So I’m surprised when I hear Cabrillo’s voice from the swirling cloud of smoke. “Hola, hermanos,” he says. “Can you hear me?”
There’s silence for a moment. The fire flickers noticeably higher and then dies down to almost nothing.
Cabrillo chuckles, vibrating his swirling cloud. “Eveny, it seems we have a problem. Your zandara spirits can hear me, but I can barely hear them, and we won’t be able to include you in any conversation we have. If you wish us to speak on the mortal plane, one of the zandara spirits must possess one of you.” The swirling cloud seems to incline itself toward Peregrine, Chloe, and me. There’s another flicker in the fire and I hear Cabrillo chuckle again. “The blond one? Very well.” He turns to me. “Eveny?”
“Yes?” I’m nervous about what he’ll say.
“The spirit would like to inhabit the blonde.”
“Chloe?” I glance at my friend, who looks worried.
Chloe steps forward and glances at me uneasily. Then she nods and closes her eyes. “Esprits du passé, entre en moi,” she chants in a shaky voice. “Esprits du passé, entre en moi. Esprits du passé, entre en moi.”
She continues to chant the words as Peregrine and I begin to hum, helping to raise her request up to the spirits. A moment later, her body twitches, stiffens, and then collapses. I gasp and move toward her, but she’s already standing up on her own, her eyes wide and empty, her legs like rubber.
“I am here,” she says in a voice that’s not her own. It sounds like she has a British accent. “Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Lady Margaret Sawyer.”
“Well, this is most extraordinary,” Cabrillo says. “Never have I met another spirit who lives outside my realm.”
“Nor have I,” the spirit says through Chloe. “How charming.”
I clear my throat and step between them. “Please. We don’t have a lot of time. We need you to restore as much of the gate’s protection as you can. We’re hoping that working together will enhance our safety. Can you help us?”
“Yessssss,” Cabrillo says.
“I will help you too,” Lady Margaret says through Chloe. “For the price of another possession. But I must warn you. There is magic, powerful magic, working against you, so we can’t guarantee—”
Her words are cut off by a bloodcurdling scream just off to our left. I spin around, and as I do, I can feel the air pressure returning to normal. The spirits are gone.
“What was that?” Peregrine says, stepping closer to me, her eyes wide with fear.
My heart thudding, I take a step closer to the tree line and blink into the darkness. As my eyes adjust, I see a familiar figure cowering behind one of the crypts, looking in our direction.
It’s Liv, and she appears to be rooted to the spot, her expression terrified. But when our eyes meet, she unfreezes and begins backing up.
“Liv!” I call, but it’s too late. She’s already running away.
24
“We have to erase her memory,” Peregrine says behind me as I watch Liv flee.
“No,” I say instantly. “It’s too dangerous.” After all, this is our battle, not hers, and it’s not right to put her safety at risk. When a charm is used to delete experiences from a person’s mind, there’s always the chance the magic could go too far and take bigger chunks of memory—or even motor function—out of the brain.
“But what if she tells other people what she saw?” Peregrine says. “It could create a panic! The town could turn against us. We don’t have a choice this time.”
“Yes, we do. I can go after her. I can explain.” I don’t wait for a reply. I take off running through the cemetery. I can hear Caleb chasing after me, calling my name, but I don’t slow down. I know he has to stay with me in order to protect me, but all that matters now is getting to Liv.
I catch up to her at my own house’s back wall. She’s trying to climb over but can’t get a grip on the bricks. When she finally turns to face me, I see tears streaked down her face.
“What the hell?” she says, slumping back against my garden wall. “I mean, Drew always said there was something satanic going on in this town, but I never thought you would be involved.”
“Liv—” I begin, but we’re interrupted by Caleb arriving beside us, panting hard.
“Don’t you ever wait for me?” he says.
“Oh great,” Liv says, shaking her head. “He’s part of this too? Awesome. I suppose the two of you are going to do some kind of curse on me now?” She’s trying to sound tough, but I know her well enough to realize she’s scared.
“No, I—” But my words are cut off by another late arrival. This time it’s Bram, red-faced and out of breath.
“You need me, Eveny?” he says, glancing at Caleb.
“No, Bram,” I say with a sigh as Liv stares. “I’m fine. Go back to the others. You too, Caleb.”
“But I need to stay with you,” Caleb says. “You know it’s not safe out here right now.”
“Caleb, I think we restored the powers of the gate temporarily,” I say, trying my best not to think about the warning Lady Margaret began to give us before she was cut off. “Just . . . I don’t know, go back into the cemetery or something. I need some time alone with Liv.”
“What, so you can do some weird spell on me?” she says. “No. Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”
“No, Liv,” I say. “So that I can explain. Let me do that, at least, okay?”
Bram and Caleb exchange looks and head back toward the cemetery. Once they’re gone, Liv finally turns to me.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her softly.
“You want to know what I’m doing?” Her laughter sounds ragged as she shakes her head. “Fine. I’ve been calling you all night. I was wondering how you were doing after the funeral, since I know your family goes way back with Peregrine’s and Chloe’s families. When you didn’t answer, I started to get worried, so I drove over to check on you. I heard voices out back, and, well, I got nervous. There’s a murderer on the loose, you know.” She gives me a dark look.
