Chapter 16
Brayden, Pauli and I stared at the page Mercy had suggested would help me in the second trial.
“None of this makes sense,” I said, flustered. I stood up from the table and straightened my shirt. Strangely, I wished Mercy hadn’t had to depart so abruptly. Not that I delighted in her presence, even a little, but she seemed to know what all this shit meant. I suppose meeting so early in the morning, combined with the fact that we were almost always in Vilokan after dark, had given her what might have been her only opportunity to confront me. That she had done it so close to sunrise—the sun was just starting to appear on the horizon when she showed up—suggested it was a risk she deemed worth taking. It was a wonder she’d stayed as long as she had.
Maybe Mikah could help…
I huffed.
“If boy genius over here can’t figure it out, fat chance he’ll know what to do.”
“It’s worth giving Mikah a shot,” Pauli said. I sighed. I kept forgetting he could hear Isabelle.
“He’d be here with us if we didn’t have to depend on rainbow travel to get here at the butt crack of dawn,” I said.
“If I hadn’t suggested six o’clock,” Brayden calmly said, “the vampire never would have found us.”
“I thought you didn’t trust her!” I threw my arms in the air.
“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t have valuable information. So long as she shares our goals, I think we can rely on her information, even if we can’t trust her.”
I nodded. “Well, the only way we’re going to get ahold of Mikah is if we get our asses back to Vilokan.”
“Don’t rub it in!” Pauli protested. “I can’t get my ass anywhere on account of not having one.”
Brayden cracked a grin. “I think that’s the answer!”
“Pauli’s ass?” I asked.
“Or my lack thereof?” Pauli added.
Brayden shook his head. “No, look at this drawing. The one of shirtless Nico.”
“Looks like something from a steamy romance.”
“But look in his hand.”
“It’s a doll. Like the one he made in class.”
“You were there, I wasn’t. But correct me if I’m wrong. Nico had a Voodoo doll when he went into Vilokan that he could use to manipulate Baron Samedi, correct?”
I don’t like where this is going…
“Me neither, girl!” Pauli added.
Brayden squinted—being the only one in the room who couldn’t hear Isabelle was probably mildly awkward for him. “This drawing implies that he might have still had the doll when he came back to earth. Supposing he held on to it…”
“For centuries?”
Brayden nodded. “If Marie Laveau drew a picture of him holding it, he at least had it that long.”
“Or she was just using a little artistic license.”
“I don’t think so,” Brayden said, pinching his chin. “Laveau’s quill, whatever she wrote with it was prophetic. There wasn’t room for her to be artsy with it. These drawings are not just about her infatuation with Nico’s man chest. It has to have meaning, significance. I’m sure of it.”
“And you realize the one place where the doll might be, right?”
“Casa do Diabo,” Pauli said. “And seeing as though you can’t go in there, I’m guessing you want me to do that for you. Again.”
I shrugged. “Brayden could go with you this time. Both of you can teleport.”
“Worth a shot,” Brayden said. “Vamps don’t scare me.”
“Fuck me sideways,” Pauli cursed.
“How would one do that, exactly?” I asked. “You know, on account of the fact that your whole body is like one big cylinder. Is there really a sideways at all?”
“You’re the one who spotted my cloaca hole, bitch! You should know!”
I laughed out loud. “Fair enough.”