“And it’s jade, so it might make Dad’s powers wonky, too. Maybe so much that he would be unaware of what he was doing.” Harvest said. She hung the coat back on the chair. “Although, I can only remember Dad wearing this outside the courthouse. He’s usually wearing that awful safari jacket.” Harvest pulled the chair back and searched through the drawers. She found a few stray pens, a pad of Post It Notes, and that was it.
Echo studied the jade teeth. She shook her head. “I know it’s teeth, but I don’t get a lot of animal sense from this thing.”
Harvest pulled the asymmetric shades from her vest. “Well, it’s full on magical. It’s sparking like the Fourth of July.” She faced the bowl on the desk. “That, too.”
After placing the necklace on the desk, Echo pulled the pendant from her shirt. “It’s not responding. I’ve only had it a little while, but I think it would do something if this was related to the Adversus Lux.”
“The Adversus Lux isn’t a lion, don’t forget,” Harvest said. “It’s a Twih beast of burden that looks like a lion to us.”
“I wish there was someone we could ask about this stuff,” Echo said.
Harvest shivered. “I’m not doing that again.”
Her little sister gave her the stink-eye, but Harvest didn’t elaborate.
“I was thinking of asking Chelby. She’s from Africa, lions are from Africa, maybe this is African in origin.”
“Can’t argue that.” Harvest’s cell rang. “Hey Quinn, I’m putting you on speaker.”
“My boss’ cousin works as a deputy sheriff,” Quinn said. “According to him, one of the Detroit gangsters was attacked in his cell. They’re calling it inmate violence. But you know what that means.”
“There’s one left.” Harvest said. “Are we going after it again?”
“I think Mom is trying to tell us how to stop it. She didn’t say anything else?”
“You know Mom,” Echo said.
“What did Dad have to say?”
“He doesn’t seem to be here,” Harvest said. “I’m about to head out and look for him. We found something that might be related. This time, we have weapons to use against the shadow lion, if we can just figure out how to use them. Echo is going to hit up Chelby about what we found in the office. It may be an African thing.”
“Okay, you find Dad, I’ll try to figure out what Mom said, and Echo’s on research duty. We need to get it together by dark so we can maybe finally stop the lion from another kill.”
Chapter 21
“Well, it’s almost five. Chelby’s kids should be in the daycare while she’s in the Americanization program.” Echo put the necklace in her sweatshirt pocket. “I’ll go try to find her. You think you can find Dad?”
Harvest shrugged. “He’s usually either here, at home, or out chasing magic with us. I’m pretty sure I can track him down.”
“Okay, call me when you and Quinn figure out how we’re going to get the Adversus Lux for good. We’re running out of time. Spring break’s almost over, and Dad’s case is over with.”
Harvest nodded. “This might be our last chance.”
“And then what? It goes away, and this was all pointless?”
“Or worse, it hangs around, and we lose our chance to end it.” Harvest pressed her lips together. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Go find Dad. Go help Quinn. I’ll try to catch him if he comes back to get his stuff. In the meanwhile, maybe Chelby can help with this.” Echo dragged the necklace out of her pouch.
“Have you even met Chelby Zambo?”
“No, but in this town, she won’t be hard to spot.”
After Harvest left, Echo surveyed the empty office. She ran a hand over Dad’s coat. Two objects were the only things that marked his presence. Soon, there wouldn’t even be a reminder that Dad had worked here. Before she let opposing emotions grab hold, she flung open the office door and headed down the hall.
She had only spent a brief time in the building, but had a general sense of where things were. Executives were on the second floor. Worker bees were down here, as well as the war room set up to debrief the corporation about both the witch case and the mistaken criminal case against the Zambos. Past the big bull pen of secretaries lay the day care center. Echo headed for it.
“Hey, who’s the new girl?”
Echo stopped short. A bald man in a suit came through an intersecting hallway and smiled at her. “Hey, I’m Dan. I work in Finance.”
