Chapter 291

King leaned forward and kissed my cheek and then his father's. His hair was loose in a wild lion's mane of an Afro. It was just as dark as ever with barely any red or blonde highlights despite the amount of time he spent in the sun. He was tan but not because the sun had darkened him. It seemed that only the un-living were impacted by the sun, growing darker as each year passed. The spirits and King never tanned.

Instead of squeezing in between us to chill with us, he stood in front of us so I knew he had something on his mind. "Mama, Papa…it's time that I spoke to the Mother."

My mind flashed back to images of the dark path and the demons that had chased us…chased me. I vividly remembered the nightmare of BJ crying for me among the stalagmite trees.

King put his hand on my arm. "It's okay, Mama. I've seen Wraiths. They think I'm one of them." King could read me as easily as Alexis could.

I took a slow breath. "Have you talked to Oni about doing this?"

King gave me a guilty look b