Death Rites

by Theophilus Monroe

  And Dudley’s eyes just turned from green to red…

  Maman Brigitte hooked her arm with Dudley’s, now possessed by the red Baron, at least a part of him. The rest was with Kalfu.

  Was this what it was all about from the start? Erzulie’s stupid deal with Brigitte to bring back her husband? Was that why she was betraying all of us to the Bokors? It was unbelievable…

  Still worse, Marie Laveau, who could predict the future with her quill, was the one who appointed Erzulie. Was Marie Laveau in league with the Bokors, too? The divide in the Academy—Erzulie, Brigitte, and Sogbo against Aida-Wedo and Ogoun—it was the start of the war that Oggie had told me was coming. The one he recruited me for… the reason I was here.

  I didn’t have a choice. Clear shot or not, I had to take it. This was war… or it would be, soon.

  I took aim for the urn. I squeezed the trigger. The bolt fired sure and true, just nicking Erzulie before smashing the urn into pieces. A bright light, red and white, shone from it as Nico’s apparition appeared.

  Erzulie was fighting it—but my bolt was about to send her to Guinee.

  She screamed.

  Nico looked at me briefly, smiled, and nodded. The only time, perhaps, he’d ever shown me respect or gratitude. I’d take it.

  He was free.

  Erzulie was still trying to hold on. She clung to Brigitte as her body started to fall into a hole caused by the nick in her forearm where my bolt had struck her.

  It was no use.

  Annabelle, turn around!

  I spun on my feet. Alexa stood in front of me with her hand raised. Two seconds later I felt my body tumbling through the air. I drew on Isabelle’s magica to form a protective shell, something to lessen the blow as I crashed into the crowd and the bleachers on the other side of the auditorium.

  I looked back at Alexa.

  A horrible cloud surrounded her. She extended her hand upward and cast a massive bolt through the roof and into the sky, into Vilokan’s firmament.

  Screams filled the auditorium.

  Had Alexa really just destroyed the firmament?

  Pauli appeared on my shoulders.

  “Pauli, thank God! You have to get Ashley out of here. Mikah too. Get them all out, as many as you can.”

  “You got it,” Pauli said. “But then I’m coming back for you.”

  “Get them out first. I might be able to get some out through Guinee, but I don’t know how many. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to get them back again. Save as many as you can.”

  I willed Beli to reshape as a blade and ran, looking for Oggie. I crashed into Aida-Wedo, who was already busy teleporting people out. She’d happened to reappear mid-transport right in front of me.

  “Get as many as you can,” I told her.

  “You too, child. As many to Guinee as you can. Even with all of us working together, we won’t be able to save them all.”

  I nodded.

  I looked around. I wasn’t about to call a gate only to have Alexa use it to escape. Nico was free—but there were some scores I had to settle. I charged at Maman Brigitte with my blade. She grinned widely as I struck her with Beli, sending her directly to Guinee.

  Why was she smiling about it? Isabelle asked. That seemed too easy.

  “I don’t know, but Guinee can’t hold her forever. Won’t hold Erzulie either. They’ll be back eventually.”

  I saw Sauron, who had collapsed on her knees in tears.

  “Sauron!” I shouted as I approached her. “Pauli and Aida-Wedo are helping people escape. Hang in there. We’ll get you out of here.”

  I looked across the room and saw Pauli appear on Ellie’s shoulders, and a split second later they both disappeared on a rainbow.

  She was safe…

  But did he get Mikah and Ashley? I prayed he did. I touched the crucifix I wore around my neck. Please, God, help them…

  I couldn’t lose them… not Ashley. Not Mikah.

  Pauli reappeared in front of me.

  “Get Sauron,” I said.

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “She was manipulated here. This wasn’t her fault.”

  Pauli zapped onto Sauron’s shoulders and disappeared in another display of rainbow-colored light.

  “Isabelle, are they here? Can you see their auras?”

  Too many people… I just can’t say for sure…

  Water started to pour in from the ceiling where Alexa broke through. It was flowing in through the doors below. Vilokan was flooding.