“Who’s this?” Another man, younger, in a nice suit, crowded next to the first. “Hi, I’m Pete. How long have you worked here?”
“I like that outfit.” Another guy, this one fat and short with curly red hair, came from behind. “I don’t recall seeing you before.”
Echo looked down at herself. She wore ratty sneakers, shapeless sweatpants, an oversized white Fredonia Blue Devils hoodie. It was spring break, so she wore no makeup. What was with all this attention?
“Hey, new girl, what’s your name?” A thin man with freckles and black hair popped out of the secretary pool. “I’m Jim. You must be with the international team, right?”
“Nah, she’s gotta be from upstairs,” yet another man joined the crowd in the hall. “Intern, maybe? How’s it going?”
A sixth, then a seventh man walked from different directions to introduce themselves. Echo found herself surrounded, pressed back against the wall. Initially, she’d felt kind of flattered. Now, she felt a little caged. “I’m just here visiting my dad. Nice to meet you all.”
“Hey, where you going?”
“Day’s almost over, how about a drink?”
“Or dinner?”
“Or breakfast.”
A couple men in security garb walked toward the group, wondering what was going on. Echo expected them to break up the throng. Instead, they fell in line, introducing themselves, flirting with her. What the what? While she hoped that she was a pretty girl, she was certainly not a girl a group of grown men would stop and fawn over.
“I really gotta find my father.”
“”Hell, no, we’re clocking out. Let’s go party at Applebee’s.”
“On me.”
“My treat.”
“What was your name again?”
Echo’s pulse raced. Cornered, she had no where to go. If she tried to get away, would the men grab her? The air was a mix of a dozen colognes, in every direction a friendly face vying for her attention. They jostled for position, closing into her personal space. Flirty conversation blended into a singular din. She considered shouting for help, but stopped herself. What would these guys do if she did?
Back up five steps girl.
Echo heard a voice, a female voice. Given the roar of conversation in the hall, the voice could only be in her head.
Hurry, before you are surrounded.
She did what the voice told her, the too-friendly faces quickly pressing forward as she backed up. A door opened beside her. Echo looked at the sign: the ladies restroom. A hand shot out and dragged her from the hall.
“HE ISN’T ANYWHERE.”
Quinn looked at her sister in dismay. “There aren’t that many places he can be around here.”
“Well, there’s a whole national forest over there.” Harvest shrugged.
“I just started thinking about this another way. The lion didn’t show up until Taka Zambo was released from jail—”
Harvest took the asymmetrical glasses from her vest. “His magic isn’t very strong. When I look at Chelby, or Dad, or, hey, even you, there’s like an explosion, or a fire, surrounding.”
Quinn paced the Grams’ living room. “Neither one of us was in town when the shooting happened. I feel so out of the loop. Can we say for sure that the last living escaped gangster is the final target of the lion?”
“We can’t say anything for certain. It all seems to fit. The contacts we have verified the troopers were involved in the shooting. There hasn’t been a random attack. It’s all we have to go on, and my intuition says
we’re right.”
“Then it is Dad. One target left, and he disappears.”
“He hasn’t exactly disappeared.” Harvest waved toward the stairs. “His stuff is still here, there’s stuff at the office.”
“Why isn’t he helping us? We may only have one more shot.” Quinn sighed. “Not that he helped that much before.”
“Quit pacing. You’re making me nervous.” Harvest went into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. “I think the more important thing is what Mom said.”
“Oh, that. I figured it out. It might flicker and fade from flames or a spark; but understand a shadow dies in the dark. It means that even though you can chase shadows away with light, the one place a shadow can’t exist is in absolute darkness.”
Harvest squinted at her. “How does that help us?”
“I don’t know. Adversus Lux—it’s Latin, meaning against the light or opposed to light. Which is what a shadow is. If there’s no light to go against, there’s no Adversus Lux.”
“Huh.” Harvest sat back down on the couch. “So we just lure it into a basement without windows and close the door.”
