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“I couldn’t let him die,” she whispers. “He helped me. And Meredith loves him.”
This comes as no surprise to me, but I’ll gossip about it with Abigail later. Right now, my sole focus is to make Charlie see everything that’s good about herself.
“When I was a little girl, I met this powerful shaman. We call her Mama. And when I was afraid of my powers, Mama told me that I had a choice. I could use them to help people, I could use them to hurt people, or I could lock them away and never use them at all.”
The cloud disappears completely. I see that she likes that idea. Her aura is no longer blocked, but it’s faint. She still has a lot of work to do.
“And Mama taught me how to be strong,” I tell her. “And now I’m here, and I’m going to teach you to be strong. Whatever you decide to do with your gift, Charlie, I’ll help you. You are never, ever going to have to deal with this by yourself.”
“What if I hurt people? I don’t want anyone I love to die.”
“Who do you love, Charlie?” I ask her, though I think I know.
“I love you,” she says. “And I love Mr. Hex and Miss Juliana. I love Miss Abigail, and sometimes I love Mr. Pocus, but sometimes he kind of scares me.”
We both laugh.
“I love Daisy, and I love Mr. Graveyard, and I love Meredith. And I don’t know Mr. Seer or Nicky that well, but I think I probably love them too. Oh, and I love the ghost Cassandra!”
She smiles brightly as she names all my friends. My heart swells with love for her too.
“Well, there’s one thing you should know about all the people you love,” I tell her seriously. “Except for Daisy and Nicky, all of us have faced death once or twice. We’ve faced a lot of pain too. I promise we will all be here to help you. We’ll forgive you if you hurt anyone by accident.”
“Do you always keep your promises?” she asks boldly, making me smile. She is a constant surprise.
“I do my best,” I tell her truthfully. “But this particular promise is unbreakable. It’s rooted in love. Every person who loves you will forgive you, Charlie.”
She considers this and nods. “Can we go back to the real world now?”
I guide her back into the physical plane, and she sits up slowly. She’s crying, and I pull her to me, holding her tight as she cries into my chest. I run my fingers through her hair and let her get all her emotions out. She needs the release. Finally, she calms down and pulls away.
“Pinky promise,” she says very seriously, holding out her pinky to me.
I do so with just as much seriousness, wrapping my pinky around her tiny one. She means business.
“Do you think my new mommy and daddy can tuck me in?”
I know for a fact that there is nothing in this world they’d like more.
“Only if you call them that to their face,” I say, tickling her. She giggles and yells at me to stop.
When I do, I get up and go out to the living room.
“All right, Mom and Dad,” I call to my closest friends in the whole world. I love the way parenthood looks on them. “You’re on duty.”
They look at me in surprise and pass me to go into their daughter’s room. I go to the kitchen and make a pot of tea while I wait. If Hex does what I taught him to do, it’s two books, a song, and then forehead kisses goodnight. That works for Nicky every night. In fact, I text Seer to remind him he’s on bedtime duty tonight. As much as I love my baby boy, my friends need me tonight.
I’m pouring the tea when I hear the bedroom door open. I look up to see Juliana and Hex beaming from ear to ear. They hold hands as they walk into the kitchen. Juliana sits down at the table while Hex embraces me tightly. When he pulls away, his eyes are shining with tears.
“Thank you,” he whispers. “Whatever you did, I cannot thank you enough.”
“I just talked to her,” I say with a shrug. “You’ll get to that point soon enough. This transition will take some time. You guys are already doing a good job.”
“We’ve been so worried,” Juliana confesses before taking a sip of her tea. “She’s been so quiet and sad since she came to us. We thought she didn’t want to be here.”
“I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that she’s happy here.” I grab her hand across the table and squeeze tightly. “Juliana, you’re going to be an amazing mom. She told me how much she loved it when you braided her hair. That will be a great bonding experience for the two of you.”
Juliana seems shocked. “I only did it once, remember?” she asks, looking at Hex, who nods. “I had no idea that would mean so much to her. She seemed really freaked out after.”