  I took off across the floor. I had to get Alexa. I didn’t know what my chances were, but she had to be stopped.

  Water splashed around me as I ran, keeping an eye open for Ashley or Mikah.

  Then I saw Alexa… and Ashley. And Mikah. They were both trapped, spinning in tornadoes of red magic.

  “Let them go, Alexa!” I shouted.

  “If my master cannot have Nico’s spirit, he requires yours.”

  I huffed. Of course he did. Kalfu had wanted Isabelle from the start.

  “Well, he’s going to be disappointed.”

  “I wonder how fast I can spin your sister and your friend here before their bodies are torn apart. How much centrifugal force can the human body take…”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Not if you go with me to Kalfu.”

  “Even if I do, they might not make it out of here in time!”

  Alexa shrugged. “They’ll have a chance. Will you give them a chance?”

  My head hung low. I didn’t stand a chance taking her on one-on-one. I didn’t. And it was an impossible choice. But it wasn’t my only choice…

  Let me take the reins. Her power manipulates nature. I might be able to stop her.

  It was my best shot. Short of giving Isabelle to Kalfu or letting Alexa kill Ashley and Mikah, but if Isabelle failed, I’d lose them all. Alexa was giving me a Sophie’s choice of sorts—save Isabelle and the world, or save my sister and Isabelle’s boyfriend.

  But Isabelle loved Mikah. I loved my sister, but Isabelle had more power to wield. She wouldn’t let us down. She’d fight with everything she had.

  I exhaled, releasing control of my body. I felt Isabelle’s power surge through my flesh as she lifted our head.

  No anti-headache pills. Stay calm. No fear. No anger. So long as I didn’t get too emotional and Isabelle remained in charge, she had a good shot against Alexa.

  A barrage of green energies flowed out of our fingers and struck the two tornadoes, slowing them down.

  Alexa screamed, combating Isabelle’s power with her own.

  Two green tornadoes of energy spun against Alexa’s red ones. Whichever was the strongest would prevail.

  It was enough to release Ashley and Mikah, who both crashed to the floor.

  Rage filled Alexa’s face as she stared Isabelle down.

  Bring it on, bitch! I said, though I knew Alexa couldn’t hear me now that Isabelle was running things. Still, it made me feel better.

  Alexa extended her arm and shot a chain of lighting at us. Isabelle countered with jade energies, drawn straight from the Tree of Life.

  The two collided in an explosion of power unlike anything I’d ever felt or seen. So bright… so painful…

  Ashely… Mikah… They were close when it happened. I could only hope Pauli or Aida-Wedo had found them first, but I didn’t know….

  I’m not sure if I blacked out because I was worried about them and ended up seizing back the reins, but if that was the case, after wielding a spell like that I was sure to lose consciousness. A blessing, since I didn’t have the post-rein-exchange pills at hand. More likely, though, the sheer force of the magic had just knocked me out.

  * * * * *

  Everything was black. Usually you black out, no matter how much time passes it feels like an instant when you come to. But now… it felt like I was falling through darkness.

  Had I died… again?

  The darkness turned to a bright light.

 
Shit, there was a light… I didn’t want to go into the light.

  Two figures appeared, one tall and the other short and slight of frame.

  As I fell closer to them, their forms were clear.

  Nico and Brayden stood there, smiling widely.

  “Well fuck.”

  Nico smiled wide. “Only you would curse yourself at the edge of the afterlife.”

  “I don’t want to die!” I said.

  “Well that’s good,” Brayden said. “Because you aren’t dead. Your soul is just a bit… unsettled. The force of the spell, with Isabelle in control, jarred some things loose. But you aren’t dead.”

  “Well that’s a relief,” I said. “What about Ashley and Mikah?”

  “Haven’t seen them,” Brayden said before turning to Nico. “Have you?”

  Nico shook his head.

  I took a deep breath.

  “But there are a lot of souls passing over right now,” Nico said.

  I held my head low. “This isn’t how I wanted this to turn out.”

