Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink Read Free Book Online

to know the future. Voices drift from the room above us, and we look
     to each other in the crowded vestibule. Our eyebrows lift in silent question as heavy footsteps rattle the floorboards over
     our heads.
    The woman peers down the steps, beckoning us up the staircase. “You may come.”
    Alice pushes to the front. Victoria and Luisa follow her up the stairs without hesitation. It is only when Luisa reaches the
     third step and turns to me that I realize I haven’t moved.
    “Come on, Lia. It’s all in good fun.”
    I swallow my sudden fear and smile a response, following her up the narrow steps and through a door at the right of the landing.
    The room is dark, the shades drawn over the windows so that only the faintest whisper of light lurks about the edges of the
     frame. But the girl sitting at the table is full of light, surrounded by candles flickering gold against her creamy skin.
     Her hair shimmers even with the meager glow from the covered windows, and although the room is full of shadows, I can see
     the curve of her cheek and am sure even from the doorway that her eyes are blue.
    “Miss Sorrensen is a touch under the weather.” The woman who brought us to the room glances accusingly at the girl. “She can
     only offer you a brief sitting.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Millburn.” The girl’s voice is a murmur to the older woman, who closes the door behind her without reply.
     “Please sit down.”
    Alice and Victoria move cautiously toward the table, taking the chairs opposite the girl. I, on the other hand, am so drawn
     to her that I take the seat to her right. Luisa sits next to me, closing our mismatched circle.
    “Thank you for coming. I am Sonia Sorrensen. You’ve come for a sitting, then?”
    We bob our heads, unsure what to say. No social lesson at Wycliffe has prepared us for such an outrageous occasion.
    She meets our eyes, one at a time. “Is there someone with whom you’d like to make contact, a message you hope to retrieve?”
    Only Victoria speaks. “We would like to see what you know about the future. Our future.” She sounds impossibly young, and
     I wonder if I might remember her shaking voice to call upon the next time she is mean at Wycliffe.
    “Well…” Sonia looks at each of us again before settling her eyes first on Alice, and then me. “Perhaps I shall have a message
     for
you.
”
    Alice’s eyes find mine through the dark. For a moment, I think I see cold fury there, but I quickly discount it. I am not
     thinking clearly. The forbidden outing and strange house, a house likely
made
strange as a way to make Sonia’s task easier, has loosened the strings of reality. I take a deep breath.
    “Let us join hands.” Sonia holds her hands out to either side. Hands are clasped until it is only mine that is left to be
     joined with Sonia’s to complete the circle. When I reach out, careful to conceal my wrist, her hand is cool and dry in mine.
     “I must ask for silence. I never know what I will see or hear. I work at the will of the spirits, and sometimes they have
     no will to join me at all. You must not speak unless directed.” Her eyelids flicker and then close.
    I peer at the faces, distorted and shadowed, around the table. In them I see remnants of the girls I know, but here no one
     is as they seemed in the sunlit street. With nothing to do but stare at Sonia, they close their eyes one by one. Finally,
     at last, I close mine as well.
    The room is so completely sealed that I do not hear a sound — no horses’ hooves or shouts from the streets below, not even
     the ticking clock in the house below us. Only the whispery in and out of Sonia’s breathing. I settle into it —
in, out, in, out
— until I am not sure if it is her breathing or my own pacing the seconds and minutes.
    “Oh!” The sound bursts forth from the seat next to me, and I jump as my eyes fly open to Sonia’s face. Her eyes are already
     open, though she seems very far away. “There
is
someone here. A