Chapter 26
I wake up around midday and immediately pull a card from Gran’s deck to get a feel for how the rest of my day is going to go.
It’s a High Priestess, reversed. The last thing I need is for the universe to remind me to trust my gut.
Everyone keeps telling me to listen to my intuition, but I don’t even know what that means in this case.
The priestess’s stoic expression stares back at me and I remember another interpretation of the card.
A reversed High Priestess can be a reminder that one is hiding their true self from their lover.
I shake my head. That’s over and done with now.
Joelle will never be my lover; she’ll only ever be the catalyst to my destruction.
Four days until my eighteenth birthday, and less than two weeks until the full moon. My life is slipping from my grasp like grains of sand.
I remove The Compendium of Demonology from its hiding place and sit cross-legged on the floor to flip through it.
I’ve been too busy to dig further into it, but there’s no better time than the present.
The book is old but well maintained. Its pages are still crisp white and covered in handwritten cursive script.
Past the first chapter, almost all of it is written in Latin.
I may have attended private school, but even they didn’t have Latin classes in the budget.
I’ve got a working knowledge of French, but that won’t help me now.
I hover my phone over the page and open a translator app, but an error message appears almost immediately.
The writing isn’t legible enough for translation.
There goes my hope of finding out more information. I flip through the pages aimlessly, letting my eyes skim over endless paragraphs of text. When I come to a list of symbols, I inhale sharply. Each symbol has a short description listed beneath—in English!
I drag my finger down the page until it stops right over the mysterious symbol I’ve been searching for. The description that goes along with it sends ice running through my veins.
Bringer of darkness, destroyer of worlds, the ultimate trickster. Beware the demon Gazannol, for no good can come of its presence on Earth.
This must be the demon the Hightowers have summoned. Why couldn’t they have invoked a demon that doesn’t sound so downright apocalyptic? I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take on something that wants to destroy all life on Earth, or if a demon’s power can even be contained once it’s been unleashed.
Going to Gramps about anything demon-related is the worst thing I could do. Any information he’d give would come with a lecture that I don’t need. But there is one other person who may be able to help me. I remember what my mother said about Aunt Roberta: Listen to her. She’s a wise woman.
Without giving it a second thought, I pack up the book, get dressed, and head for the streetcar. On the way, I get a text from Orion.
Orion:
Hey, sis, Joelle came by the shop. She quit.
My heart drops. Even though that was my intention, knowing that I’ve pushed her away still stings. As I take my seat on the trolley, my phone buzzes with another text, this time from Joelle herself.
Joelle:
I’m still very hurt by what you said.
I thought I’d found a real friend, or maybe something more. But I guess not.
I won’t bother you again. Thank you for the reading.
I’m still going to do something extraordinary.
I stuff my phone deep inside my bag and stare out the window until I reach my stop. What Joelle doesn’t know—can never know—is that I thought I’d found the same. But fate doesn’t always give us what we desire.
Aunt Roberta and Uncle Larry live in a bright red Creole cottage–style home, with a gable roof over a modest front porch.
Aunt Roberta sits there now, knitting in her white wicker chair.
She and Gran used to knit together, making baby blankets and hats to donate to the local NICU.
When she sees me, the corners of her lips lift in a gentle smile.
“There’s my favorite niece,” she says. “What a great surprise.”
She sets down her project and leads me inside for a glass of lemonade and a plate of shortbread cookies.
We sit down together at her dining room table.
Along the wall hang pictures of our family.
There’s a photo of Aunt Roberta and Uncle Larry on their wedding day and a black-and-white portrait of Grandma Rose sitting in a chair with both her daughters at her side.
It’s the oldest photo I’ve ever seen of Gran. The younger version of her stares back at me with a steady grin. Her hair fans out around her head like a crown. The younger Aunt Roberta doesn’t stare at the camera. Instead, she’s looking straight at her older sister.
“What brings you over, cher?” Aunt Roberta asks. “It’s always lovely to see you, but I doubt you’re here to hang out with your old aunt.”
“Maybe another time, Auntie.” I nibble on my bottom lip as I open my bag and remove the compendium.
She sucks in a breath as soon as she gets a glimpse of the pentagram on the cover.
“I stole this from the Hightowers’ store, but I haven’t told Gramps or the Council about it.
I didn’t even bring it up in front of Gloria because I knew she’d demand it back.
