Harley
Bright and early the next morning, after successfully evading a sea of potential eavesdroppers, the Rag Team gathered in the Luis Paoletti Room. Louella had used her Audial senses to get us there without detection. Her Telepathy would have been pretty great right now, but she’d said it herself—it was still far from perfect, and glitched in and out beyond her control.
Levi’s authoritarian rules were already coming into immediate effect, and they were bugging not just the Rag Team, but the rest of the coven as well. The senior members were particularly bitter about it. I’d heard a group of them gossiping about the different strikes, with one muttering, “If I wanted to be treated like a kid, I’d have stayed at my mom’s house and never left.” The others had agreed, wearing gloomy expressions. It made me wonder how our most famous members were dealing with the rules, but I hadn’t seen them since they’d been mentioned at Levi’s inauguration. I hadn’t even known we’d had legends like that in our midst, and I kind of wanted the chance to speak to them. I didn’t know what I’d say, but their lives must have been fascinating, the retired Angels in particular.
“You sure nobody followed us?” Wade looked at Louella.
She nodded anxiously. “Nobody. The corridors are clear.”
“Anyone else think this is ridiculous?” Santana murmured. She’d already been yelled at by security for swiping a cup of coffee from the kitchens after breakfast hours had ended. “I’d like to knock him off his friggin’ pedestal. What kind of pendejo puts breakfast between five and six-thirty in the morning? It’s sadistic.” Santana without her coffee was not something anyone should have to witness.
“Totally ridiculous, but that’s my father for you,” Raffe replied, his arm draped around her shoulders.
“At least with Alton there was a bit of leeway,” Dylan added.
Astrid nodded. “He liked to abide by the rules, but there was always wiggle room.”
“I saw one of the security staff screaming at a child for being late to his first class. He was literally screaming in this poor boy’s face,” Tatyana said. “I don’t usually disagree with discipline as a principle, but that was too much.”
I grimaced. “We’ve got to hope this coven doesn’t turn into the Stanford prison experiment.”
It seemed that, with Levi, nobody was allowed a scrap of freedom, if it violated the tiniest of his new coven regulations. There’d been a clampdown on clothing, as well, with a set of guidelines delivered to every coven member: Casual clothes may be worn in downtime, but only within the confines of the living quarters or during permitted outside excursions, if a pass has been acquired. Coven members are expected to wear coven uniforms during weekdays, and beyond the living quarters. Uniforms are expected to be ironed and crisp when worn. Smart shoes are also required. No sneakers.
The SDC was starting to sound more like Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale and less like a free coven of magicals. No way he’s turning me into Oflevi. I could understand why the senior inhabitants were particularly peeved. This wasn’t a military facility or a school in its truest form, but he was treating everyone like lesser beings, morphing us all into one entity. Levi was turning it from a sanctuary into an institution.
“Well, hopefully his term will be short. We can’t think about his leadership now, not when someone could walk through that door at any moment,” Wade said, bringing us all back into the right mindset. We had a job to do. Levi and his rules could wait.
“Still clear, just so you know,” Louella chimed in.
He smiled at her, and her cheeks reddened. Right there with you, sister. “Thank you, Louella. Now, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”
“I’m ready when you are.” I opened my leather jacket and showed him the taser in my inside pocket. Dicky had delivered it in his cab to the front of the Fleet Science Center, after Astrid had put in an order with Cabot’s. It meant I wasn’t technically leaving the premises. Can’t get mad, Levi. She’d also ordered a knife for me, which was inside my boot. With my Chaos glitching all over the place, traditional weapons seemed like good backup. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to use them.
“You’ll need these first.” Astrid handed out four earpieces, one each for me, Wade, Tatyana, and Jacob. We fitted them into our ears, my nerves building. I’d soon step past the point of no return, with no idea what we’d come back to. We had our job to do, and the rest was in the hands of the others. Santana and Isadora were in charge of managing the duplicate illusion and its movements through the coven, while Dylan, Astrid, Jacob, Louella, and Raffe were going to provide the necessary distractions and tech work to make this a success.
