Voodoo Academy Page 16

  I’m not sure…

  “But you know he’s here?”

  I think so… I mean, yes. He has to be. I don’t know where else…

  I gnawed on my cheek a little before lifting my hand and knocking on the tree’s trunk.

  My knock had no resonance—the tree was solid. “Anyone home?”

  I heard a grunt. It was Beli, who’d been watching my attempt to speak to the tree with some amusement.

  “Do you have an idea?” I asked.

  “Let Isabelle try,” Beli said, speaking calmly but surely.

  I ran my fingers through my hair, taking a deep breath. “I suppose it’s worth a try…”

  All I could think about was the inevitable headache that would follow. There wasn’t any guarantee this would work—but who was I to question an ancient dragon?

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought any of Mikah’s magic chill pills. Those things seemed to do the trick in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.

  “You ready, Isabelle?”

  I am…

  I lowered my body beside the tree, assuming a cross-legged pose. Criss-cross applesauce. That’s what I called it as a girl. Turning my palms upward, I rested my arms on my knees and took a deep breath. Typically, I suck at meditating… and this approach was never a guarantee to work. It usually didn’t. Not unless I was pretty tired. This time, though, it seemed to happen naturally. I simply felt Isabelle gently take over, her will now exerting itself through my body.

  This place, I thought. Everything just seems so natural, so easy…

  “This is incredible,” Isabelle said as she stood. I could feel the warmth of the tree, just as I had before, as she reached out and touched it.

  This time, I felt the magica course through my body. I couldn’t tell if the magica was going out of my body, if Isabelle was casting it, or if the tree itself was sending magica into us.

  A green glow illuminated the tree’s trunk in front of us—our eyes, filled with the magica of life, shining upon it.

  “Lugh…” Isabelle said. “I come in need of your aid.”

  I heard a crack, and the ground beneath my feet shifted. Isabelle instinctively stepped away from the unsettled ground beneath us. A creature emerged from the broken soil. I couldn’t tell if he had been under there all the while or if he was literally taking shape in front of us, growing up as if he were a tree himself. He looked something like one. He was distinctly human in shape, but his whole body was covered in bark and moss—the kind that one often sees on trees on Earth. Most of his proportions were typically human—except for his head. His skull was narrow and probably twice the length of a typical head.

  “Isabelle and Annabelle,” the Dryad said, his voice rich in tenor, with a subtle hint of gravel.

  “We are both here,” Isabelle said. “But Annabelle has given me control so that we might contact you.”

  “I did not expect to see you, not here… not until you were ready to become one of us.”

  Ready? I thought. What does he mean by ready?

  “He means when you die,” Isabelle said. “When our souls are untangled.”

  Lugh offered a slight nod. “So I presume what brings you to us is a matter of some importance.”

  “It is,” Isabelle said. “There’s a Loa… Kalfu.”

  Lugh’s eyes narrowed. “How did you end up tangled with such an insidious one as he?”

  “Purely by accident,” Isabelle said. “But he possessed Annabelle’s sister, learned about me. He’s come after some of our friends. He intends to claim my spirit, says he can separate us.”

  “He wants your power,” Lugh said. “It would unrestrain him.”

  Isabelle nodded.

  “It cannot happen,” Lugh said. “If he acquires your spirit, he might cross into the garden groves from Samhuinn.”

  “He already has, in a way,” Isabelle said. “It’s like he possessed another Loa… Papa Legba.”

  Lugh cocked his head. “He does not possess Legba… not strictly speaking. He is and always has been Legba’s opposite. When one rests, the other emerges. One by day, the other by night.”

  “So when Legba speaks, he isn’t deceiving us?”

  “Legba is as trustworthy as any decent Loa might be,” Lugh said. “But Kalfu, not a word of his can be believed. He has never exacted a bargain without a catch, one that did not work disproportionately to his advantage.”

  “That’s what we thought. Another boy at the school tried to summon Legba…”

  “The school?” Lugh asked.

  “A Voodoo Academy.”

  “Whatever is your business at that place?” Lugh asked.

  “We were invited… a Loa named Ogoun.”

  “I see,” Lugh said. “Never mind that. You said a boy attempted to summon Legba but he evoked Kalfu instead?”

  I felt Isabelle’s head nod. “Mikah is the boy’s name. He’s become a friend.”

  “And you are certain he evoked Kalfu by accident?” Lugh asked.

  “I trust him.”

  Lugh nodded. “It may not have been the boy’s intention, but it was not an accident.”

  “What do you mean?” Isabelle asked.

  “One does not evoke one like Kalfu in the same way that one might call upon Legba. They are two sides of one Loa—or two Loa in one—but they are appealed to in quite different ways. The boy either intended to evoke Kalfu, or he was deceived into doing it.”

  Isabelle shook our head. “He is kind… a good-hearted boy. He wouldn’t…”

  “As I said,” Lugh continued. “He could have been deceived.”

  “Then what do we do? How can we get rid of Kalfu?”

  “When the boy summoned him, it gave Kalfu a foothold in the material realm. Legba knows to bind himself when he rests. If Kalfu has come forth, however, as the dominant one, it means that Legba has lost the ability to suppress Kalfu even when he is awake.”

