Spell For Sophia (15 page)

"Wow." The words
mentally unstable and vulnerable
wormed into my brain
.

Yemaya leaned close and lowered her voice. "The Walk-in made a mistake. He left too soon. Amélie was still alive, though barely. She re-entered her body the second he departed it. As soon as he left the alley, she managed to tell me his name."

"You know his real name? Then can't you do a banishing spell or something?"

"I
think
I know his original name, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. I can't act without confirmation. Even then, I'd have to figure out how to protect whatever body he has overtaken. If I banished him and the body's true soul had vanished, then…" She shrugged.

"The body would have no soul, and it would either die or be vulnerable to a new psychic invader."

"Exactly. Amélie said the Walk-in called himself 'Overseer.' She knew which cotton plantation he had worked at back in the early nineteenth century. I traced him through public records. I mean, I found someone with almost the same name who had been an overseer."

"The man with the whip who forced as much labor as possible out of the slaves."

Yemaya nodded.

I slouched into the cushions and waited for my anxiety to whirlpool and catapult me into freak-out mode. Instead, an odd sensation crept over me. I felt…bigger. Powerful. Battle-ready. I sat straighter, pushed upright by the melding of the disparate factions within me. The synapses in my brain sparked, connecting the linear-thinking future astrophysicist part of me to the kick-butt ninja wannabe aspect. Both fused with whatever warrior or dragon shaman I had channeled when I had blasted the demons at Spiral Journeys.

Crazy Girl? Hah! Crazy brilliant.
"You may not know what he looks like now," I said, "but you'd recognize his energy, right?"

Yemaya shuddered. "Are you kidding? It haunts my nightmares." She uttered a hollow laugh. "It
is
my nightmare."

"What did you see in the spell book?"

"I'll show you." She approached the grimoire with caution, as though it were a feral dog, and held out her hand. The alligator-like book cover bunched as she neared. One corner retracted like lips drawn back to bare teeth.

"Easy," Yemaya said.

I lobbed the tome a behave-or-be-fried glare.

Yemaya's hand angled upward and over the spell book. Her fingers trembled. She commanded, "Show me the Walk-in
veve."

A heartbeat passed, then two, then three. Yemaya withdrew her hand. The grimoire flipped open with an alligator-like bellow. The pages riffled, a quick dry
pfft
sound like wind through a graveyard. The flipping halted, revealing a
veve
accompanied by handwritten text.

Yemaya extracted a worn piece of binder paper from the hippie bag at her feet and smoothed it open. "This symbol appeared to me in a dream the night Amélie died. I've never seen it anywhere else." She smoothed the paper and placed it within the double circle next to the grimoire.

I leaned in. Yemaya's drawing was almost identical to the
veve
in the grimoire
.

My gaze slid to the text for explanation. A few French words leapt out at me, but unfamiliar African words intermingled with them. "Can you translate?"

"The writing warns of entities that wile weakened minds into yielding their bodies." Yemaya traced her finger along a line of text. She read aloud. "And they shall be recognized by this symbol."

I pulled the closest throw pillow onto my lap. "But you didn't see it until you slept, when it was too late to do anything."

"Correct. But this time could be different. I'm more experienced. I know what to look for. And I have you."

My elbows sank into the pillow. "Maybe we'll get lucky and rescue my friend and avenge yours."

Yemaya leaned toward me. "The school system failed to protect Amélie from bullies." She shook her head. "I failed her. If I had been a better friend, if I had done more to help her, maybe she'd still be alive."

Our eyes met. I realized we were two sides of the same coin. I wanted to hug her or at least touch her hand — do something to reassure her she wasn't to blame. But my OCD sparked up and down my arms, immobilizing them.

"Amélie would be proud of you for helping me and Sophia."

One corner of her mouth tugged into a fleeting almost-smile. "Thanks." She withdrew from her hippie purse a tiny plastic bag, the kind jewelry charms and earrings sometimes come in. She parted the zipper lock, releasing spicy cinnamon and pepper smells, and tipped some of the reddish powder onto her drawing
.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Evil Away incense. I made it myself."

"But I thought you wanted Amélie's murderer to reveal himself."

"I do, but our mission is to find Sophia and Shiloh. I can't risk the Walk-in preventing us from finding her."