I’m guessing they haven’t noticed it’s missing yet. ”
Aunt Roberta slides the book closer to her and flips through the pages. The furrow between her eyebrows deepens with the turn of each page. “This is the darkest sort of magic. In fact, I don’t even want to call it that. Demons are the foulest creatures you can ever encounter.”
“Is there a way to banish them once they’ve been summoned?” I ask, leaning forward on my elbows. “Gramps seems hell-bent on going to war with the Hightowers, but we need to have a plan. Otherwise, they could just sic the demon on us and be done.”
“There is, child, but I couldn’t tell you how to do it.” She shuts the book and purses her lips. “I’ve only known one witch with an interest in demons, and she’s been gone for ages.”
“ ‘Gone’ as in dead?”
“Banished.”
My confusion is clear in my expression because she continues.
“Your cousin Sabine Andry moved here to teach at Tulane when you were a little girl. Demons were her specialty, academically and personally.” Her jaw clenches. “None of us liked it, but your gran especially. She told Sabine not to bring that mess into the coven, and Sabine obeyed—at first.”
“What happened?” I ask.
“She was caught in her backyard drawing a circle of salt. She’d doused her body in holy water, claimed she wanted to summon a lesser demon just to see if she could.”
From the way the Elders talk about demons, I can tell that couldn’t have gone over well with them.
“So, Gran banished her from the coven?”
“Exactly.”
My shoulders drop. That’s it, then. Another person who could’ve helped me is out of my reach.
Aunt Roberta sits in silence for a moment before standing. “I’ll be right back.” She slips from the room.
I take a sip of lemonade to wash away the bitter taste of disappointment. There’s a brick wall every way I turn. I may end up being the worst Witch Queen in history if I can’t find a way to save my coven from this evil.
Footsteps drag me from my spiral. Aunt Robert returns with an envelope. She hands it to me from across the table.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a letter Sabine sent me after I told her about your grandmother’s diagnosis.”
I jerk my head up. “I thought you said Gran banished her.”
“I did.”
“Then why did you—”
“She loved your gran something fierce. They’d been close before the whole mess with the demon went down.” My aunt crosses her arms. “She deserved to know that Adelaide was sick.”
I clutch the envelope before removing the letter inside. It’s shorter than I expected. Sabine’s looping script is neat and easy to read.
Thank you, Roberta. I’m sorry to hear that. I know she doesn’t want to hear from me, so I’ll save my words. I’ll see her again someday.
Sabine
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“In the Afterlife,” Aunt Roberta murmurs. “When she joins the ancestors.”
“Wow,” I say. “That’s really sad.”
“Depends on how you view it. Death is nothing more than another adventure and a chance to see the ones we’ve loved and lost.”
She makes it sound like something to look forward to, which isn’t easy to hear when my own potential death looms over my head.
“Take that letter with you so she’ll know that I sent you,” Aunt Roberta says. “Sabine left the coven, but she didn’t leave Louisiana. You’ll find her out in the bayou, not too far from the return address listed on that envelope. I’ll write out more detailed directions for you.”
I can’t help but burst out of my seat to hug her. This is the first major positive development we’ve had.
My aunt squeezes me back. “I’ll never understand why that girl wanted to mess around with all that nonsense,” she murmurs. “But if there’s anyone who can help you, it’s her.”
Sabine is our only hope. This could be the breakthrough I’ve been searching for.
“Thank you, Auntie. You don’t know how much I need this.” I pull back and look into her eyes, deciding to open up to her even further. “I’m running out of time.”
I take my seat and reveal the secret I’ve kept from her—about my vision and Joelle. Her expression grows stormier by the second.
She swats my knee. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Because I’m scared! But I handled it. Joelle’s not in my life anymore.”
She covers her mouth with her hand. “I’m not so sure that’s the way, Mikaela. It sounds like you angered the girl! Do you know for certain that she’s not involved with all this demonic business?”
The thought jolts me. “What? Joelle would never. She wants to be a witch.”
“It sounds deeper than that. She wants the power to heal her mother,” Aunt Roberta muses. “You should talk to her. If you want to end things, make it right between the two of you first. But someone needs to keep an eye on her, especially on the day of the full moon.”
“That’s the last thing I want to do,” I groan.
“We all have to do things we don’t like.” Aunt Roberta stands and pushes her chair in. “Call her.”
I stare down at my phone with a rock in the pit of my stomach. I’m afraid that if I speak to her, I’ll get sucked back into my whirlwind of conflicted emotions. But my aunt has never steered me wrong.