Page 209 of Children of Blood and Bone

I can’t blink away the new tears fast enough. I know few men who deserve peace more. Did he know his spirit would end in this grace, beside the woman he loved?

“Mama, Mama, Mama—”

The voices sing louder. Mama holds me again and I breathe in her scent. After all this time, she still smells of warm spices and sauces, the mixtures she brewed in her jollof rice.

“What you did in the temple is unlike anything the spirits have ever seen.”

“I didn’t recognize the incantation.” I shake my head. “I don’t know what I did.”

Mama takes my face in her hands and kisses my forehead. “You will learn soon, my mighty Zél. And through it all, I will never leave your side. No matter what you feel, what you face when you think you’re alone—”

“Tzain…,” I realize. First Mama, then Baba, now me? “We can’t leave him,” I gasp. “How do we bring him here?”

“Mama, Òrìsà Mama, Òrìsà Mama—”

Mama’s grip on me tightens as the voices grow louder, almost deafening now. Creases wrinkle across her smooth forehead.

“He doesn’t belong here, my love. Not yet.”

“But Mama—”

“Neither do you.”

The singing voices blare so loudly I can’t tell if they’re praises or screams. My insides twist as Mama’s words hit.

“Mama, no… please!”

“Zél—”

I cling to her again, fear choking my throat. “I want this. I want to stay here with you and Baba!”

I can’t go back to that world. I won’t survive that pain.

“Zél, Orïsha still needs you.”

“I don’t care. I needyou!”

Her words grow hurried as her light begins to fade with the chorus of heavenly voices. All around us the blackness brightens, drowning in a wave of light.

“Mama, don’t leave me—Please, Mama! Not again!”

Her dark eyes sparkle as tears fall, their warmth landing on my face.

“It’s not over, little Zél. It’s only just begun.”

EPILOGUE

WHENIOPENmy eyes, I want them to close. I want to see my mother. I want to be wrapped in the warm blackness of death, not gazing at the purple hues staining the open sky.

The air above me seems to sway back and forth, gently rocking my form. It’s a glide I’d know anywhere. The ebb and flow of the sea.

As realization takes hold, burns and aches sear into every cell of my body. The pain is stark. The pain that accompanies life.

A moan escapes my lips and footsteps pound.

“She’s alive!”

In an instant, faces crowd my sight: Amari’s hope, Tzain’s relief. When they pull away, Roën and his smirk remain.

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