Quinn smirked. “We may need to be more proactive than that.”
Pointing at her briefcase purse, Harvest pressed. “Is there some kind of darkness spell in Mom’s grimoire?”
“No. I looked. A spell for this specific purpose would have to be written.” Quinn pulled the book out, but left it in recipe book form.
“The darkness aspect, I don’t know, it seems too straightforward.”
“I thought the daylight spell would wipe the thing out. You know, put a spotlight on a shadow, poof. Obvious, right?”
“You think it’s that simple?”
Quinn turned the book over and upside down. It fattened into a tome bound in thick leather. “I don’t think there’s anything simple about a spell that removes all light. If I thought the old lure-it-into-a-basement trick would work, it would be much easier. But this thing attacks nocturnally. It must move around in absolute dark some of the time. We need to cut it off from whatever is lighting it. I’m guessing, whoever casts the spell is drawing the light from the Twih. Or maybe it draws its own invisible light.”
Thinking about the Adversus Lux exhausted Quinn.
“What happens if the lion takes his last target?” Harvest wondered aloud. “If his work is done, we wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
“Except he’s already been sniffing around here. Maybe the local witch triplets are the next target, or my client, George, or Zuri, or any other dream witnesses.”
Harvest nodded. “Let me call Echo. See if Dad’s been to the office. Otherwise, it’ll be dark soon. We need to get organized.”
Quinn frowned at her sister. “By organized, you mean I need to write a spell.”
“That would be good, too.”
Chapter 22
“Gwe. Sâra mbeto. Gwe, gwe!”
The African woman stood facing the lavatory door, palms raised, eyes closed. Echo saw a line of sweat move down from her temple. Chelby Zambo stood in the pose for a long while, her breathing rapid. It seemed several minutes passed before Echo heard the sound of shoes in the hall outside. Her admirers were leaving.
Echo breathed a sigh of relief. “What the heck was that?”
“It’s shameful!” Chelby pointed a finger at her. While she looked so young, there was a steel in her, the kind that forges when a mother raises young children. Echo was being scolded. “To use such dirty magic, and a young girl like you. You are pretty and skinny, the way women are beloved in this country.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ngbângbâ ndöyë.” Chelby frowned. “It is blood magic of the most desperate kind.”
Echo had a flash. “Is it the kind that can summon a magic lion?”
Chelby gave her an incredulous stare. “What are you and your witch sisters always askin about mbata. I was told there were no mbata here. No lions.”
“So what is this magic?”
“A love spell. The worst kind. A woman who is soon to lose her fertility might use it to catch a man. But the man would be a slave to her. And the witch would pay a high price in blood.”
Didn’t Harvest say Dad was under some kind of love spell? It must be the necklace. She pulled it out of her hoodie pouch. “This thing?”
Hands held in front of her, Chelby turned her face away. “I do not want to see it!”
Echo put it away. “It was in my Dad’s coat pocket.”
With one eye, Chelby studied her. “Then someone is out to make your Dad her husband. Her slave.”
She shook her head. “I don’t get it.”
“Ngbângbâ ndöyë is, how do you say? The—” Chelby pointed to her chin and made biting motions.
“Bite? Teeth? Jaw?”
“Jaw! It is the Jaws of Love. It draws the prey, and once fastened, will never let go. It requires blood sacrifice, human sacrifice. It is taboo!”
“Is that why those guys were so interested in me?” Echo thought for a moment. “Look, I just found the thing. I don’t want to use it. But—how do I put this? There is a monster out there. It’s killing people.”
Chelby squinted at her, eyes ticking back and forth in thought. “I have seen the TV news. The men who killed my beloved. I feel no sorrow for them.”
“But you’re not killing them by any chance, are you?”
“Did your sister tell you about our talk?”
Echo found herself derailed. She knew Harvest and Dad had a talk with the Zambos, but Harvest didn’t say much about it. “No. She didn’t say anything.”
“That is because your sister makes her magic inside.” Chelby put a fist over her heart. “My magic, it goes out.” The fist opened, moving in a broad gesture.
