Page 141 of Rituals & Rivalry

Aurora

Come with me. Leave the ghosts behind. Become someone new. Let’s live near the ocean in a little cottage, one we build together.

I have so much else I want to say to Sterling, but I let it fade with each gasp and moan until there’s only silence. Peace stretches out as we slip into our clothes and pretend nothing happened.

No time to hold me. No time to talk.

Jewel is as helpful as ever, even after I tell her I’ll probably be leaving town. She gives me a bag of items for a cleansing bath and questions me with her expression but never with her words, piling books about mediumship into my arms, sharing protective charms, and giving me instructions on how to clear my mind and gain power over my emotions.

Sterling brings me home, I sleep it off, and the next morning, the cottage is eerily quiet. The rest of us are, too. I don’t even share the revelations with my family as we settle in, and though the cottage is still eerily silent, my mother starts packing her things.

The rest of us follow suit, but I’m dragging my feet.

I could stay.

Or I could go. Maybe I can find mediums who can help me find my way. Or maybe I can figure it out on my own. But one thing I know for sure is I can’t be far from my family. Wherever they go, I go.

Even when it’s hard.

I open my closet and wrap my arms around a bunch of clothes, lifting them off the hanger and throwing them onto my bed.

“There has to be an easier way to do that,” someone says.

A bright voice. Youthful. Snarky.

Wendy. She disappeared when Sterling was here, but of course, she’s back. I don’t even need to summon her anymore.

This is always more what I thought a haunting would feel like—less crying coming from the walls and more actual ghosts. But it has nothing to do with haunting. It’s my magic.

Magic I wish I’d never awakened.

“What do you want?” I ask, rolling my shoulders.

“How do you know I’m not here to help you pack?” She smiles. “I should be happy to get rid of you, right?”

Should. She’s right, she should. Why wouldn’t she be? Why does she sound so uncertain? Probably because I’m the first person she’s been able to talk to in a decade, and I could take advantage of that, but I’m still tired. These changes are permanent. My hair is still white. I’m not sure how wide-open I want to keep the door to the spirit realm, but it doesn’t feel like I have a choice either way.

“Sure,” I say, pulling a shirt from its hanger. “But I’m pretty sure you’re just here to annoy me. Scare me away. That seems to be your game.”

Yet I’m not all that afraid. I still don’t know what I’m doing or how to keep the other spirits from latching onto me, but for the first time in a long time, I have magic. I may not hear the stars whispering to me anymore, but spirits do. There’s a gift in that, too, even if I can’t see it clearly yet.

“I don’t have a game,” she says, soft and earnest, so unlike the last time we spoke. “I was wondering if… if you could let me see him. If you could help me talk to him.”

“Who? Luke? You do owe him an apology, I suppose.”

“Don’t play stupid.”

Of course, I know who she’s talking about.

Sterling.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“That’s your job, isn’t it?” She crosses her arms. “You’re a medium. Helping people and spirits get closure.”

Gods, is that what I’m supposed to be doing? Wendy was a witch before she died, so I suppose she’d know.

Mom pokes her head into my room, watching me wearily. “Aurora, dearest… who are you talking to?”