“Is it tuned to the right channel?” Wade asked.
Astrid nodded. “It can be switched between two channels. The first is the main channel, through which we’ll all communicate. The second is an emergency channel, in case anything happens while you’re in New Orleans.”
“In case anything happens here, you mean?” I said.
“Either here or there. If you need to get out of New Orleans, use it and we’ll send Jacob to get you. If anything happens here, we’ll use it to let you know what to do. Rest assured, we’ll have contingencies in place. Isadora and I have been drawing up some exit strategies.”
“Comforting,” I murmured.
Louella’s eyes widened in alarm. “Someone’s coming!”
“What?” I hissed, as all of us whirled around to face the door of the Luis Paoletti Room. Not now!
A minute passed, and nobody came through. Nevertheless, we all kept our gaze fixed on the door. If we were caught here, we’d be through the next mirror to Juneau… or worse. Levi was just begging for an excuse to lock me up in Avarice.
“Over here,” a voice announced from behind us. We spun around in unison. Alton stood at the back of the Luis Paoletti Room.
“How the—?” Wade gasped.
Alton winked. “The coven is full of secret passageways, if you know where to look. This bookshelf, for example.” He gestured to a nearby bookcase, which looked totally legit.
“I knew I could hear someone,” Louella said with satisfaction.
“Very good, Louella,” Alton replied. “Unfortunately, I’ve been forced to use some of the lesser-known routes around the coven to continue my investigative work. It’s not only the regular inhabitants who are being watched.”
“He’s on you too, huh?” Santana surmised.
He nodded. “If not more so than most. It’s lucky that I took the coven blueprints before he could get his hands on them. They’re safely stowed away and have been replaced with a different set of blueprints that don’t show the secret passageways.” A small, sad smile crept onto his lips. “I used my last days wisely.”
“No offense, Alton, but what are you doing here?” Wade’s tone held an undercurrent of annoyance, shared by the rest of the Rag Team. I could feel it emanating off them. Alton’s good intentions had put us in this situation, but he was standing in front of us regardless, with a renewed sense of determination flowing through his veins. Was this his way of trying to make amends?
“Levi might be watching me, but I haven’t given up on capturing Katherine or rescuing the Librarian. I will help you however I can, in a way I never could have as director. I have my ways of getting around him, and I can be useful to you in this,” he said.
Panic ricocheted through me. “What do you mean ‘this’? What do you know?”
He smiled. “You’re going to New Orleans. I heard Levi block your request, and I know you all well enough by now to know that you’d never have accepted that, not with so much at stake. I don’t accept it, either. I understand that you have to do this. Your life is on the line here, Harley.”
“We’ve got a pretty watertight plan in place, Alton. I don’t know if—” I started to object, but he interrupted. “I’ll liaise with Isadora and make sure nobody catches on to what you’re doing. I still have access to parts of the coven’s security system that nobody else does and can use that to your benefit.” He sounded so earnest. “All I need to know is, how long do you plan to be gone?”
“If everything goes smoothly, the three of us will be back by nightfall. Tomorrow morning, at the latest,” Wade replied. This was going to be a tight turnaround.
Alton nodded. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. We were going to need it.
“You ready to go?” Jacob asked.
I exhaled a shaky breath. “I think so.”
“Everybody stand back.” Jacob moved to the far side of the room and lifted his hands, closing his eyes. Streams of Chaos twisted around his fingers. His body glistened with gold specks, the energy flowing out of him and into the cracks in space and time. He tore the seam of reality and opened the gaping mouth of a portal.
“See you soon,” I said over my shoulder, looking at those we were leaving behind.
Santana grinned. “You’d better, mi hermana.”
Without another glance back, the three of us stepped through.