I squirmed, shifting back. "Chances are, Overseer-Evil-Dude will be nowhere near them. But if you do spot him…"

"I won't engage."

I blinked. "I thought you wanted to avenge Amélie's death."

"We'll be disembodied. Powerless. He probably won't be. And if he
is
embodied, he could cut the silver cord connecting our astral spirits to our bodies." She made a sword slicing movement.

"And thus kill us."

"Ten points for the smart blonde."

"Thanks. I'll take them." I plumped the accent pillow, striking it harder than necessary. "Would there be a silver cord connecting the Walk-in to whatever body he had taken hostage?"

"I guess so. But we'll be in spirit flight so we won't be able to sever it, even if we knew the original soul was waiting to jump back in." She studied the
veve
.

I placed the pillow beside me. "So we don't engage. We get the name of the person he's taken over instead. Then we go after the Overseer later when we aren't astral projecting."

"I
go after him. This isn't your fight."

I snorted. "It is now. But we'll have to figure out how to kill the Walk-in without murdering whosever body he's taken. There has to be a way."

"I know a way. But I can't employ it unless I'm certain the original soul is waiting to jump in. Which seems like a long shot." Yemaya reached her hippie bag and withdrew a six-inch cylindrical quartz crystal. "I carry this everywhere. It's a soul catcher."

"Somehow I doubt you're planning to catch and release."

"Not a chance." Yemaya slid her fingers across the glassy crystal.

"Promise me something," I said.

"What?"

I locked in her gaze. "If the Overseer jumps into me, promise you'll take him out."

"He won't—"

"I'm not the most mentally stable person on the planet. So just promise."

Yemaya raised her right hand. "Okay. I promise."

I raised my hand and our pinky fingers entwined.

"Pinky swear," we said in unison.

A jolt of energy shot up my arm as though blue lightning had zapped me. I wiggled my fingers, then flexed my hand. "Wow." My gaze traveled over Yemaya's honey-blond dreadlocks bedecked with feather, copper, and bead jewelry and then swept her slightly exotic features. I tilted my head.

She arched one brow. "Looks can be deceiving."

"Indeed.

"Here's the plan." Yemaya took on the cadence and battle-ready posture of a Special Ops agent. "We journey together. We find Bayou. She leads us to Shiloh Breaux Martine. Shiloh leads us to Sophia. If Shiloh and Sophia are together, then I'll be at your side the whole time."

"And if they're not?"

The spell book bellowed like an alligator, a low, rumbling roar-like sound. The pages riffled.

Yemaya went still. "You search for Sophia and I'll find you. Sophia is the mission, not Shiloh."

"But Bayou may have other ideas."

The grimoire shot dank-smelling mist into the room. I waved my hand in front of my face to dispel it.

"Yes." Yemaya coughed. "Things might get real catawampus."

"Great." I pulled a different accent pillow onto my lap and smoothed its pewter fringe. "If we get separated, or I panic or something, how do I find you? How do I find my way back to my body?"

"We'll create some safeguards. First, you'll need a protective amulet."

My anxiety pills came to mind. Then for a brief moment I considered digging up my throwing stars. But there wasn't time, and I had promised my friend Jazmin I'd only retrieve them in case of a home invasion or zombie apocalypse. Besides, I got the impression no weapons were allowed.

"Do you have a crystal? One you can fit in your hand?" Yemaya asked.

"How about my pendulum?"

"Perfect. Go get it." She reached for her hippie bag. "I'll get mine."

We retrieved our pendulums and repositioned ourselves on the daybed. Yemaya said, "We don't know which path our spirit flight will take. Maybe we'll soar like eagles over the land. Or we might find ourselves tunneling downward. Or we could end up in the Void, a place of darkness and silence."

"Um, let's avoid the Void."

"I wish we had a choice. I'm not wild about heights or the Void. I'd rather travel through the Underworld." Yemaya pulled three tea candles and a box of matches from her bag. "Seriously. If you end up in the Void and you suffer from anxiety or claustrophobia at all, bail. I mean it. Will yourself home. Otherwise you risk going lockdown-ward crazy."

The blood drained from my face and pooled in my stomach, meshing badly with the Chinese food. Yemaya couldn't know about my stint in the mental ward. If she did, I was pretty sure she wouldn't let me accompany her on the journey.

