“It is not something one could do by mistake. Tell me, child… did you slaughter an unweaned kitten in your preparation?”
“No… of course not.”
“Did you pluck the feather of a hen during a blood moon?”
“No, I think I’d remember doing something like that.”
“Then this summons of yours was no accident. Someone swapped your gris-gris before you did it.”
“So it wasn’t my fault?” Mikah took a deep breath.
“It had to be Nico,” I said. “He set all this up from the beginning.”
The Baron raised his hand, which I took as a cue to shut up. Then he knelt beside the summoning circle that Nico made, dipping his finger into the invisible barrier that rose above it. “This is a powerful circle, clearly beyond the capabilities of a few misguided students, but obviously not powerful enough to contain Kalfu.”
“Are you suggesting that one of us was behind this?” Oggie said, staring at the circle intently.
Baron Samedi removed his hat, running his fingers across his bony bald scalp. I’d say he looked disturbed, but it was hard to judge his expressions. He was the Grim Reaper after all. He had a constant case of resting death face.
“I presume Nico is one of College Samedi’s initiates?”
“First year,” I said.
The Baron shook his head. Something had upset him, but he wasn’t speaking up.
“Do you know who was behind this?” Oggie asked.
The Baron returned to his feet, withdrawing his flask from his jacket and unscrewing the top. “We have no time for investigations and accusations. What is done is done. There will be time for that later. We must deal with Kalfu while I am still… myself, before my other aspect takes over.”
“Then let’s go,” Oggie said, turning toward the gymnasium doors.
“One more thing,” the Baron said. “Restraining Kalfu will be nearly impossible. These basic circles and wards will prove useless. This was a high-quality prison, the best a Loa could construct. We need something else entirely.”
“Would a Shaman help?” I piped up.
The Baron smiled widely and tipped his hat.
Oggie shook his head. “A Shaman… in Vilokan? It would threaten everything.”
“Ashley is no threat,” I said. “She wants to help.”
Oggie shook his head. “It’s too risky.”
“It’s the only way,” the Baron said. “Unless you think the mighty Loa of war can stop him.”
Oggie sighed. “Not even if I raised an army.”
“Especially not if you raised an army.”
“Still, the chances of this working…”
“Are better than our odds of trying nothing,” the Baron said. “And you should have more faith in your initiates than that.”
“Wait,” I interjected. “What are you guys saying we need to do?”
Oggie scratched his head. “Somehow, you will need to restrain Kalfu without our help.”
“Without you or the Baron? I thought the whole point of bringing the Baron back was—”
“I still play a crucial role,” the Baron said, nodding his head. “But you’ll need to restrain him without my aid.”
“Or mine,” Oggie said.
“Are you kidding? Throwing a kid in the pool so he can learn to swim is not good teaching, it’s shitty parenting.”
“But we have no choice,” the Baron said. “A Shaman’s wards are like poison to a Loa. It won’t kill us, but it will debilitate us. We’ll all be vulnerable. And there’s no telling once exposed how long it might take for our abilities rejuvenate. I might not have that much time.”
“So you want me to go in there, with my sister, with Isabelle, and just handle this?”
Oggie shrugged. “You’re capable. After all, you’ve gone out of your way more than once to make it known that you once staked a vampire.”
“Yeah but Kalfu… he’s not a vampire. He’s like a fucking vampire god.”
The Baron shrugged, taking a swig of—whatever it was he was drinking—from his flask.
I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. I turned my head, and Mikah stood beside me. “I’ll go with her.”
“Your aspect will also be neutralized,” Oggie said. “I cannot allow it.”
Mikah shrugged. “I’ll still be human… and that counts for something.”
“Barely…” Oggie muttered beneath his breath. I almost took offense at the comment. I mean, I was a human, even if a supernaturally augmented one. I still had a general belief in the dignity of my species. I don’t know. Call me sentimental.
“I’m going with or without your permission,” Mikah said. “I don’t know how much use I’ll be, but I’m the only one who has ever faced Kalfu before. I’m not afraid of him.”
“You came away lucky, boy,” Oggie said. “If they hadn’t been the ones driving the car you threw yourself into…”
“Then we have an advantage,” Mikah said. “Now, I’ll have Isabelle, Annabelle, and Ashley with me, and I won’t even need to step in front of a car this time to get them there.”
“You don’t really need to.” I turned my head over my shoulder, making eye contact with Mikah.
“Yes, I do. I might have been deceived, but I also played a role in starting this. I’m going to be there to finish it. This is my mess to clean up.”
Oggie nodded. “Respectable. Foolish, but still, a decision made with honor.”
“Then where do we find him?” I asked.
“That’s a part of the rub,” the Baron said. “He isn’t likely to leave Vilokan, not until he comes into his full strength.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“Not long. But we need to stop him down here, before he has a chance to spread his aspect above.”
“But the Shaman won’t be able to enter. No one can without an aspect, or at least a sponsorship.”
The Baron shrugged. “Legba isn’t exactly in the condition to approve sponsorships. So, the way I see it… I haven’t sponsored anyone for a while.”
“But Maman Brigitte has given her aspect this year to Nico.”
