by J. N. Colon
I gasped and stepped back. Sparks scattered as he struck it over and over, his expression feral.
“Frakti koulye a!”
A pop boomed, and the wall shattered into a million pieces. Etie stepped forward, reaching for me.
“And this is why Étienne is my favorite son!”
Kalfou’s words stopped Etie in his tracks. His hand dropped back to his side, and he took a step back.
“No,” I hissed. Those harsh concrete walls were slipping over him. I wouldn’t let him push me away. I closed the distance between us and clutched his shirt with my good hand. “Don’t do that. I need you, Etie.” His face blurred through my unshed tears.
“Angeline, I—”
“Please.”
His gaze lowered, landing on the hand I was cradling. “What happened?” Anger flared in his eyes again. “Is it broken?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I buried my face in his chest. I just wanted him to hold me.
“All this running around, searching for a way to stop Baron Samedi was one big trick.” Bastien’s voice trembled with rage. “You’ve always known how to weaken the baron.”
Kalfou shrugged. “I couldn’t exactly just hand over the information. I had to play along.”
“Resix knew who you were, didn’t he?” The way those neon yellow eyes had settled over Henri and the small, knowing tilt to the demon’s lips when he explained no loa could touch the knife once anointed, he’d recognized his master.
“Of course he did.” Kalfou absentmindedly ran his finger over the silver snake ring he wore. “And he knew to keep his mouth shut. Resix is smart. He’s one of my favorites.”
Lines creased Baron Samedi’s forehead as he surveyed the other loa. “All these years, the great Louange le Noir bokor who brought more worship my way was really you.” He crossed his arms against his chest, his eyes flickering crimson. “You were pretending to be this bokor for a reason. Tell us why so I can get on with destroying the gates.”
“Baron, stop that nonsense.” Papa Legba stepped toward the baron. “Can’t you see Kalfou has had a hand in this?” He pointed to his temple. “You know he can get into minds, even ours.”
Baron Samedi’s eyes narrowed on the deity of dark magic. “What exactly is going on here?”
Kalfou tossed his hands up. “I guess you caught me.” His smile turned ominous, stretching too far across his face.
The fingers on my good hand tightened their hold on Etie’s shirt.
“I’ve been planning this whole thing for years, and it only took this little self-sacrificing witch to nearly wreck it.” His attention shifted to Baron Samedi. “Do you really think destroying the gates is a good idea? Even for you, that’s a stretch.”
Maman Brigitte had been right. Baron Samedi’s balance was off, but Kalfou had been screwing with his mind.
“Of course it was my idea.” He opened his arms wide. Fog rolled over the ground again. “Fete Gede will be celebrated for eternity. My day, my party, my voodoo. I’ll be the king—”
Kalfou snorted, interrupting him. “You’re a dark loa, but the things you’ve been doing…” He plucked a bottle of rum out of thin air. Small peppers danced in it. “The child, Baron?” He flicked his hand in my direction. “You tricked a ten-year-old into a deal.” His laughter rang out. “Does that sound like you?”
The baron shrugged. “It was a means to an end. Just one small child.”
“And the other one?” Kalfou asked.
A rock sank to the bottom of my stomach. “What other child?”
Kalfou motioned to the voodoo king with the end of the bottle. “Where do you think Marisol’s mysterious sickness originated from?”
My gaze turned to the baron, fire searing my veins. “You made her sick? You did this just to get to me?” I slipped out of Etie’s grasp, but the pouvior bokor was quick, catching me around the middle.
“Don’t, cher.” His rough whisper barely made it over the blood rushing in my ears. “I don’t think that was really his doing.” His head swiveled toward his father. “You spread evil thoughts through his mind, didn’t you?”
Kalfou shrugged. “I had to.”
“You’re a sick, twisted loa,” Bastien spat. “The bondye should have destroyed you.”
His slick, oily eyes drifted to his eldest. “And I should have destroyed you when you weren’t as powerful as I’d wanted.”
“Don’t play into his games.” Papa Legba waved Bastien over. “Come here.”
Bastien sent his father one more scathing look before walking backward to Papa Legba. He came around to my other side. He and Etie traded covert glances.
