The Conclave was scheduled to meet again in three weeks, with much to discuss.
Repairs to the Embers estate were well underway, and members of the local paranormal community had contributed handsomely to the new library therein.
Chantelle personally supervised the construction and stocking of the new kitchen.
With Papa Gefrard and Ezekiel gone, whatever they’d done to the Montagu house had dissipated, and we once again had full access. Emma and Calista spent a day there taking inventory and determined nothing to be missing. Everyone else had evidently been as locked out as we had been.
Fiona had been closest to Josephine, and she suggested that Josephine preferred to be cremated and to have her ashes scattered, half on Johns Island, at Angel Oak, and half at Breach Inlet, where Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms meet.
Roses, tulips, and wildflowers of all sorts popped up within moments of her ashes touching the sacred ground near Angel Oak. It was Josephine’s last goodbye to her friends and loved ones.
At Breach Inlet, Palmer swam out to a sandbar and let the rest of his great love slide away into the ocean. On the horizon, a whale surfaced and blasted a goodbye of his own from his spout.
Lukas and I took a stroll on the beach as the rest of the mourners went their separate ways. When we could walk no further, he took my face in his hands and kissed me.
He spun me around to face the water, and he put his arms around my shoulders.
“So, you’ve been to a mer funeral, and now I’ve been a human funeral,” Lukas said. “Which do you prefer?”
“Josephine’s was hardly a traditional human funeral,” I stated. “But the pomp and circumstance revolving around a mer funeral was pretty spectacular, I must admit.”
“I wonder what you’ll think of a mer wedding,” he conjectured with a sly smile.
“Are we invited to one?” I asked.
I turned around just in time to catch him dropping to a knee.
“I was hoping we’d throw one,” he replied, his smile becoming a huge grin.
The stone in the ring was the biggest pearl I’d ever seen, set in woven coral. It was beautiful.
I wiped away a tear and my yes was drowned out by a rousing round of applause. Just down the beach stood Aleta, Calista, and Emma, clapping and smiling.
I’d like to say Virginia and Josephine stood there shimmering like Obi-wan and Yoda in Star Wars, but they didn’t.
But I know they were there.
THE END. For now.
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Carolina Conjuring Page 18