“Do I look beholden to that woman to you?” the Baron said. “The only reason we limited sponsorships to one per year is to ensure a continuity in the potency of the aspect granted.”
“But are you sure it will work?” Oggie asked. “A Shaman with a Loa’s aspect… it’s never been done.”
The Baron looked at Oggie blankly as he stuck two cigarettes in his mouth, one on either side. “None of this shit has ever been done before.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The sun was only beginning to rise as Mikah and I stepped into Père Antoine Alley. I happened to spot the alley’s namesake strolling down the far end of the way. His cassock might have brushed the ground beneath him had he not been an apparition.
In an instant Père Antoine appeared directly beside us. It startled me slightly—though not as much as it might most people. If I’d grown accustomed to the paranormal before, my time in the Academy made me effectively immune to the strange. It took more than a ghost to startle me.
“Greetings, students!” Père Antoine said enthusiastically. “What brings you out so early in the morning?”
“I need to go find my sister,” I said. “Baron Samedi intends to sponsor her.”
Père Antoine straightened the white tab in the center of his collar. “She approaches now, child.”
I looked down the alley and saw Ashley approach. She was wearing the same moccasins she’d worn the day before—and she never used to wear the same shoes twice in a week.
“Ashley!” I shouted, running toward her. “How did you know we were looking for you?”
Ashely reached toward my neck and pulled on the hemp string that held the totem she’d given me. “I didn’t want to weird you out before, didn’t want you to think I was acting like a helicopter mom or whatever. You’re more than capable.”
“What do you mean?�
� I asked.
“Through the totem I could hear you, even speak to you.”
“The Bible verses you spoke…”
Ashley smiled wide and turned to Père Antoine, nodding. “That was his voice. He seemed to know the right words a Catholic girl might need to hear in a moment like that.”
“I don’t understand… you’ve been here all along? And Father, I thought you could only appear at dusk?”
“It is not my presence that is governed by the sunlight, but my ability to be perceived.”
“I can see spirits now… it’s a Shaman thing. I see them everywhere. It can be a bit unsettling at times, for sure, but I’m growing into it.”
“So you’ve been hanging out in Jackson Square all night?”
Ashley nodded.
“And you saw everything I saw? Heard everything I said?”
“Across both worlds.”
“Then you know why I’m here.”
“Baron Samedi wants me to join.”
“Then come on!” I said, grabbing Ashley’s hand. “Time is short! Kalfu should be somewhere in Vilokan… at least for now. We need to stop him before he hits the city.”
Ashley nodded, biting her cheek.
“What’s wrong? You look… conflicted.”
“Not at all,” Ashley said, taking a deep breath and clearing her face of any concern. “But is he ready?”
I gently took Mikah’s hand, allowing his fingers to intertwine with mine. “She’s proud of you, you know.”
Mikah looked up, a single tear cascading down his cheek. “Isabelle?”
I nodded.
Mikah squeezed my hand. “Thank you. But she shouldn’t be.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Because this is my fault.”
“You were tricked. You had no way of knowing.”
“Which is exactly why I had no business trying to summon Legba at all… I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t even tell that my gris-gris had been altered. What kind of Hougan tries to summon a Loa without being completely sure he knows what he’s doing.”
There was an angry tone in his voice—an anger I was sure he was channeling against himself. I wasn’t about to argue with him.
“Yeah, you fucked up.”
Annabelle…
I ignored her, as Mikah’s head fell.
“Do you think that makes you special? Guess what… everyone fucks up. So you are not entitled to a pity party. Not right now.”
Mikah shrugged.
“Te absolvo,” Père Antoine interjected.
“I don’t deserve forgiveness,” Mikah objected.
“Forgiveness isn’t something you earn, child. It’s grace. And the fact that these girls want you by their side… it means they’ve forgiven you already. Absolution was yours even before I spoke it. You are not defined by your mistakes. What you’ve done does not make you who you are.”
“Then who am I, really?”
Père Antoine placed his hand on Mikah’s chest. “Your heart beats for a reason. It beats because He willed it to beat.”
“God?” Mikah asked, blowing a raspberry from his lips. “Where was he the night I fucked up and summoned Kalfu?”
Père Antoine smiled. “It seems to me he sent two angels in a Camaro to save you from that.”
Mikah chucked a bit. “And they’re still here.”
“We are,” I said, before I allowed a shit-eating grin to steal the mood. “And Ashley will actually remember it this time.”
Ashley slapped me on the shoulder.
I smiled and turned to the side, whispering to Isabelle. “Do you want to take over, say anything before we start?”
I think you have this under control.
“Still a little shy with Mikah?”
No… I mean, yes. But that’s not it. You and your sister… you’re a team. I’ll be here when you need me. But until we know for sure that the headaches are gone…
“Yeah, probably not the time to experiment.”
“Everything okay?” Ashely asked.