“What are you guys up to?” I mumbled.
“Nothing, Angel.” Bastien’s hand ran over my shoulder. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Except for the throbbing pain and the three voodoo loa looking like they were ready to rumble.
Bastien gave me a side hug, pressing his lips to the top of my head. “We’re going to get out of this. I’ll make sure.”
My throat tightened at his big brother protectiveness that now included me. Bastien was usually all smiles and charm, but right now, he let the dangerous voodoo bokor crawl toward the surface.
The air crackled around me. Holy voodoo hexes! My conduit powers were still out, floating around, and I was sandwiched between two powerful voodoo casters. The receptors were dormant now that Baron Samedi had stopped the ritual, but I could accidentally tap into anyone right now.
I ignored the worried look Etie gave me and drew my powers in, slamming them behind a steel wall.
“You’re telling me you’ve been screwing with my mind for the last eight years?” Baron Samedi chuckled and took a seat on the tombstone, leaning back as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The tips of his purple coattails disappeared beneath the fog. “I doubt that.”
“Oh no, Baron, it’s been a lot longer than that.” Kalfou absentmindedly buffed his nails against his shirt, a smile twitching at his lips. “I’ve been doing this for the better part of twenty-four years.”
My sharp intake of air was drowned out by the evil loa’s deep chuckles. Baron Samedi had been manipulated for twenty-four years?
As Kalfou’s words sank through the atmosphere, all humor left the voodoo king. “That’s not possible,” he mumbled under his breath, his gaze pensive.
Kalfou pulled a pipe out of thin air, the stem constructed from bones. “I took on this guise and came to Carrefour because it’s a place of power, a mystical crossroad. I’d need all the power I could get.” He flicked his finger as if striking a match, and a flame appeared. “I searched for a special woman and found her in the swamp.” His lids fluttered closed. “Gabrielle was perfect.”
Bastien and Etie stiffened at their mother’s name. A sick feeling twisted my gut remembering Kalfou’s words at Le Revenant. He’d called Gabrielle the one. He hadn’t been talking about true love. She was just another pawn.
But what was his endgame?
“I needed to create a powerful bokor.” Kalfou put his flaming finger to the pipe, lighting the tobacco. “When Gabrielle had Bastien, I thought he’d do the trick. He was my son after all, part loa as well as a bokor.” His eyes shifted to Etie, the black melting to give way to Henri’s brown irises. “And then my miracle was born. The pouvior bokor.”
Waves of emotion crashed through Etie. His muscles vibrated with the effort it took not to attack his father. “I was your precious source of power. I know.”
Smoke coiled from Kalfou’s nostrils. “Like all pouvior bokors, you were born with immense power, but I had to test you. I had to make sure you were worthy. Your power had to be just the right amount of darkness.”
“For what?” Baron Samedi snapped. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Lots.” Kalfou stared at me despite Etie and Bastien’s attempt to shield me. His gaze seemed to be able to find me no matter what. “I needed a conduit, and I knew of a coven that had them in their linea
ge with ties to Carrefour. As luck would have it, the conduit was born about a year after my pouvior bokor.” He took another pull from his pipe. “And even luckier, she turned out to be a pretty little girl. I knew she would make a perfect gwo-bon lyen for Etie.”
My knees trembled. The bright stars above blurred. I shouldn’t be surprised. Etie and I had been manipulated into each other’s lives by my grandmother. Apparently, fate had a helping hand since we were born.
“That’s why you helped bind our souls, why you came so easily when I called.” Etie’s voice was hoarse. “It’s why you were so adamant about us staying together.”
“And I may have nudged you two crazy kids along.” Kalfou leaned against a headstone, the satisfaction in his expression making me nauseous. He was more full of himself than Baron Samedi. “I made sure when Evangeline was in danger she had a strong hero to protect her.”
My mind swirled with memories. The pieces finally fit. The baron and his spirits hadn’t been the only ones haunting me. “The baka and the vivankò, that was your doing.”
Kalfou bowed dramatically. “And don’t forget about Baron Samedi’s deal.”
The baron shot to his feet. “What about my deal?”