  “Legba had called on Annabelle—both of us, really—when we first got to the Academy. He asked us to help free Baron Samedi.”

  Lugh folded his arms. “And that is why you’ve come to me?”

  “It is… not that we want him free, but is there any other way?”

  “I fear not,” Lugh said. “Baron Samedi is the Loa who not only rules the realm of the dead—or at least he did—but he was the one whom the All-Father appointed to divide life from death itself. Here, the divide is manifest between the blighted land of the dead, Samhuinn, and these garden groves of life. But this divide is not merely a boundary in this immortal realm. In humans, the divide is writ into the will. The inclination to do good and the consumption with evil. Amongst the Loa, a single Loa governs that divide, manages it…”

  “Papa Legba? The Loa of the crossroads?”

  Lugh nodded. “A Loa of dual aspects… the divide between the two established by Baron Samedi.”

  “And he needs Baron Samedi to restore the divide?”

  “If Kalfu has encroached upon Legba, then the divide is threatened. If not restored, Kalfu will take over completely. And once he does, all the Loa will be consumed with his nature, his evil.”

  “They’ll all become… like demons.”

  Lugh nodded.

  “If this is true, why have you held the Baron all this time?”

  “I haven’t,” Lugh said. “I simply freed him from the Caplata’s summons and returned him to his place.”

  “His place?”

  “He inhabits the border between both sides of this realm. If he has not returned to Earth, even in his true form, it is not because I’ve prevented it.”

  “So he’s just letting this happen…”

  “I do not know his reasons. You will have to speak to him yourselves.”

  I wanted to take a deep breath—but I wasn’t in charge of our lungs at the moment. Speak to… Baron Samedi? The Grim Reaper. The motherfucker who has haunted my nightmares since childhood. Just speak to him?

  Is
abelle nodded.

  Lugh raised one of his crooked fingers. “But you must be sure you are ready before you approach the Baron.”

  “Ready in what way?” Isabelle asked.

  “You must speak to him single of purpose, with no divided motives or intentions. Such would be a challenge for anyone. All human beings have mixed motives. Still more, he already knows and will sense both of you. Your motives must be individually pure, but also united. You must speak to him as one.”

  And if we don’t? I asked, expecting Isabelle to relay my question.

  Lugh seemed to hear my words nonetheless. “If you do not, he may very well decide that your time has come.”

  “Our time?” Isabelle said.

  “He is the Reaper,” Lugh indicated. “He may decide that your lives… have expired.”

  So this is literally a life or death conversation…

  “Do not take it lightly, and if there be any animosity between you, see it settled before you approach him.”

  Isabelle smiled. “Thank you, Lugh, for all your help.”

  “Always, my future apprentice. Your time will come, then you will be the one granting sage wisdom to the rare traveler who ventures into our world.”

  “I’d say I’ll look forward to it, but… that wouldn’t be fair to Annabelle.”

  “Understood,” Lugh said with a tone that made it sound like he would have smiled if he could. If his face wasn’t rigid and seemingly constructed of bark. His body collapsed back into the ground, absorbed again by the soil at the base of the Tree of Life.

  “I suppose we should talk some things through,” Isabelle said. “Would you like to take back the reins?”

  My thoughts halted for a moment. Would I like to? There was something more fluid, more pure about our union here than when we were back on Earth. I was happy, whether I was in control or not. I felt no envy, no worry about how Isabelle might be using my body.

  I’m actually fine with it, either way…

  “I think you are better suited to do the talking. Aside from talking inside your head, I don’t have a lot of experience talking to people… not recently anyway.”

  Yet you have more wisdom that I do, most of the time.

  “That depends on the situation. With boys…”

  You’re impulsive?

  “Yes… I still can’t believe I kissed Mikah like that.”

  Worse things have happened to me… and it’s not rocket science why you did it. You like him.

  “Still, it was not appropriate. After all the times I’ve told you how dirty it felt when you were with boys and I had no consent in the matter.”

  Well, I appreciate the apology. But it really isn’t needed. It may be that you have better taste in men than I do, after all.

  Isabelle giggled. “You mean you’ve finally come around to the idea that hooking up with a married Loa might not be in your long-term best interest?”

  Something like that…

  “I’m sorry, Annabelle. I know you liked him.”

  I still do… I can’t help it. But I’m not going to get involved in a marriage between two Loa. That’s just asking for it.

  “On the other hand…” Isabelle paused a moment, as if thinking carefully through her words. “Have you considered how unhappy he must be? He has to share a wife with two other men.”

  I laughed to myself. I really can’t imagine. I mean, men are really territorial about their women.

  “And women aren’t that way? I mean, look at us!”

  You have a point, I guess. Giving someone your heart… that’s kind of like when a dog pisses on something.

  “Marking one’s territory. Could you think of a cruder analogy next time?”

  I’ll try… I really will.

  “But we are going to have to get over that… the whole territorial thing… if either of us is ever going to be happy. If either of us stands a chance at love.”

  Do you think we could love the same person, without becoming jealous?