“Yes,” I said, turning toward my sister. “Just conferring with Isabelle about our plans. You ready to go, sis?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I was reasonably sure that we’d find Kalfu sooner than later. He was hunting us as much as we were him. I moved with trepidation, half expecting Kalfu to jump out from the darkness at any moment as we descended the steps to Vilokan. My phone provided a little light, supplemented by the natural light that emanated from Père Antoine’s ghostly form. Still, it was just enough to cast strange shadows on the walls which, when you’re already expecting to come upon a demon-like Loa at any moment, can be a bit unsettling.
“First, we’ll need to take Ashley to Baron Samedi,” Père Antoine said. “That is my purpose here, and I cannot permit her to leave my company until she’s been delivered to her sponsoring Loa.”
“This isn’t going to take long, is it?” Ashley asked.
I grinned widely. “That depends. He just has to mount you.”
“What?”
Mikah chuckled as he led the way, about three steps ahead of us.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Mikah said, looking back over his right shoulder.
“You’re saying that I have to let that Loa… mount me?”
My throat constricted as I choked down my laughter. “Mount you… just like a horse.”
“What if I say no?”
“You mean, ‘nay’?” I couldn’t hold back my laugh this time.
“I don’t think Roger would appreciate—”
“It’s just a metaphor,” Père Antoine interjected, ruining my fun.
“Not a very good one!” Ashley protested.
“I had the same reaction at first,” I said. “But it’s really not much at all… a glance, really. He’ll look in your eyes, and that’s about it. I didn’t even feel any different at first.”
“Why do they call it a mounting then?”
I shrugged. “Voodoo is weird. It’s the way they talk about possession, but this isn’t a full possession. He won’t invest his person inside of you, just his aspect.”
“And that’s supposed to do something?”
“You’ll be able to tap into abilities… abilities that your Loa possesses.”
“You’ll see dead people,” Mikah added.
“I can already see dead people… I’m a Shaman.”
I couldn’t help but detect an air of superiority in Ashley’s voice, as if her magical tradition was somehow better or nobler than this one.
“You’ll see dead people, and you may even be able to evade death yourself. Once, anyway. Correct me if I’m wrong, but no Shaman can do that.”
Ashley huffed a little. “No, we can’t do that.”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “People in College Samedi don’t die?”
“Oh they can die,” Mikah said. “But from what I understand, their aspect gives them a do-over, one resurrection after their body dies. Haven’t ever seen it happen, myself.”
That’s how Messalina came back, when she resurrected herself.
“Isabelle says that’s how her sister came back, the Caplata.”
“Fascinating…” Mikah seemed to take extra interest whenever I mentioned something Isabelle might have said.
“You mean to say,” Ashley interjected, “that Messalina sat on an aspect she had from the Baron for more than a century before she came back?”
She did…
“Apparently so,” I said. “Just promise me, sis, if you croak, you won’t wait a hundred years to come back to me.”
“How about I just don’t die? I mean, that’s kind of my Plan A.”
“But at least you’ll have a Plan B.”
We finally hit the last step and passed through the narrow doorway that opened up into Vilokan. I could tell from the look on Ashley’s face that she was as impressed as I had been by the sheer magnitude of the city. I’d
kind of grown accustomed to it, like how people in New York don’t pay a bit of attention to the Statue of Liberty, or St. Louisans forget that they have a giant arch decorating their city’s skyline.
“How in the world? I mean, New Orleans is below sea level…”
I shrugged. “Magic. Come on, let’s go.”
Ashley shook her head, knocking the childlike wonder right out of her eyes. “Where’s the Baron?”
Père Antoine pointed down a dark alleyway. “He should be waiting for you there.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “I just brought him back…”
Père Antoine straightened his collar and shrugged. “Magic?”
I shone my phone light down the alley and saw three figures waiting for us at the end. As we got closer, I could tell who they were by the shadows they cast on the wall behind them.
“You know Oggie,” I said. “He’s the one who looks like he belongs in the WWE. The one in the top hat… yeah, you probably know who he is, too.”
“Baron Samedi,” Ashley said, gulping down her words.
“And the one who knows she’s hotter than you… that’s Erzulie.”
“Another Loa?” Ashley asked.
“The Loa of love,” I said, smirking. “But don’t take the word love too seriously… she’s into some freaky shit.”
“Who isn’t?” Ashley asked.
“Probably nuns… and priests.” I glanced at Père Antoine.
He laughed. “Don’t be so sure…”
“I don’t want to know,” I said.
I immediately made eye contact with Erzulie—it was probably the first time I’d ever spoken to her directly. It was not… customary… to speak to a Loa outside of your college. “Pauli? How is he?”
“We aren’t sure,” Erzulie said with a blank expression on her face. “We were attempting to exorcise Kalfu’s aspect when he just… disappeared. An inconvenient ability that comes with the aspect of Aida-Wedo.”
“We have to find him!” I insisted, grabbing Oggie’s hand.
“We will try, I promise. But the best thing we can do for Pauli right now is to eliminate Kalfu.”
“You can be assured,” the Baron interjected, “that once we find Kalfu, we’ll find your friend.”
I nodded, but the Grim Reaper is never really the bearer of good news, and this was no exception. If Pauli would be found with Kalfu, it meant that the evil Loa’s aspect had already seeded itself in his soul. Trying to fix him… trying to heal him.
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