“Evangeline needed a reason to ask for Etie’s help. And Etie needed a reason to bind their souls.” Kalfou’s appearance had begun to slowly change. His skin darkened a few shades, and his cheekbones grew more prominent. Tattoos crawled up his neck and down his arms. He looked more like the picture in Mama CeCe’s book.
“This is madness,” the baron spat, his nostrils flaring. “You can’t mess with this much and someone not sense it.”
“I can control minds.” He tapped his temple. “Anytime someone got close to figuring it out, I twisted their memories.” The evil deity motioned a long finger around us. “And that’s exactly what I’m going to do in a few minutes.”
“I still don’t understand what you want.” Papa Legba had taken a few steps closer to his brother. “Why bound the conduit and pouvior bokor? Why do you need that kind of power, and why weaken Baron Samedi?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Kalfou took another long gulp of rum and placed the bottle down, the tip of it barely visible beneath the fog. “I needed the baron weakened so I could use the power of the conduit and pouvior bokor to take control of the gates—forever.” The silver snake ring on his finger suddenly moved, stretching and coiling up his hand. It grew almost as big as Etie’s tattoo.
Ice water poured down my back and coated my body until even my bones were frozen. The scales of the serpent shimmered in the moonlight as it curled around Kalfou’s neck, sinking into his skin. Those emerald, reptilian eyes remained fixed on me.
It was a koulèvkay.
I always knew that thing looked too alive to be just a piece of jewelry.
“I couldn’t take the gates forever simply by weakening Baron Samedi,” Kalfou continued, stroking his magical tattoo with an eerie smile. “I needed power to replace him, to kill him.”
“But you can’t kill a loa,” I blurted.
Etie stiffened, and the brothers pushed in closer, squishing me.
Deep, skin-crawling laughter slithered from Kalfou. If I thought the baron’s laugh was creepy, then this was downright terrifying. “With the power of a pouvior bokor heightened by a conduit, I can certainly destroy a loa.”
Etie and I shared a look. Were our powers together that strong? That destructive?
I swallowed hard, knowing the answer. Yes. Kalfou was going to use us like a magic sword to slice into Baron Samedi.
“Why do you want control of my gates?” Scarlet embers began to shimmer in the voodoo king’s irises.
“He who controls the gate, controls the souls.” The koulèvkay’s tongue peeled off the loa’s skin, flicking out and tasting the air. “I need bad souls to be my demons and the good ones to fuel my dark spells. I want to spread more dark magic until the light is barely visible on the voodoo scales.”
“That’s madness, Kalfou.” Papa Legba stared at his twin, his lips forming a thin line. “That could rip voodoo apart.”
Manic laughter rang out. “Let voodoo rip apart. Power is all that matters. I don’t care if you’re voodoo or Wiccan. As long as you’re dark and serve me, I’m happy.” He held his arms wide, the muscles much larger than they had been as Henri. “I won’t only be voodoo’s one true god like the bondye. I’ll be the god of all magic.”
The baron looked sane compared to Kalfou.
“I won’t let you do this.” Baron Samedi moved toward Kalfou, his smoldering steps breaking up the mist.
“You don’t have a choice.” The evil deity jerked his chin at Etie and me. “I already have everything I need. Once I twist your memories, Etie will stab you, and that will open the way for me. I’ll use them, bleed them of every drop of power until I can kill you, and the gates are mine.”
The ground began to rumble, and Kalfou’s eyes melted black. His lips moved fast, chants pouring out. “Pran tèt ou. Pran tèt ou.”
Oh voodoo hell. He was going to make us forget this whole conversation, and we’d be back to square one.
With a vicious growl, Baron Samedi bolted, crashing into the other deity. Papa Legba zoomed forward to meet them.
The loa were blurs of movements as they fought. Magic thrummed through the air, electric and sizzling hot.
Etie quickly pulled me to the tall iron gates. “Come on, Angeline. We’re getting out of here.”
I glanced back. “What about Papa Legba?” Hell, I even felt bad for Baron Samedi—kind of. He’d been used this entire time too.
“They can handle Kalfou.” He drew me away while Bastien grabbed the knife from the misty ground, stowing it in his pocket.
