A Wishing Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

option for everyone. Some souls seemed to be tied to a location as if by an unseen rope. Despite her exposure to Catholic doctrine, Angelique suspected reincarnation waited for a soul once they let go of their earthly bonds, but she’d seen some souls who had been ghosts for hundreds of years. There were just some things one didn’t find out until you became a ghost yourself.
    Driving down the road, even in the dark, Angelique could still see ghosts. Despite the cliché, it was true, they glowed—they gave off their own ethereal light. Sometimes they moved as orbs or incandescent balls, when they were in that form Angelique didn’t notice them as much. Modern day ghost hunters had discovered the orb phenomenon in digital photographs, but Angelique could see with her natural eyes what even the cameras at times couldn’t.
    While driving down the road from New Orleans, their car had passed ghosts standing on the side of the highway at scenes of tragic car accidents, which had taken their life years ago. They passed homes where Angelique could see the dead standing in the yard or sitting on a porch swing. To Angelique’s eyes, cemeteries were especially unnerving after dark, because she could see the glowing forms of the residents walking among the graves. During the day, there was a difference—the glow of the dead was not as evident and they looked like anyone else from a distance, unless the clothing or the oddity of their movements betrayed their status.
    They traveled steadily, stopping only for coffee and a bathroom break in Lufkin, a small town in East Texas. During the needed break, Nanette called Arabella to let her know they were on their way. Evangeline noticed her grandmother seemed nervous. “I can’t let death steal another member of my family,” she worried out loud. As they resumed their journey, she kept looking out the window. “My, I don’t like this part of the road. Something doesn’t feel right.”
    Angelique looked on either side of the narrow highway. The bleak road was lined with thick, pine forest on both the right and the left. “Something bad happened here.”
    This intrigued Evangeline. “I’ve never envied you your gift, Angelique. I enjoy looking at my world unburdened by the reality of spirits and specters. But today, I’m curious. What do you see?”
    Angelique spoke softly and evenly without displaying any emotion whatsoever. Apparently, these things bothered her much more than she let on. “I see pioneers or settlers; there are also covered wagons and horses—but something has gone terribly wrong. The people are bloody and torn, victims of a massacre. I hear them wailing a horrifying tale about being attacked by Indians. Even now, they stand in an eternal vigil pointing the way to safety.”
    Nanette had been sitting there quietly, but it seemed she could sense the murdered dead also. “They think they are protecting people who travel this way. Forever they linger here to warn of a danger that doesn’t exist anymore.”
    Evangeline shivered a bit; glad her gifts differed from her grandmother and Angelique. Her magical talent was truly unique. She could read the living, as she had in the magick shop—but that ability was rather common among her kind. The truly great power Evangeline possessed had to do with the weather; she could make rain or stop a downpour. With just a few words of a psalm and an offering of rice and water, Evangeline could raise a storm and call down lightning. Perhaps she could even make snow—she had never tried. Maybe, during this Yule, calling up a snow event would be fun. Evangeline had inherited this gift from her great grandmother Patrice who had used it to great benefit on the Louisiana farm where she had lived.
    They were getting close, going through Austin on Interstate 35; they passed the University of Texas on the right as they were heading south toward San Antonio. She could see the tower that was always lit up in burnt orange lights when the