“Oh.” I feel even worse knowing that she stumbled upon our secret just because she was trying to be a good friend.
“So you want to explain why you were in the cemetery at one in the morning doing a satanic ritual?” she demands.
“It wasn’t satanic, Liv. I swear.”
“Right. Like I’m going to believe that. I suppose you’re going to try to tell me now that you didn’t have anything to do with Drew’s death, either. What was that, Eveny, some kind of sacrifice to the devil?”
“What? No! How could you even think that? You know me.”
“Do I? Because I sure as hell didn’t know about this,” she says. “You have thirty seconds. Be honest with me for once, or I’m leaving.”
“Fine.” I take a deep breath. “We were connected to Drew’s death.”
I see her eyes widen, and I realize immediately that even with all of her suspicions, she didn’t think this was true. “You killed him?” she whispers. She shrinks away like I might do the same thing to her.
“No!” I say. “I mean, not exactly. Drew was working for an organization called Main de Lumière. They kill people like me. People with magical powers. I never, ever meant for him to wind up dead. Caleb and I were just defending ourselves.”
“Magical powers? Have you completely lost your mind?” She shakes her head like she can’t believe what she’s hearing. “And Caleb was a part of what happened to Drew too?”
“He protects me,” I say softly. “It’s what makes everything so complicated between us. He’s not allowed to love me because he’s my protector, which makes me feel like I’ve been living in one giant soap opera since I arrived in Carrefour.”
“Eveny, you’re making no sense.”
I reach out to put a hand on her arm, but she jerks away like she’s been burned. “Liv,” I try again, “Drew was trying to kill me. It’s why he followed me to New Orleans that night. He attacked me in an alley. He stabbed me.
I would have died if Caleb hadn’t gotten there.”
Her eyes flick over me suspiciously. “Oh yeah? Then where are your stab wounds?”
“They healed,” I tell her, and her eyes narrow. “Look, you have to understand this. I have . . . powers. So do Peregrine and Chloe and some of the other people you saw in that clearing. They healed me after Drew’s attack. They healed Caleb too.”
She’s still eyeing me warily but I go on. “Think about it. There’s something weird going on in this town, Liv. Glory dying a few months ago? Ms. Marceau and Ms. St. Pierre being murdered? My own mom’s death is even connected.”
Her expression softens, but only a little. “So you believe your mom was part of this whole magic thing? And that’s why you got sucked into it?”
“I know she was, Liv. She was a zandara queen, and so am I. We’re trying to make things right around here.”
“What the hell is zandara?” Her eyes are flashing. “Don’t you know how insane this sounds?”
“Does it?” I ask. “Or does it explain everything?”
“No. Because magic isn’t real.” But she looks uncertain.
In the distance, I can hear my father calling for me, and I know he’s coming this way. “Look,” I say urgently. “The others want to charm you to make you forget what you saw. But I told them you could be trusted.”
“Charm me?”
“It means to cast magic. To erase your memory. But it’s risky. I don’t want to do that to you unless we have to. But I need to know that if I stand up for you and stop them from casting, you’ll keep quiet about what you saw.”
She stares at me for a long time. I can hear my father getting closer. Finally, she says, “I’m not going to say anything. For now. But I can’t promise I’m not going to go to the police after I’ve had a chance to think about this.” She pauses and adds, “I won’t do that without warning you, though.”
“Thank you,” I say, relief washing over me.
“Just don’t ever talk to me again,” she says as she turns to go. “Whatever’s going on here, Eveny, I don’t want anything to do with it. Whatever screwed-up crap you’ve gotten yourself into . . . well, you and the Dolls can take it and shove it. I’m done.”
This time, she pulls herself up over the wall with no trouble and runs through my garden, around my house to the front drive.
Caleb and Bram emerge from the cemetery at the same time, frowning.
“What happened?” Caleb asks.
“She’s not going to say anything.”
“How can you be sure?” Bram says.
“Because she’s a person who keeps her word.” I glance at Caleb and add, “But I think I just lost one of the closest friends I had in Carrefour.”
The next evening, after skipping school to give Liv a little time to think without having to see me around, I’m sitting in my room, trying to decide what to do about Main de Lumière, when I hear a knock on my door.
I turn to find my grandfather standing in the doorway. “Come in,” I say.
He nods and enters, and I notice that he’s moving with even more difficulty than he seemed to be last week. The cancer is clearly advancing, and he’s getting weaker.
“How are you feeling?” I ask him.
“Not so terrific,” he says, smiling grimly. He winces as he sits down on the chair at my desk.
“Anything I can do?” I ask.
“Yes, actually,” he says. He doubles over in a coughing fit, and after a moment, I stand to pat his back. I’m struck by how bony he feels, how thin and unsubstantial.
“What is it?” I ask when the coughing finally stops.
His breathing is labored as he stares at me. “You’re considering it still, aren’t you? Meeting with Gerdeaux again.”
I hesitate. “Maybe.”
“Despite what the sosyetes have advised?”
