“Yes, I understand…” Waysa said, as he moved closer to her. They were just a few feet from each other now.
“You saw the peregrine falcon strike me from the sky,” Rowena continued. “I was close to death, but I did not die. You saw what was left of me after my father punished me for losing the Black Cloak to our enemies. Again, I was close to death, but I did not die. With each and every wound, every moment of pain, every night of suffering, I got stronger inside. I changed. Injury and rebirth, struggle and ascendance, these are the cycles of our kin. What I’ve been trying to say is that my powers have changed, Waysa. And my soul has changed as well. I am becoming more of who I am.”
Waysa was listening to everything she said. “My grandmother called it ta-li-ne u-de-nv, second birth.”
“Yes, that’s it,” Rowena said.
“But you spoke of new powers…”
“I can see visions of the past, and I have the power to hear and speak.”
“You mean with those who have gone on—”
“—and those who are in between.”
“You’re talking about Serafina…” Waysa whispered in astonishment. “Her a-da-nv-do…She’s lingering…”
Rowena nodded very slowly. “Now you’re truly beginning to understand.”
“Where is she?” Waysa said. Suddenly, there was so much hope in his eyes.
“Do not worry, she is close, here with us,” Rowena said softly.
“She’s here with us now?” Waysa asked in surprise, looking around them. Unlike Braeden, who had resisted the idea, Waysa didn’t seem to doubt that it was possible that spirits existed.
“Serafina and I have spoken with Braeden, and the three of us need your help,” Rowena said.
“Tell me what I need to do,” Waysa said.
Rowena hesitated.
“Tell him what I said or it’s off,” Serafina demanded.
“Understand that your instructions come from Serafina, not from me,” Rowena said. “She asked that you go to Biltmore tonight and join Braeden. Watch over him. Protect him from my father. But more than anything, protect him from me. If I begin to do anything at all that might harm him or you, then you are to immediately claw my eyes out.”
Waysa smiled. “That sounds like the Serafina I know.”
“Those are her words,” Rowena said.
“I’ll do it,” Waysa said.
“Good, he’s with us,” Serafina said in relief.
“Serafina says she’s happy to hear that,” Rowena said.
“You’re speaking to her now?” Waysa looked up excitedly. “Can you tell her something for me?”
“She can already hear you,” Rowena said.
Waysa looked around up into the sky where he imagined an a-da-nv-do might float.
“No matter what happens, Serafina, you stay fierce, my friend, you stay bold! You hear me?”
As tears welled up in her eyes, Serafina said, “Tell him that I hear him.”
But wanting to say more, she moved her hand just so, and a gentle breeze of air blew through Waysa’s long dark hair, lifting it for just a moment, then letting it drop down again. I hear you.
A few hours later, Serafina sat and waited in the darkness on Biltmore’s front steps. The summer ball had ended. The Vanderbilts and all the guests who were staying in the house had gone up to their rooms to bed. The others had departed in their carriages. The servants had cleared the tables, and the musicians had packed up their cases and gone home. The house was dark and quiet now. Everything seemed so different from before.
But in her heart, she felt a new sense of contentment. She had finally managed to talk to Braeden and Waysa, and she had seen the smiles on their faces when they came to understand that she was still here. She realized there were many more challenges ahead, and she knew full well that some of them might be insurmountable, at least for her, but at least they were climbing together now. At least they were on the same side, come what may, and as long as that was true, she could keep going wherever she had to go.
Braeden emerged from the house, slipping quietly out the front doors and closing them gently behind him, carrying an old leather knapsack slung over his shoulder. By the size and shape of it, she thought he must have the cloak inside. Braeden stood alone in the darkness on the front terrace, gazing out as if he wasn’t sure if he should proceed.
Serafina was relieved that he’d come like they’d agreed, but she felt qualmish in her stomach. It was a grave and dangerous plan to ask him to trust Rowena and give her the Black Cloak. There were a thousand ways it could go wrong. But Serafina knew that she’d run out of time. “Get the cloak tonight or I’ll kill the boy myself!” Uriah had blared at Rowena when he attacked her in the bog. Rowena had been holding her father back by telling him that if he killed Braeden he’d never find the hidden cloak, but Rowena’s threat had run dry now. Uriah had grown impatient. There was no doubt in Serafina’s mind that, one way or another, Uriah was coming for Braeden.
She wished she could talk to Braeden here and now, but without Rowena she couldn’t. All she could do was follow him.
Braeden sighed in discouragement when he gazed across the long expanse of the Esplanade and up toward Diana Hill in the distance, where she had asked him to meet her. Serafina knew what he was thinking. Before he’d been injured, he had climbed that hill easily. He’d had fun doing it. But with his bad leg, it was going to be a long way to the top. She wished she had picked an easier spot for him to reach.
Braeden’s hands trembled as he tried to fix and adjust the metal brace on his leg. It appeared that one of the metal brackets had broken, making it even more difficult for him to walk.
Pulling in a deep breath, Braeden began his journey. He made his way along the length of the Esplanade, then started the climb up Diana Hill. He breathed heavily and his pace slowed as he trudged, one step at a time, dragging his bad leg behind him.
Then the dark shape of a catamount emerged from the forest.
“Waysa!” Braeden said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” And then he realized. “Serafina asked you to come…”
Serafina smiled, glad that Braeden had figured it out so quickly.
Waysa walked in lion form over to Braeden’s side, and in a gesture of friendship, hunched down.
“Thank you,” Braeden said appreciatively, and climbed onto his back.
Waysa leapt forward with a great bounding leap and ran. Braeden clung to the lion’s back as Waysa sprinted straight up the slope of the hill, the cat’s powerful legs nothing but a blur.
Now that’s the way to travel, Serafina thought, jealous of her friends. She broke into a run in pursuit.
When a breeze stirred, she felt herself getting light on her feet. There was a part of her that thought she might be able to turn into wind the way she had turned into water the night Braeden put on the cloak, but she was too worried that it would only hasten her fade.