  “You saved me,” Nico said. “If you hadn’t done what you did, can you imagine what Kalfu would have done? We wouldn’t just be lamenting the fall of Vilokan, we’d be talking about the whole world.”

  “You did well, Annabelle,” Brayden said. “There was hardly a better outcome possible given the circumstances.”

  I shook my head, or at least what felt like a head in whatever kind of incorporeal form I was in. “It’s just too many lives. How can I live with this blood on my hands?”

  “You didn’t do this. Alexa Windstrom did,” Nico said.

  “Still…”

  “When you freed me, Annabelle, you gave me a new chance. I didn’t understand how I could be heading to the light, after all I’d done.”

  “When you were a vampire?”

  Nico nodded.

  “But Bondye will not hold me accountable for the lives lost on account of the demon that was forced upon me.”

  “Dude, I just freed you like ten minutes ago.”

  Nico laughed. “From your perspective. Here, time is… irrelevant.”

  “All the souls passing from Vilokan to here… if you could hear the song in their hearts,” Brayden said.

  “They’re singing?”

  “In a way,” Brayden said. “Songs of the young heroine, the girl from another world, who didn’t belong. The girl who stood up to the force of the Bokors.”

  I huffed. “I’m no hero.”

  “No hero, or heroine as the case may be, ever thinks of herself as one,” Nico said.

  “But make no mistake,” Brayden said. “To these people, you are their heroine.”

  “But Vilokan has fallen. Most of them drowned because I couldn’t save them all. Pauli and Aida-Wedo…”

  “They drew their courage, especially Pauli, from you, Annabelle,” Nico said, smiling at me kindly.

  “But you’re right,” Brayden said. “Your battle isn’t over. These souls, you might not have saved them from drowning…”

  “But the death rites must be fulfilled,” Nico said. “You must free them.”

  “How can I do that?” I asked.

  “Kalfu has a whole city of powerful Hougans and Mambos whose corpses he intends to resurrect.”

  I shook my head. “This shit never ends, does it?”

  “It will,” Brayden said. “Everything ends. You let go of your fear before. You released your anger. Now, you need to let go of your pain and guilt.”

  “That’s easier said than done,” I said.

  “Of course it is,” Nico said. “But you have to let go of it. Just think of all the guilt I accumulated in the many lifetimes that I walked the earth as a vampire. But it is fear, anger, and guilt that leaves souls wandering as wraiths. You deserve better than that, Mulledy.”

  I nodded.

  “By the way, I forgive you,” Nico said. “For leaving me in Guinee. I know it wasn’t your fault. Not entirely. But for whatever part you had in it. I forgive you.”

  “You shouldn’t,” I said.

  “The guilt,” Brayden urged. “Let go of it!”

  “See what I mean… easier said than done.”

  “Just remember,” Nico said. “Kalfu isn’t the scariest demon you might face. It’s the demon inside, the one that leaves you wallowing in self-pity. Conquer that, and Kalfu won’t stand a chance.”

  I nodded. I reached out to give the two men hugs—one I’d hated in life but came to admire in death, the other I’d barely known but came to adore like a little brother. But my arms passed through their forms.

  “You aren’t on our plane, Annabelle,” Brayden said. “Because you aren’t dead yet. It’s time to go back. Your friends are waiting.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  It felt almost like floating, but it was comforting to feel my body held by two massive arms. I squeezed one of the arms that held me.

  Talk about biceps…

  I opened my eyes, and Oggie looked back at me.

  “Good to have you back, Annabelle.”

  The sunlight was blinding. Apparently being unconscious for a while leaves you with dilated pupils. I shielded my face.

  “Ashley and Mikah… did they…”

  Oggie smiled—his face was about the only thing I could see through the sunlight’s glare. “Pauli got them both out. Just before he came back for you.”

  “Damnit, that boy has saved me more times than I can count.”

  Next thing I knew, Pauli appeared on Oggie’s shoulders. “I can’t count that high either you know, since I’m accustomed to counting things on fingers and toes. The highest I can count to now is one.”

  I laughed.

  “Thank you, Pauli, for saving them.”