"You okay?" Yemaya asked.

No.
"I think I ate too quickly. Good thing we decided to wait on dessert."

"Magic always has a price. If you're having second thoughts—"

"No. I'm good. What's next?"

"We light the candles." She arranged the tea lights on the plate so they formed a triangle next to the spell book. "One for each of us, and one for Sophia." She handed me the matches. "Light a candle for Sophia, so she may shine like a beacon and guide us to her."

I struck a match. The flame flared and the scent of sulfur reached my nose. I lit the candle at the top of the triangle and repeated the intention for Sophia to become a beacon. When I finished, I handed the matches to Yemaya.

Yemaya set ablaze the candlewick in the bottom right corner of the triangle, blew out the match, and then held her pendulum several inches above the candle. "May the light of this candle fill my crystal and guide me on my journey. And may a helpful spirit guide and/or totem animal aid me as I search for Sophia Maria Perez-Hidalgo." She passed me the box of matches.

I exhaled a long breath, lit the final candle, extinguished the match, and then held my pendulum aloft. The candlelight glinted off the seven gemstones on the pendulum's chain — one for each major chakra — and filled the rose quartz point at one end and the heart-shaped rose quartz at the other end with a soft glow. The spell book whirred, sounding like an exotic night bird.

"May the light of this candle fill my crystal and guide me on my journey," I repeated. "And may a helpful spirit guide and/or totem animal aid me in my search for my friend, Sophia Maria Perez-Hidalgo."

"If you do end up in the Void, beware. Not everything you might encounter there will be friendly. You'll be able to recognize me by my crystal. And if you need to make a quick escape, think of your rose quartz and it will lead you home."

"White crystal — you. Rose quartz — home. Got it." I doubted I'd encounter many biracial teen girls with long blond dreadlocks while surfing the Void, but better to have a failsafe than no backup plan.

"Second safeguard," Yemaya said. "Listen for the drums. I'll start the CD in a minute. The drums will lead you home. No matter what, if the drumming gets super-fast, stop what you are doing and journey back. Super-fast drumming means the CD is about to end and you'll lose your auditory path home."

"Got it." I glanced down at her scuffed blue CD player. I hoped the batteries wouldn't fail, since there was no electrical cord. "What's the third safeguard?"

"Your spirit guide."

My pulse jumped. "I don't have one."

Yemaya snorted. "Idiot. You have a
dragon."

My cheeks did a slow burn. "Oh. Right."
I hope it shows up.
Uncertainty hit me. "What should I do if I find Sophia?"

"When
you find Sophia: assess, address, then manifest success."

"Excuse me?"

Yemaya struck her right forefinger against her left. "Assess Sophia's situation. Address her to discover if she can see or hear you. If she can, then you can get more information about her needs. Then manifest success by doing something in the moment if you can, or by returning to your body to develop a concrete plan."

"Assess, address, then manifest success. Got it."

"If all else fails, send out a psychic distress call to your aunt, uncle, and Thor. They're all dragon shamans, right?"

"Yes," I said.

"Perfect. Easy peasy. You got this."

"I'll be searching for Sophia through infinite realms on the space-time continuum while trying to avoid an evil Walk-in and not lose sight of you. I'm not feeling the easy peasy part."

Yemaya affected a smile. It resembled my fake manners-class Everything-Is-Hunky-Dorky-Ignore-Me-I'm-Suicidal show of teeth. "If it were easy, everyone would be a shaman." She fingered the copper spiral dread wrap. It matched her wrist cuff. "Easy peasy is Aidan's term. Put him on your backup list, too."

"Okay. Done."

"Look. You don't have to do this. I can go alone."

I shook my head.
I blasted demons at Spiral Journeys. I can do this.
"Sophia is my friend. I want to go. Besides, my almanac entry for today said 'be brave and expect the extraordinary.'" I examined the Walk-in
veve.
The design was simpler than others in the book. I memorized it, then met Yemaya's gaze. "Let's save the world before my parents return."

Yemaya flashed a genuine smile. "Okay." She scooted closer until her left knee pressed against my right. Warmth and warrior energy flooded the contact point. "Since you've experienced spirit flight at your aunt and uncle's store, close your eyes and picture yourself entering Spiral Journeys."