The Girl and The Raven Read Online Free Page A

that she’s alive, will you calm down?”
    “I don’t understand. What proof can you give me if she’s gone?”
    “Come sit down and relax your mind for me, okay?”
    I cross my arms and make a face as I sit back down. She knows I think this is totally stupid. I don’t want to participate in mumbo-jumbo new age imagery crap. Right now I want answers about Lola. She just stares at me in that way she has that reminds me of Gram when she got stubborn about something.
    I heave a sigh. “Fine.” I roll my shoulders back and tilt my head from side to side. I blow out my breath and shake out my hands and my feet in little tapping steps on the Nile river carpet like a runner getting ready to race. Finally, I take a last deep breath and still everything. “Okay, I’m ready.”
    Persephone purses her lips together as if to suppress a smile. Maybe I overdid it. “Scoot closer,” she instructs. I do. She leans toward me and places her fingers on my temples. “Close your eyes.”
    The pressure of her fingers is quickly forgotten as she whispers a rush of words. I peek at her. Her eyes are scrunched tight, her lips moving as words come out in a long, tangled stream of s’s and other consonants that I can’t understand. I roll my eyes before squeezing them tight again.
    Suddenly I hear it. The flutter of wings. I gasp. My eyes fly open. Persephone’s expression is pinched. I guess she’s concentrating. I quickly close my eyes. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing, but I try harder to clear my mind. Then I hear it. A rhythmic thumping. I pull it to the front of my mind.
    The flutter of wings is so close, as if Lola is perched on my shoulder, inches from my ear, about to tickle me with her feathers before taking off in flight. Suddenly I’m bursting with questions.
    My eyes pop open and in my excitement I break the connection to Persephone who frowns. “What is that?”
    “Lola’s heartbeat. It’s weaker than last time.”
    “I don’t understand. You know where she is?” I try not to fixate on the part about the weak heartbeat. “How did you do that? Pick up on her heartbeat and the flutter of her wings? And what were you saying?” My words run together as I try to get them all out at once. “It was a little creepy, like the time I went to a Pentecostal church outside of Lexington and people were speaking in tongues.” I cock my head. “Were you speaking in tongues?”
    Persephone smooths her hands across her lap, her expression solemn. “No, just speaking quickly.” She takes hold of my hand. “I have something very important to discuss with you. Your Gram…she should’ve told you a long time ago.”
    “Told me what?” I don’t like the strange vibe I’m getting. Persephone looks sad and droopy and old all of a sudden. Is this where I learn Lola’s dead and that this is all some kind of trick? Or maybe none of this was about Lola after all. Maybe she’s going to tell me why Gram never brought me here. Why I was stuck in that sucky trailer with Momma, broke and afraid and fighting all the time. Maybe Momma was right and Gram didn’t want me. Or is Persephone dying too? Am I destined to lose everyone I love? I swallow the burning lump in my throat.
    “What is it?” I squeak out.
    “It’s time you know.” She leans in, her eyes meeting mine. “Your grandmother was a witch.”
     

Chapter Five
     
    Momma told me once that our family is cursed. When I asked what she meant, she got real quiet. Lighting a cigarette, she took a drag, then exhaled long and slow.
    “You’ll understand eventually,” she said, and went back to watching TV.
    That was a year and a half ago. Is this what she meant? Gram being a witch?
    I chuckle uneasily. “What?”
    Persephone displays her trademark frown. Deep lines, brows drawn together severely, lips pressed thin. She doesn’t have laugh lines because she rarely laughs. “This is no joking matter, Lucy.”
    “You’re telling me Gram was a witch.” The