Chapter 22

 

I mounted Wyrmie—calling on Beli to once again become my wyrm’s bridle. Shelly and Finn pulled up beside me on their respective wyrms.

“Glad to have you back with us,” Shelly said. Finn gave me a nod.

“Good to see you guys, too. Ready to end this thing, once and for all?”

“Hell yes,” Shelly said. “Let’s ride!”

Joni led the charge, her long blond hair flowing from beneath her helmet. Her mer-tail dangled to one side of her wyrm—just like mine. Joni and Isabelle had performed their shape-shifting magic so I could ride Wyrmie properly.

This time, the army of zombie sharks we encountered consisted mostly of hammerheads. With a pull of the reins, Beli’s torrent of flame-like energies easily consumed them as we plowed through the wall of sharks like butter.

I wasn’t sure who the Bokor might be who held Anne Bonny’s soul—but I was reasonably sure whoever it was had been chosen by Mikah. That was what he was supposed to “earn” in exchange for killing Oggie. What a fucking joke.

As we got closer, I saw the Bokor come into view. I almost laughed out loud—I hadn’t realized she survived Vilokan.

“Is that who I think it is? Is that Tressa?” Pauli asked as he clung to my waist—still in human form—riding behind me on Wyrmie.

“What, you didn’t save her when Vilokan fell?”

“No, but Aida-Wedo must have. I’ve never seen her without her man harem!”

I chuckled. “Now she has a harem of zombie sharks, I guess.”

“Who wants a harem like that?” Pauli asked.

I chuckled. “Aida-Wedo is Mikah’s mother. There must be something to this… a reason why she was saved.”

It was actually twice in one day that Tressa had barely escaped with her life. First, Isabelle had saved her after she got clocked hard by a nasty, unruly Loa in the final trial. She had been Erzulie’s favorite—her own protege whom she’d hoped would win the Trials. All went to shit, though, because Kalfu had other plans, which he’d been orchestrating through Alexa Windstrom. Then, when Vilokan was flooding, Pauli and Aida-Wedo used their abilities to save as many people as they could. I had no idea that Tressa had been among them. Still, I wasn’t sure of the significance of it. Mikah and Aida-Wedo might be working together—it’s a mother-son pairing, even if he said she was a shitty mother. Not like anything he ever told us could be trusted now, anyway. Or maybe, if Isabelle was right, this was a good thing… maybe there was something about Tressa we didn’t know. Maybe that was why Mikah made the deal—so he could ensure that Tressa and no one else got Anne Bonny’s soul. But what good would that do in the end? She had already managed to raise an army of zombie sharks, and we were poised to take her out.

I charged after her—but was stalled in my tracks.

College Erzulie—the college of love—that’s what Tressa was about. Even if her form of “love” tended to come with more whips and chains than roses and teddy bears.

“Annabelle!” Tressa shouted.

“Tressa? What the…”

“Stop killing my sharks!”

“You have Anne Bonny’s soul. Her shark armies were meant to destroy Fomoria.”

“I have her soul, but not her curse,” Tressa said. “And unlike the other Bokors, I’m in no way bound to Kalfu’s bargains.”

I scrunched my brow and narrowed my stare. “Then why are you with them?”

Tressa bit her cheek. “Mikah asked me to join him. Said they’d need me. It was my chance to redeem something. My chance to make Erzulie proud.”

“Erzulie is gone,” I said.

Tressa nodded. “And so is Ogoun. At least for now.”

“For now?” I asked.

“The Loa are never really gone. And since I possess Erzulie’s aspect, Kalfu can’t exact any bargain he might make with me.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Why is that?”

“His ways cannot penetrate the aspect of love. Love and deceit cannot coexist. And all his bargains operate on deceit.”

Joni pulled up on her wyrm beside me. “What is going on here?”

“Looks like we might have another ally here,” I said. “Kalfu thinks she’s with him, but apparently those who hold Erzulie’s aspect cannot be touched by his influence.”

“Well I’ll be!” Joni said, allowing her southern accent to come through more thickly than it typically did when she was acting the role of La Sirene.

“So what are you doing down here anyway?” I asked.

“Mikah knew you’d gone to Fomoria. He’d told me Kalfu’s plans. He said you’d somehow killed Anne Bonny and that Kalfu coveted her power. He said it would allow me to descend into the oceans. I was supposed to come find you.”

I shook my head. “He had no idea that I’d left here already. That I went back…”

Tressa shrugged. “No clue what he knew. But we have to act quickly. Souls are being fused one at a time even as we talk. The Bokors are amassing more power by the second.”

I nodded. “All right. They still at the beach?”

“Yes. How’d you know?”

I smiled. “Long story. And if what you said is right, telling it will have to wait.”

Tressa nodded. I motioned to Shelly and Finn to come up by my side. “To the beach!” I said.

Joni nodded and repeated my command—I forgot she was the one who was in charge. “To the beach!”