“Peregrine and Chloe are so shaken by their mothers’ deaths that they’re not thinking straight,” I say. “And you and my dad already had your minds made up about the right thing to do, even before I told you Gerdeaux’s story.”
Something flickers in his eyes. “You truly are your mother’s daughter, aren’t you?”
“I hope so.”
“Eveny,” he says after a moment, “you understand that I’m dying, don’t you?”
I nod. “I’m so sorry that I can’t do more to ease your pain.”
“But you can, my dear. You can be wiser in your role as a leader. You can be more cautious. All of that would bring me comfort and peace. But right now, I think you’re seeking revenge against those who have harmed you, instead of thinking about the future.”
I stare at him, wounded. “I am thinking about the future. I think Gerdeaux might be offering the only way for both magical traditions to survive.”
He laughs bitterly. “Nothing is as it appears, Eveny. You must know that by now. Our enemies are among us, cloaked as friends.”
“Yes, but sometimes our friends look like friends too,” I say. “And what if that’s what Gerdeaux is—a friend? Friendships don’t have to be perfect to be real.” I think of Liv and feel a sharp pang of sadness.
My grandfather turns to stare out the window. “Why don’t you just come home, Eveny?”
“I am home.”
“I mean home to Caouanne Island. I can guarantee your safety there.”
“But how? Main de Lumière has vowed they’ll find me wherever I go. And what’s to say andaba won’t be a target just as much as zandara?”
“You must trust me, dear girl,” he says. “There are forces at work here that you don’t understand. Let me protect you.”
“But who will protect Carrefour?” I ask. “Who will protect Chloe and Peregrine and Caleb and Aunt Bea and all of the people I care about here?”
He stands and begins to pace. “Don’t you know that your mother would have wanted you to stay safe?”
“She would have wanted me to act like a queen,” I say softly.
“A queen like her?” he asks. His face is turning pink. “Eveny, I respected your mother, but she wasn’t as powerful as you think. Nor was she particularly wise.”
His words slice into me. “How can you say that?”
“Look at her Rose of Life! Do you know how long she worked on that? And in the end, she failed, Eveny. She wasn’t powerful enough to accomplish the one thing she wanted to do with her life.”
I flinch. “She didn’t fail. She was killed before she could succeed.”
“No, Eveny. She wasn’t anywhere close to succeeding. I don’t mean to offend you, but it’s important that you realize this: the magic that’s practiced here in Carrefour, it’s play magic. Just look at what your sister queens have done with it. They’ve made their hair and their figures and their wardrobes better, but they haven’t done any good for the world.”
“But I’m going to change that.”
“Why should that be your responsibility?” He’s red in the face now; I’m worried that he’s going to collapse at any moment. “Everything your sister queens and their mothers have done with zandara has been so selfish and meaningless. Isn’t it clear to you by now?”
I stare at him until his face returns to its normal pale shade. Still breathing hard, he sinks down onto my desk chair again, exhausted. “Don’t you see?” he asks. “My one dying wish is that you return home to Caouanne Island, to the place where you can be safe, to the place where you can achieve great things. Don’t waste your life here.”
“It’s not a waste.” I take a deep breath. “And you’re wrong about my mom. She was powerful and wise. I’m so proud of her and what she was able to accomplish, and I’m proud of this place. It’s a huge part of who I am, and I can’t walk away from it. I won’t. The people here, they’re my family, just like you are.”
“But you and I are related by blood,” he says.
“And this town is in my blood. It’s been my destiny all along to live here, to help protect the people who call Carrefour home.�
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He stares at me for a long time before getting to his feet. “So you’re going tonight, aren’t you? To meet with Gerdeaux.”
I’m startled by the way he seems to see right through me. “I don’t know yet.”
“You’d be making the biggest mistake of your life.”
I shake my head, frustrated. “Didn’t you tell me that I might have the chance to unite both magical traditions? That I could chart my own path?”
“That was before I realized you might well destroy everything because you’re incapable of thinking things through.”
The words sting. “You think I haven’t thought about this?” I don’t give him a chance to answer. “I have to make a decision based on what I believe in my heart is right, not on what other people want me to do. I’ve spent my whole life making choices that way, and I’m done.”
“Then I’m done too,” he says. He walks to my doorway and pauses. “One day soon, you’ll rethink the decisions you’re making now, but it’ll be too late. I’m afraid you’re being very shortsighted, and that people will die because of it—because of you.” He walks out without another word.
It’s only after he’s gone that I realize I’m crying. I know my grandfather means well, and as he nears the end of his life, it only makes sense that he’s worried about preserving his legacy and keeping his family safe. But why is it so difficult for him to understand that I have a responsibility to this town too?
I watch the sunset over the cemetery from my window, and then I call Caleb’s cell. If I’m going to do this, I need to do it right.
“Would you come with me to New Orleans?” I ask when he picks up.
There’s silence on the other end for a moment. “I’m glad you called,” he says. “I’ll meet you out front in an hour.”
25
I’m standing beside Marie Laveau’s tomb in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans at midnight, and as the distant church bell begins to toll the hour, I look around, expecting Gerdeaux to materialize from the darkness, like last time.
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