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I still felt sick when I thought about how Maisie had taken the shadow entity and given it a form Named it Jackson and took it as her lover Allowed it to cut me and taste my blood I felt even worse when I remembered how I myself had fallen in love with Jackson A shudder ran down my spine

“That right,” Jilo continued as if she had readto find now Jilo says you better off leaving the bitch wherever she landed Sootta cut the cord, blood or no”

“Well, that sure isn’t going to happen,” I said sharply, but then regretted my tone “I can’t do this without you, Mother”

She shook off rimace “The families still chokin’ off yo’ power supply?”

“Yes,” I said “They don’t think I’m ready to control it”

;ONE

“Hold the fire in your hand now, girl” Jilo’s whisper washed over me “Don’t let it just take you in You control it this time Don’t you enter its world till you ready to control your time there”

The sh I knew its heat must have been intense It danced in my palm as it tried to pull my consciousness back—back into a iven ues of fire that allowed me to relive experiences from our childhood in vibrant detail Now she was lost to me, torn not only from this world, but from our very reality No one knehere she was, or even if she was

These bright flickers were the last of her ic left on our plane, and they strained to touch their source like iron shavings reaching toward a led against the fla to descend into the past, step-by-step, this ti lost in the hts had given their lives one by one as they tried to guide htly, but they flickered out too quickly forled Counting this one, the flame that quivered in my palm, only five remained

“Hold on to the light in your right hand, and you listen to Jilo’s voice, hear?” She grabbed htly I squeezed back “Let Jilo’s voice be yo’ anchor in this world No need to rush, irl, no need to rush”

Jilo’s language and her insistence on speaking about herself in the third person belied her education I knew for a fact that she had graduated froree in chemistry, but due to her sex and skin color, she had been born about two decades too early to follow her drea a medical doctor Instead she beca a persona around herself that matched both the expectations and superstitions of those who sought her services I was one of the feho had ever been allowed a peek behind this mask

Jilo took a deep, slow breath, reainst th, and their frequency was diun to grow before y of Maisie’s spell froy slowed and began to stretch out before an to turn, stretching out and glowing like a coan to seek its source, reaching out in all directions until it found Maisie I honedthe flame’s path, but it was too late The fla like a nova An instant later it died So, resisting the flames’ pull caused theet the joy of reliving a beloved childhood memory Just blackness

“We got closer that tih we both kneas a lie We’d made it this far twice before She stood and hobbled over to the table where the Ball jar that held the rehtly on the as you are,” she said, but all the while her eyes never left mybetorldsthere I worried too, but I was also worried that I was running out of time to find Maisie

“I appreciate what you are doing forsto now, but I could already tell thatboy