The portal spat us out on Decatur Street, on the southern edge of the French Quarter, with us almost careening into the long line that spilled out from Café du Monde. I recognized the café instantly by its green-and-white striped awning, which matched the pictures I’d seen. The portal had gone, but panic hit me in a wave. What if someone had seen us arrive? I looked around, checking the expressions of those around us. To my relief, nobody seemed to be paying attention to three people suddenly appearing out of nowhere. With the way we were staggering, they probably thought we’d had one too many cocktails at some local bar.
An unexpected figure stood next to me.
“Jacob? What are you doing here?” I whispered. “You were supposed to stay behind.”
“I thought I’d check that you got to the right place. I’m still learning a thing or two about controlling my abilities when it comes to new destinations, and I wanted to be sure. I’ll need to feel this place out again to get you out, so I figured I should come along,” he explained. “I’ll find a more discreet place to zap out again.”
I nodded breathlessly. “Good thinking.”
“Everyone okay?” He looked to Wade and Tatyana.
“All good,” Wade replied.
“I’m in one piece,” Tatyana agreed.
“I’m very glad.” Jacob gazed at her adoringly, but she didn’t seem to notice.
I cleared my throat. “Be careful on the way back, Jake.”
“I’ll duck behind that place there and portal back to the coven.” He gestured to the wide path behind Café du Monde.
“We’ll come with you,” I insisted, all of us heading around the back of the building. A few employees had just gone back inside the building, leaving it empty.
With nobody around, he opened another portal with ease. I thought he’d go straight through, but instead he gave me a quick hug. “I hope everything goes well, Harley.”
I hugged him back, surprised by the gesture. Pulling away, he looked like he was about to try to hug Tatyana but thought better of it. With a shy smile, he disappeared through the portal, and it snapped shut behind him. The three of us were left in the side alley, with the chatter of New Orleans babbling away beyond the café.
“I suggest we select our gifts first,” Tatyana said.
Wade nodded. “We’ll also need to find Marie’s tomb.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. “I thought it was a famous landmark. I’ve seen it in pictures. It’s in the St. Louis Cemetery, on the other side of the French Quarter. I looked it up before we came here.”
“You mean that Greek-style mausoleum?”
“Yeah, that one. People mark three crosses on it and leave gifts. Although, I think they might have stopped that now.”
He smiled. “You can’t always trust Google with these things. That’s the supposed location of her tomb, but the real site was hidden from public knowledge a long time ago.”
Tatyana made a noise of agreement. “A magical as famous as her would not have a tomb that people could easily find. The one in the cemetery is a spot for tourists, nothing more. Humans like to think they can have their wishes granted by the supernatural.”
“Then who do we ask? I thought we knew where we were going?” This was news to me. I’d expected to land in New Orleans and take a quick trip to the St. Louis Cemetery, and be back by dinnertime.
“When I mentioned it to Nomura, he said we should seek out Dominic Etye, a magical who serves Papa Legba,” Wade replied.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Papa who-said-what-now? Nomura didn’t tell me any of this.”
Wade shrugged. “Maybe you caught him at a bad time. Like you said, he’s been down lately. Alton resigning has hit him pretty hard. It’d be like one of the original Rag Team jumping ship.”
“I hadn’t thought of it like that.” I paused for a moment, feeling sad for Nomura. “So, who is he—this Papa guy?” I looked at Tatyana.
“Papa Legba is an extremely rare instance of a magical’s spirit who persists within the earthly world and continues to attain followers long after his death. Given his transitory state, he can speak with humans and spirits alike. Think of him as a bridge between both worlds,” Tatyana said.
“He’s allowed to do that?”
She smiled. “Forcefully sending a magical’s spirit into the next plane of existence is, as yet, impossible. Nobody has achieved it. So, New Orleans is somewhat stuck with Papa Legba and his antics.”
“And Dominic is one of his followers?” I pressed, wanting to get up to speed.
“That’s the theory. He fashions himself as a soothsayer,” Wade replied. “He takes on a lot of human clients who require spiritual help. He charges magicals, too. We don’t get a freebie, unfortunately.”
“Right then,” I said firmly. “Gifts can wait. He’s the one we need to talk to first.”