  “You saved a lot of people today,” Oggie said.

  “But there were too many who died…”

  Oggie nodded.

  “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “There’s someone who wants to see you.”

  “Mikah and Ashley?”

  “They want to see you too. But I’m afraid that will have to wait. You’re too important, and you can be sure Kalfu is trying to find you even as we speak.”

  I shook my head. “I need to see my sister. Isabelle wants to see Mikah.”

  “Soon enough,” Oggie said. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Again, where are we going? I can walk, you know. I don’t even have a headache.”

  Oggie smiled. “Mikah made sure you wouldn’t. He had a couple of those pills on him and gave them to you while you were under.”

  “Thank God for that…”

  “I can set you down…”

  I nuzzled into Oggie’s chest. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted him to. It felt comforting to be in his arms. To be held… but I wasn’t a baby. “All right, set me down please.”

  As my feet touched the ground—my bare feet; someone had removed my shoes—I felt white sand squish between my toes.

  I looked around. The sound of the ocean crashing against the shore was strangely familiar.

  “Holy crap,” I said. “How long was I out? There aren’t beaches like this in New Orleans.”

  “It’s been a few hours,” Oggie said. “I was starting to get worried, in truth.”

  “And who are we going to see?”

  “Look at the waves… you’ll see.”

  I stared out at the ocean. It was beautiful. Peaceful. I didn’t have much in my life that offered serenity—so I relished in the momentary sensation.

  Then I saw a form emerge from the sea. His long hair, his body chiseled. He smiled at me.

  “Agwe?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  Where his legs had been there was now a giant tail. He was a merman.

  “You did well, Annabelle,” Agwe said. It was the first time I’d heard him speak.

  “You do talk after all?”

  “When I’m on the surface I dry out easily, and the vocal cords are the first to go. But yes, I can talk.
” Agwe grinned widely.

  “Why are we here? What do you want with me?”

  “In my eyes, you were the true champion of the Trials. And with Erzulie gone, it is up to me to declare the winner.”

  “I thought Sauron…”

  “She did not win on her own accord. It was another who wielded the power on her behalf.”

  “Then Dudley was the runner-up…”

  Agwe’s head hung low. “Unfortunately, Mister Dumont did not escape Vilokan in time. In fact, you are the last surviving competitor aside from Miss Lemursia. And on account of Miss Windstrom’s efforts and her compliance with those efforts, I’ve disqualified her.”

  I cringed, remembering what Nico and Brayden had said. “Kalfu is going to use the bodies of those left in Vilokan… We have to…”

  “That’s why I need you, Annabelle.”

  “You need me? For what?”

  “I need your help to put the souls of Vilokan to rest. Before Kalfu seizes them.”

  I nodded. “How can I do that?”

  “With the prize that goes to the champion of the Trials.” Agwe handed me what looked like a totem; it resembled a serpent. I took it in my hands.

  “Is this Dumballah’s blessing?”

  Agwe nodded.

  “What in the world will I do with it?”

  “The choice is yours,” Agwe said. “But choose wisely, for the sake of Vilokan and all her people.”

  I glanced at Pauli. I’d thought I’d get him a new body if I happened to win this thing… but here we were. So much was at stake…

  “It’s okay, Annabelle. I know you wanted this for me. But I’ll manage. Besides, have you ever seen an ensemble more fabulous?”

  I chuckled. “Any suggestions?”

  “If I were you,” Oggie interjected. “I’d hold on to it until the time is right. Until all is made clear. You don’t have to use it now.”

  I gripped the totem tightly. “I think that’s wise.”

  “But now I need you to come with me,” Agwe said. “If you are willing.”

  “Where to?” I asked.

  “To my domain. Some have called it the Vilokan of the sea.”

  “Why are we going there?”

  “Two reasons. One, you’ll be safe from Kalfu there, until you’re ready. But second, there is an ancient trident. It was once mine, before it was sealed away. It was used to create Vilokan. If you recover it, you can restore the lost city. You can redeem the souls of those who remain trapped.”