Pain suddenly seared through my back. I halted as a ragged yell tore free.
“Not so fast, Étienne.” Kalfou’s hand was raised, a black rope of smoke swirling out of his palm, gripping me around the waist. Papa Legba and Baron Samedi were on the ground, both disoriented. “You both have something I want.”
The smoke yanked me around and crawled from my waist to my chest. A thick tendril punched inside like a fist, gripping my center. Agony ripped me to pieces. My magic slowly seeped out.
“Stop!” Etie clawed at the smoke to break the connection. “Kase.” His palm sizzled, and he yanked it away.
“Don’t worry, Étienne.” Kalfou’s voice was frigid, a chilling tenor even worse than Resix’s. “You’ll have a turn.” A second rope of thick smoke shot from his other hand, right into Etie’s chest.
Pain exploded through my alimèt. His powers quickly began tearing from his soul. “Etie!” I clutched him with my good hand, trying to do anything to help.
It was an impossible feat when my own anguish was splitting me in half.
The koulèvkay came alive and peeled from Kalfou’s skin, coiling around his neck. “I’ll just have to take your powers first and force Bastien to incapacitate Baron Samedi.”
There were five of us and only one Kalfou. We should be able to take him. Two beings on our side were full voodoo loa. Two more were half, and I was a damn conduit. I’d spent the last few months strengthening my control.
Baron Samedi stalked me for years, but Kalfou was pulling the strings all along. He’d manipulated so many lives I cared about. He’d hurt Etie and Bastien for years, even Gabrielle, all because of his lust for power.
The girl I was at the start of the summer would have frozen and waited for someone to save her. She would have relied on others to swoop in and protect her. There was no way she’d be able to fight off an evil voodoo god.
I wasn’t that girl anymore. And my father was right. I was brave.
This evil S.O.B. wasn’t going to take away my soul mate or hurt anyone else. Etie and I were a force to be reckoned with. You couldn’t just take our powers.
They were ours.
Etie sensed my sudden determination even as my soul was ripping apart. His eyes flared to a brilliant blue and green
, glowing with so much intensity it was like looking at the sun. “We won’t let him win, yeah?”
“Not a chance,” I gritted out, my entire body trembling.
Our toujous began to glow a radiant golden color as our powers connected. His light and dark voodoo swirled around my Wiccan magic. Shades of onyx and pearly white twisted with vibrant magenta and violet, forming a cloud around us.
Etie’s jaw dropped. He was seeing the physical manifestation of our powers for the first time.
It was beautiful.
The exhilarated expression of Kalfou’s face faltered for a second. He knew something was happening.
Etie pried my hand off him, holding it out as his rested beneath it. A churning ball of white, purple, and black formed within my palm.
Kalfou’s manic laughter vibrated through the spirit world. “Is that supposed to stop me?”
While the evil loa was focused on us, Bastien had crept behind him, his face like hard, cold steel. The anointed dagger was clutched in one hand, and the other was curled into a tight fist.
“No,” I gasped through the burning pain. “But it’ll help.” I tossed the energy ball at Kalfou so fast he didn’t have time to block it.
The powerful orb slammed into the loa, making him release the black cords attached to Etie and me. The deity stumbled.
And Bastien attacked.
The moonlight glinted on the iron blade as it arced down, piercing Kalfou’s chest.
A growl rumbled out of the deity as he glanced at his eldest son. “You think this is going to defeat me?” Dark blood trickled from his mouth. His fingers wrapped around the hilt of the knife. “It’ll weaken me for a few hours, but then I’ll be back for all of you.”
He was right. The blade was meant for Baron Samedi. I wasn’t even sure how long it would wound Kalfou for. When he recovered, he’d be coming for us again.
“I think you’ll be out longer than that, Dad.” Bastien raised his other fist and blew something into Kalfou’s face.
The loa coughed. “Vistako dust?”
“Snake venom, crushed bull horn, and a hair from Papa Legba. It weakens even the darkest of spirits.” A smile split Bastien’s lips. “You taught me that when I was eight.” He knocked his father’s hand from the hilt, grabbing it and twisting deeper. A sickening crunch echoed.