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Macon Melchizedek Ravenwood To the folks around here, he was Old Man Ravenwood, the town recluse He was also Lena’s uncle, and the only father she had ever known

I was getting dressed in the dark when I felt the warm pull from inside that meant Lena was there

L?

Lena spoke up from the depths of my mind, as close as anyone could be and about as far away Kelting, our unspoken fore Casters like her had shared long before my bedroom had been declared south of the Mason-Dixon Line It was the secret language of inti different could get you burned at the stake It was a language we shouldn’t have been able to share, because I was a Mortal But for soe we used to speak the unspoken and the unspeakable

I can’t do this I’

I gave up on my tie and sat back down onout beneath me

You have to go You won’t forgive yourself if you don’t

For a second, she didn’t respond

You don’t kno it feels

I do

I reet up, afraid to put onAbide With Me and ride in the grih town to the cemetery to bury my mother I was afraid it would make it real I couldn’t stand to think about it, but I opened my mind and showed Lena…

You can’t go, but you don’t have a choice, because Amma puts her hand on your arm and leads you into the car, into the pew, into the pity parade Even though it hurts to move, like your whole body aches fro faces in front of you, but y

ou can’t actually hear what anyone is saying Not over the screa in your head So you let theet in the car, and it happens Because you can h this if someone says you can

I put my head in my hands

Ethan—

I’ you can, L

I shoved ht and stared at the bare bulb, refusing to blink until I seared away the tears

Ethan, I’m scared

I’ anywhere

There weren’t anywithin the corner of one, and I heard A quietly in the doorway clutching her good purse Her dark eyes searched h she didn’t even reach randmother I never had, and the only mother I had left now

I stared at the eood suit a little less than a year ago, then back into the bare lightbulb of my bedside lamp

Amma held out her hand, and I handed her my tie Sometimes it felt like Lena wasn’t the only one who could read my mind