Chapter Thirty-Six
We followed one after another toward the Explorer that Lyle said we were taking instead of his beloved Ram.
“Ram’s already had enough action for a while,” Lyle grumbled, no doubt thinking about the abalsom we’d captured. “Something like this, we’d better take a ride I can stand to lose.”
But before I followed after Hailey into the back seat, Ama gripped my elbow, stopping me in mid-slide.
“I’ll take my cuffs back now, you little owifo.”
My mouth went dry at her calling me a thief.
I’d forgotten just that quick that I’d stolen Nana’s cuffs to give up to some unknown lady in exchange for Naira.
I’d betrayed years of trust and bonding between my grandmother only to see her show up here, ready to help me clean up my mess.
Returning her cuffs was the first thing I should have done when she showed up on Lyle’s doorstep.
Hailey slid the backpack gently toward me, as if it contained a bomb about to detonate.
Last night, they didn’t feel like anything more than two heavy pieces of cold metal.
This time they gave off an energy like they were humming with electricity, and when my finger touched the first one, it zapped me like static shock.
I snatched my hand back to my chest quickly, letting out a tiny yelp. Nana’s mouth quirked in response.
“Do not do that again,” Nana said.
I waited for her to get the cuffs herself. I didn’t want another zap and hesitated going for them again. Nana waited me out. I’d taken something that didn’t belong to me. I needed to give it back.
I sighed, learning my lesson, resigning myself for another jolt of current to my still-stinging finger.
I shoved both hands into the mouth of my bag and grabbed the cuffs hard, bracing my body, baring my teeth. When nothing happened, I looked at my grandmother, who watched me, amused, her eyebrow still raised.
A little embarrassed, I pulled them out and offered them up to their rightful owner. She took them, uncovering them. She looked down at them and they seemed to flash in the spotty sunlight.
She put on the right cuff. It molded like a second skin to her lower arm, a few inches above her wrist. She twisted it, positioning it just right so the blue gem gleamed so brilliantly, beams seemed to come from it.
Nana Ama held her empty hand out, open palmed and waiting expectantly.
It took a second or two … maybe three, for me to catch her hint, and I quickly placed the left cuff on Nana’s outstretched palm.
As we raced through the back roads toward the city, Nana finally started talking.
“Before you begin your questions, child, I will say my piece. And then if you still have questions, we will discuss them after this is over. I can only share enough to help us get Naira back.”
It was more of the same. Nana still keeping things secret when it was her secrets that got us here.
“And Luke,” Hailey reminded. “He must be there too.”
Sekou and I shared a look knowing Luke was the last person on my grandmother’s mind.
Nana said, “If Luke is truly afflicted with the kwandamu—the hollowing—then it is too late for him. I am sorry for it, for what my sister, Effie, has done.”
Hailey put her fist to her mouth to stifle the sob or cry that was going to come out of it. It sucked the air out of the car. Before I knew what I was doing, my hand found hers and gave it a squeeze. I felt Hailey take in a surprised breath and look down at where our hands intertwined.
“What is the kwandamu used for?” I asked.
“To control humans. It is a poison my sister and I learned we could inflict on humans if we were not careful when we fed or hunted. It put them under our sway. It is a violation, Addae, do you understand?” She looked at me in the visor’s mirror.
“It is an affront and no different than enslaving a person.”
“But what if the person chooses it?” Sekou asked. “Is it like being an Abotisa?”
It was a question Sekou had to ask, one I wondered myself. But it hurt that he felt he had to ask. It meant he doubted our own relationship. Thought that somehow he might be another version of enslaved to me. All of that from one simple question.
Lyle spoke up. “Becoming an Abotisa is a choice you make, Sekou. And you can see it is a choice you can make to leave it. Like I did. The hollowing and being an Abotisa are entirely different, because you lose yourself from the hollowing. Even if you choose it, it would be because you didn’t understand what would happen. ”
Sekou shot me an uneasy glance. I couldn’t meet his gaze. I was too much in my feelings and fighting the insult that he’d think I’d ever take advantage of him in that way. Use him or anyone in that way. I thought my best friend knew me better than that.
“Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly. “This is a lot, you know?”
It was a lot. And for once I wasn’t trying to act based off my emotions.
“I would never make anyone my slave,” I told him, hoping he’d understand.
“The kwandamu is an evil use of our power,” Nana Ama said. “No good comes from it, from what they become, if we do not take care.”
Beside me Hailey deflated, no doubt thinking about Luke.
Hell, even I felt bad for him. The way Nana Ama and Sheriff Lyle were telling it, Luke was done for, and there was no fix like Hailey believed.
Luke was gone. Naira … she wasn’t like him.
Or, hadn’t been when she’d finally been able to break through and reach out to me.
Lyle continued. “I believe Effie is using abalsoms as her army.”
“For what?” Sekou asked.
Well, for nothing good obviously. She wasn’t turning people into mindless zombie hordes to solve world hunger, that was for sure.
There was a more important question that needed to be answered. “What happened to Effie and where has she been?” I asked.
Nana said, “I thought she was dead.”
“Why would you think that?”
Nana Ama paused before she spoke. “Because after the bounty hunters killed Effie, I was the one to bury her.”