“She’s intuitive.” Echo didn’t know where this was going.
“She let me in, because that is how she does. I went in, because that is how I do. I learned all about you. Triplets, born on that other side, where magic flows. She was searching for this monster you speak of, but I know nothing. Once inside her soul, I convinced her. You are not, what did you say, intuitive. It would take much more to convince you, but I could. The way I called you in here. The way I chased your suitors away. My magic goes out.”
Echo started to get it. Chelby’s magic had something to do with controlling people. “I don’t need to be convinced. But where is the shadow lion coming from? Who is it coming from? And why is Dad walking around with a love charm in his pocket?”
“The ngbângbâ ndöyë is no accident.” Chelby’s head tilted backward. “You already know this wicked spellcaster.”
“Ava Taylor.” She was out to get into Dad’s pants, big time. “But, blood magic? Human sacrifice? She’s just a goofy gal, mostly harmless.”
“You think it a coincidence that she handles troubles with witchcraft for this company?” Chelby folded her arms. “She is like your father. Traveling the world, to the place where magic can be found. Perhaps she is no witch, but a dabbler, what the missionaries call a sorceress.”
“Holy moly,” Echo whispered. Ava Taylor? She took out her cell phone. There was no reception. “I gotta call the sibs.”
“Daycare is long over. I’m certain they are worried at my absence.” Together, the two of them left the ladies’ room. Each of them froze in the hall. Reverberating in the air was a groaning rasp, a sound that stole strength from the knees and punched the gut. Only one thing in the world made such a sound.
“Mbata!”
“Lion!”
“IT’LL BE DARK SOON. You wanna take both cars?” Harvest filled two thermoses with coffee and returned to the living room. Quinn lay on the floor, gasping for air. “Jeeze! Quinn! What the hell?”
“Pen!” She growled. “Gimme a pen!”
Harvest poked around, finding one near the phone. “What’s wrong?”
“Spell. A big spell. In my brain.” A shaking hand grabbed the pen. Quinn opened the grimoire. It seem
ed her shaking hand would carve words deep into the pages. She wrote slowly, deliberately, grunting and panting with the effort. Finishing, she collapsed on the carpet.
Harvest pulled the book toward her. She read:
Knit a net of night
Lock and latch the light
Luminescence ebb
Ebony my web
“You have to imagine it while you say it.” Quinn remained on the floor. A net, a web, utterly black, that absorbs all light.”
“Usually, you don’t moan and groan and crawl around on the floor when you write a spell.” Harvest said this lightly, but inside, she was shaking. The spell was so short, but something about the rhythm felt powerful.
With effort, Quinn sat up. “It just hit me, like a bolt of lightning. I had to get it out. Man, that was crazy.”
“We might actually have something this time,” Harvest said. “Let me try Echo again. We should be in position before it gets too dark.”
Quinn managed to get herself in a chair. “Something is missing.”
She looked up from dialing. “Like what? Another stanza? Do spells have stanzas?”
“I don’t know, I just feel it. It needs more.”
“You think the way it knocked you on your butt that it would be more than enough.” The phone rang. Echo picked up. “Hey, Squirt, where you been? Did you find Dad?”
Echo’s voice was a whisper, barely audible. “No, not Dad. But I found—”
The little phone speaker distorted from an incredibly loud noise on Echo’s end.
“What was that?”
“Adversus Lux,” Echo whispered. “It’s here, in the refinery office building. You guys better—”
Again, that roar. Harvest’s hair stood on end as she gaped at Quinn. “I don’t think we have time to look for whatever else your spell needs.”
Chapter 23
“My babies!”
Echo grabbed Chelby’s arm. “Don’t run. If you run, it will chase you.”
The young woman gave her wild eyes, and for a moment, Echo thought Chelby would hit her, and run away. Instead, she got ahold of herself. Though her jaw trembled, she gave Echo a solid nod. “This way.”
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