“Silas will get there in time.”
Ginny looked up from her phone to stare at Jacob, who was standing at the bottom of the steps.
“Would you believe him, if you weren’t one of us?” Moses said practically.
“No.” Ginny stared up at the star-studded night resuming her prayer.
“Do you think Silas will tell him about us?”
The frightened voice of her baby brother dragged her gaze from the stars to Fynn. “Not tonight, but eventually,” Ginny reassured him. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Gavin won’t say anything if we ask him to keep our secret.”
“But what if he does? I don’t want to be treated like Logan at school.”
“No one knows Logan’s secret,” Moses reminded him. “The only reason Logan gets bullied is because you bully him so no one knows you’re related. Which is the same reason Silas got thrown out for bullying Greer. The difference is Silas and Greer were friends, and Silas wanted to stay home and take care of us. Logan doesn’t understand why you’re bullying him, and if you don’t stop, Silas is going to tan your hide.”
“I don’t like Logan.”
The mulish set of Fynn’s jaw had Ginny rolling her eyes in the darkness. Anyone with a set of eyes could see the resemblance between Fynn and Greer. The only reason no one in town had was because no one was aware of the ties that had been hidden for generations. Those who did know had died out or were to senile to be believed.
The Colemans had known about the family tie but had remained silent until Tate had figured it out when his new wife started an ancestral chart and found a branch on the family tree leading to them.
Ginny’s family were experts at keeping their secrets. At the age of four, their secrets had been easily explained away as a figment of her imagination, or tricks that her brothers or Leah could perform. As she grew older, their secrets had been harder to hide or explain away. To give them credit, they had waited to explain their gifts until her eighth birthday.
Ginny still remembered that day vividly. Her perception of the world had irrevocably been changed, and she had never been able to see her brothers in the same light again.
On her birthday, Silas and Freddy had sat down on their fireplace to explain to her the gifts that had been given to them.
Each of the Colemans had an element of power that had been handed down through the generations. Each generation had become wiser about how to handle their gifts, learning to hide them when they had been called witches, warlocks, and an even more terrifying name—demons. They had shielded their secrecy, using the very mountain they were born on to remain isolated from those who would try to destroy what couldn’t be understood.
As the generations learned to use and harness their powers, they became so strong that they grew afraid that those who had gifted the power would seek to destroy them when one of women exhibited powers differently from theirs.
Freddy’s ancestor had used the power to save two of her nephews who had fallen ill. Her husband and child had fallen ill soon afterward, and her penitence was to watch helplessly as they were taken with the same illness that had saved her nephews.
After being widowed for several years, she had fallen in love again and wanted to marry. Knowing she would use her power if any other family became deathly ill again, the family had removed temptation from her path, giving her and new husband a plot of land on the other side of the mountain. Distancing her and her new family, they kept to themselves until the memory of Coleman and Porter branch of the family tree was forgotten by the Porter side. The Colemans had kept the knowledge alive, though, afraid the intermingling bloodline would create a child that would have limitless power.
The strategy had worked. No other healer had been born into the Coleman’s line after that … until Leah.
Along with finding out the Colemans’ secret on her eight birthday, Ginny had been given her mirrored circle star chart that Freddy had made for her. Freddy’s power had been the ability to see the heavens and read the stars, like others could read and understand road maps.
Her mirrored star chart showed the stars overhead when she had been born in the center of the circle, then Freddy had told her the stars surrounding hers were the stars of her soul mate on the night she had been born.
“I have a soul mate?” she asked Freddy breathlessly, in awe of what he was showing and telling her.
“Yes, you were created just for him.” Freddy picked her up and sat her on his lap.
“What’s his name?”
“You have to find that out for yourself. It won’t be any fun if I tell you everything.” Freddy twisted his face in a comical look.
“How am I supposed to recognize him?”
Freddy placed his hand over her heart. “Souls don’t have names, and sometimes other souls try to trick you into believing they’re your mate because they lost theirs, or they’re tired of looking, but you’re a Coleman, and you’re strong enough to wait for the one who belongs to you.”
“I am?”
“Yes, you are.” Freddy’s face grew so serious that Ginny had to lean against his chest, shivering at the faraway look that had come into his eyes. “You have to be very strong, Ginny. The strongest you’ll have to be in your whole life. When you find him, you’re going to have to be very brave. Promise me?”
The last time she had made a promise, she’d had to leave her family and ….
“Do I have to go down in another airplane?”
“I ain’t going to lie to you; scarier than going down in an airplane. But in return, I promise you that Silas and the other boys will be there to help.” Freddy laid his cheek down on top of her head. “Leah and I will be helping you in a different way, but you’ll know we’re there with you.”
Straightening off his chest, she puffed her chest. “As long as I know you and Leah will be there, too, I won’t be scared. I promise.”
The promise she had made still rang in her head. Was this what Freddy meant about her being brave?
Dad and Leah, Ginny resumed her prayer, please keep Gavin safe. Please, I swear I’ll keep my promise to be brave, just bring him home. Let Jody be right that Gavin will change his mind and Silas can save him. Please.
Her mind went back, replaying the day of her birthday. Leah had been at her mother’s, and they were saving the cake and ice cream until after Freddy had picked her up. To keep her mind off the cake, Freddy had taken her upstairs to hang her star mirror on the wall.
Bouncing up and down on the bed must have driven Freddy nuts, but he had patiently nailed it, ignoring her exuberant behavior.
“Now I have one just like Leah’s!” Ginny clapped in enjoyment. “I can hardly wait for Leah to come home.”
Freddy went to shut the door before sitting down on the bed beside her. “Yours and Leah’s are different. Just like you’re different from the rest of the youngin’s.”
“How come?”
“Leah doesn’t have a soul mate. Not everyone gets one. And don’t be telling her. It’ll make her really sad.”
Tears came to her eyes. She wanted Leah to have a soul mate, like her. Her eyes lighted on her dad as an idea occurred to her. “I can share mine with her.” Ginny laughed in delight.