Hazel and Lu exchange glances, talking to themselves more than us now. “That was a one-way gift, not an exchange.” Lu questions her wife with wide, excited eyes. “Haze, is she tapping into his genetic memory?”

“That’d be epigenetics,” Hazel muses. “And yes, could be. Mediums travel the ancestral stream, a type of spirit DNA. Bree is more powerful than a typical Medium, with a seemingly endless source of root powering her….”

“Wait. Epigenetics?” William leans forward, eyes wide. “Miss Hazel, you think Bree can navigate DNA memory?”

“It’s a hypothesis. But yes, I do.” Miss Hazel smiles at William’s slack jaw. “You all call me ‘Miss,’ but my students call me ‘Doctor.’ ”

William grins. “Dr. Hazel, I like you very much.”

She laughs. “We are biology and magic both, Scion.” She pours herself another glass. “Communing with ancestors requires a connection that runs in both directions. Spiritual and physical. An open channel on both sides, tying each party to the other. Like blood.”

“Or like an Oath,” Sel murmurs. “Our Oaths bind to our DNA and bind people together, either as individuals one to one, or one to a group.”

“It makes sense, actually,” Alice says. “You’re tapping into his lineage.”

“Thanks, y’all,” I murmur after a quiet moment. “For being here.”

Alice rolls her eyes. “Are you kidding? Not running for our lives is the new vacation.”

Sel’s mouth twitches. “She’s not wrong.”

William groans. “We need actual vacations.”

“What are those again?” I ask. The table laughs.

“I am glad you are here, too, Bree Matthews.” Lu sits back at the table, eyes thoughtful. “I hope, for all our sakes, that you find the answers you seek.”

48

THE FIRST THING I think of when I step inside the large, packed-dirt communion circle at the back of the property the next day is that it reminds me of the Legendborn training rooms. Circles for bouts and practicing combat skills. Circles to establish boundaries for the opponents, keeping the fight inside.

I hope my ancestor work doesn’t turn into a fight.

“Do you know all of their names?” Hazel asks. She and Lu walk in opposite directions around the boundary to “set the circle” for the revival. Lu says that the communion circle has been on the property for ages, but they have to wake it up in some way. Bring it to the ancestors’ attention that something big is about to happen, I guess.

Whenever the two women cross paths, one passes a small hand-rolled cigarette back to the other, who puffs on it on her rotation, then passes it back. It doesn’t smell like nicotine to me—at all—but that’s none of my business.

Alice watches the entire process with wide eyes. She, William, and Sel are behind me, perched on a collection of boulders that are worn smooth from observers past.

“Yes,” I say. “Starting from the beginning, there’s Vera, then—”