Mr. Johnson,” Memphis managed.
“Shhh! I’m trying to hear!” Isaiah said.
“This can’t wait. I’ll be out front,” Memphis said.
A few minutes later, Bill came tapping out onto the sidewalk. “What’s eating you?”
“Not here.”
Memphis led Bill across Eighth Avenue and into St. Nicholas Park, guiding him to a remote area. The spires of City College poked up above the newly budding trees.
Bill cocked his head, listening. He saw grainy silhouettes of trees. “What we doin’ in the park?”
“I know what you’ve been doing to my brother.”
“Don’t know what you talking about. Ain’t got time for this foolishness,” Bill grumbled, turning away on the path.
“I know…Guillaume,” Memphis said louder. “I found the old records in the museum basement. I know you’re Guillaume Johnson, the Diviner who could steal the life from things. And I know you’ve been using that power on my brother. I know everything!”
Bill stood very still. He could sense Memphis’s coiled rage ready to snap. “Then you know what they done to me. What that Walker woman done. How she let those Shadow Men take me away and break me. Tell me: How old I look to you?”
“Don’t have time for this—”
“How old?” Bill demanded, striking the path with his cane.
“Sixty. Sixty-five.”
“I’m thirty-seven years old. They did this to me. Sister Walker and them Shadow Men. It ate me up inside. Took my sight. This is what’s left.”
Memphis let this sink in for just a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t care! You hurt my brother. You’re the reason he’s been having all those seizures. You’re the reason Isaiah gets so sick—’cause you’re using whatever power you’ve got to draw the life out of him.” Memphis’s anger boiled over. His brother. His little brother! He’d trusted Bill. “There’s nobody around in this park right now. Just you and me. I ought to kill you.”
“You could. Nobody would blame you. But you don’t know what it’s like to take another man’s life. It changes you. You can’t never get yourself back, not the same way.”
