Moon Shadow

12

Joshua and Nuru entered their daughter's room first.

"Ruth," Nuru called. "There's someone here to see you." She swung the door wide open, letting Esther and me pass through. With tears in her eyes and Joshua holding her arm, Nuru told us, "You can talk to her."

Ruth was on the bed, facing the window with her back to us. I walked around the bed and crouched in front of her. "Hey, Ruth," I said in a soft tone. Kids had an active sixth sense, enabling them to sense hostility better than adults. "I'm here to help you."

The girl didn't move, sitting still while staring outside the window. I went to check what she was looking at and found nothing there before returning to her. "Can you hear me?"

She was still silent. Something was wrong. I waved my hands and snapped my fingers in her face, and she didn't even blink. Poking her body also didn't bring out the desired outcome, nor did shaking her by the shoulders.

"How long has she been like this?" I asked the preachers.

"Since morning," Joshua answered. "When she returned to us, it was like she hadn't left all those years ago. She was laughing, jumping, running. We had our daughter back. But today—"

"Something changed?"

He gulped. "Yes."

"Got it." I breathed in and out before punching my left palm with my right hand, activating my sense magic. Magic power crawled under my skin like insects, moving from my chest's core and scurrying up my throat before finding my face and taking refuge in my eyes, allowing me to see past illusions.

Ruth's face and body changed from that of a healthy ten-year-old girl to a skeleton. A low gasp escaped my lips, but that wasn't the most shocking thing. She had a red magical string connecting to her spine. I followed where the other end of the string led to and...

I gasped loudly.

"Come on, Binti. Did you really think I was here to watch you work? Are you really that gullible?" Esther Bennet said with a smile, the other end of the red magical string wrapped around her right hand. But that wasn't all of it. Joshua and Nuru had red magical strings attached to their decomposing bodies—shit, they were also dead—which connected to the necromancer's left hand, displaying Esther's puppetry.

I wanted to feel sorry for them, but after hearing how they sacrificed their daughter for wealth, I was out of sympathy. I stood and glared at Esther. "What's the meaning of this?"

Esther moved to the window and locked it before turning to me and leaning on its sill. "There are two things I want you to know." She raised her index. "One: You're so powerful, and yet you choose to waste your time on meaningless occult shit. The Supreme Leaders have been abusing their power right under your nose by turning magicless people into crows so they could hide the government's involvement in human trafficking."

"How do you know about that?" I clenched my jaw. Had James spoken to her before me? Or had she sent James to tell me?

"I know a lot of things, Binti. Because unlike you, I like to be informed of what's going on in my home."

"Your home?" I curled my lip. "What do you mean?" I knew what she meant. I just wanted her to say it out loud. But the smile on her punchable face told me she wouldn't do it. Prick.

Esther continued. "After I kill you and get moon magic, I'm going after The Fellowship and The Supreme Leaders. Having moon magic means stopping the leaders in the sorcerer community from misusing their positions before stopping demons. There are a lot of occult detectives in the city, but there aren't enough powerful sorcerers who watch those at the top and make sure they act right."