  “Do you think we have a better chance at loving two different people, forcing each of them to have us only half of the time? That wouldn’t be fair to anyone we’d want to be with.”

  I’ll tell you what… if we get through this—

  “When we get through this, you mean…”

  Yes, when we get through this, I’ll try to have an open mind about Mikah. And one more thing too…

  “What’s that?”

  I think it’s time we start looking for a remedy for these headaches, because it’s high time I let you have your share of the time in charge.

  I could feel our eyes welling up… Isabelle was about to cry.

  Please don’t cry…

  “You don’t understand how hard it has been, to die so young—as a slave no less—to be sent back as a ghost, to have my spirit manipulated by my sister… then to have to sit back and watch a whole other life unfold that isn’t my own.”

  You’ve never really had a chance to live.

  “I’ve only existed. For almost two centuries I’ve existed… but no, I never lived.”

  Well, that ends now. Once we get through this.

  “Do you promise? Because if you’re joking, if you’re going to just take it back… I mean, that’s fine. It’s your life. I have no right to demand.”

  I promise.

  Isabelle rubbed our eyes. “I think we’re ready to talk to Baron Samedi.”

  But you should do the talking.

  Isabelle shook our head. “You are still afraid of him, aren’t you?”

  I sighed. He terrifies me…

  “Then that’s exactly why you need to be the one to do it.”

  How does that make a fuck’s worth of any sense?

  “Because if Baron Samedi really comes back, how are you going to go to that school every day, knowing he’s around the corner, if you haven’t faced your fear?”

  I don’t know…

  “Which is why you are doing the talking.”

  With that, I felt Isabelle simply let go of the reins. How the hell did she do that so easily? I usually had to work myself in to a state of artificial calm.

  I felt my consciousness resume control of my body. My fingers tingled. They always did when I took over again, but I usually didn’t give the sensation a second thought on account of the migraine that usually struck me at the same time. But this time, I felt totally fine. No headache. No pain at all.

  “Isabelle! My head…”

  If you need to lie down—

  “No, my head… it doesn’t hurt at all!”

  Do you think it’s this place?

  “I don’t know. Honestly I don’t think that’s it at all.”

  Then what is it, do you think?

  “I think it’s because we are at peace… together. I mean, you never felt it when you took the reins before.”

  I just figured it worked different…

  “It’s because I couldn’t accept it. I think it was my distress, the feeling of helplessness. It’s like when you took over, I craved control again. I was like an addict going through withdrawal.”

  But the headache came afterwards?

  “The hangover always comes the next day.”

  Let’s hope that’s what this is. If so, it will make everything we talked about before so much easier when we get back.

  “Yeah, I wasn’t really looking forward to popping a bunch of Mikah’s homemade pills every time we exchanged reins…”

  Isabelle laughed. I know what you mean. That stuff gives us gas anyway.

  I almost choked on my tongue. “Well I guess you would know…”

  Mounting Beli was a little easier the second go-round. And the flight was even more freeing. But I still had a lot on my mind. I was angry. I was also worried. Pauli was my only real friend at this school. If he didn’t make it… if he was dead.

  I couldn’t allow my mind to go there. We were not going back to his funeral. We were going back to save him… to save everyone. That was what
I had to tell myself, but deep down, I suspected and feared the worst. And it tore me apart. Now, I was putting all my hope on the very same Loa who’d destroyed my family, who I’d dreaded for nine long years. I’d have to put my big girl panties on for this one… for Pauli’s sake.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Crossing the ley lines from the groves into the blighted land of the dead was like flying out of a day spa and directly into an oven. I could feel my skin broil beneath Samhuinn’s heat.

  “I don’t understand,” I said out loud, talking to Beli and Isabelle both. “Didn’t the Dryad say that Baron Samedi lives on the border, between the two sides of Guinee?”

  He did… but the border is long. He didn’t say what part of the border.

  “But Beli knows…”

  The dragon snorted—I could feel it rumble beneath my thighs. Some people would pay good money for a sensation like that. I might have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for the damn heat. I thought about releasing a touch of Isabelle’s magica into my skin—the stuff is more soothing than aloe vera, but not nearly as sticky. Still, I was basically flying a dragon into hell and I was about to go see the Grim fucking Reaper—the same bastard who’d haunted my dreams for years. If shit went south, I’d need whatever magica I could draw.

  “Can’t we just fly on the other side?” I asked as Beli started flying parallel to the ley line.

  Again, he snorted. “I like the feeling.”

  I guess it would make sense that a dragon might not be fazed by heat—I mean, I hadn’t exactly seen him do it yet, but I guessed he could breathe fire.

  “You might like how it feels, but it feels like I’m flying through an air fryer. I don’t know how long I can take this.”

  Beli didn’t speak but cocked his head to the left and the rest of his body followed. The soothing breeze cooled my skin the moment we passed back across the ley lines.

  “Thank you,” I said, patting Beli on the side of his neck.

  I could swear I felt him chuckle. Suddenly, I found we were flying straight up. Quickly. I struggled to hold on, gripping the dragon as tightly as I could with my legs while clinging for dear life to his scales. I would have screamed, but Isabelle was giggling at the thrill.