The ancestor’s whispers pressed against my skin, writhed in my bones, and tingled in my blood. This was wrong, and the price she was going to pay them was much worse than the decay eating her alive.
Closer. Get her closer.
“You’re right, Babette. I should have never been Voodoo King.” I took a tentative step toward her. “I never wanted this.”
She tilted her head as she regarded me. “What do you mean?”
“I wanted to live my life with the woman I loved and let that be that. I didn’t want all of this power. It was meant for another.” She narrowed her eyes as she took a step closer, the scent of rot clung to my skin.
The ancestors’ whispers pressed harder, coiling in my veins like smoke.Closer…
“I should have walked away,” I said, letting my voice break in just the right place. “But instead, I let their blessing ruin me. I let it ruin us. You were always the stronger one, Babette. You always wanted it more. Maybe… maybe it was meant to be yours all along.”
Her chest rose sharply, a flicker of triumph sparking in her gaze. The swamp seemed to lean in with her—listening.
“And what?” Her voice was sharp and cutting. “You’d give it to me now? Just like that?”
I nodded slowly, every muscle in my body screaming at the risk. “I’d rather see the power in the hands of someone whowantsit, rather than let it rot me from the inside out. This power wasn’t meant for someone weak.”
The chanting on the other side only grew louder in my ear as she stepped closer. It was like a pounding in my chest. She was so close. If my shadows had mouths, they would have been foaming.
“Yes,” she breathed, her voice thick with triumph.
I stretched my hands wide as she took another step closer.
The instant her foot broke past the last shimmer of that cursed protection, my shadows surged like wolves uncaged. They lunged, slick and writhing, binding her wrists and ankles before she even realized she was caught. The swamp exploded with the sound of snapping branches, a howl of wind that wasn’t wind at all—just the ancestors crying out in triumph.
Babette shrieked, her voice guttural and wrong. “Rune! You lying bastard!”
My jaw locked as I forced my shadows tighter. “You wanted my power?” I hissed. “Then choke on it.”
The chanting in my blood grew deafening. My vision swam, spots of white light dancing as the ancestors demanded her sacrifice.
“Release me and I’ll give you everything,” she crooned suddenly, her voice twisting sweet and venomous at once. “You think Maple loves you? She’ll never love the darkness in you. But I will. I’ll make you a god, Rune. Just let me in…”
My shadows surged again, but this time, the ancestors were in control. They shouted, chanted, and sang as they pulled her rotting body to the earth.
Babette’s scream ripped through the swamp, raw and furious, shaking the moss from the trees.
She thrashed, curses spilling from her lips as the ground buckled and roots burst free.
My shadows drove her down into the mud, black tendrils coiling around her limbs like serpents.
“Rune!” she shrieked, her voice cracking between rage and desperation.
“This is the price to be paid. The ancestors want their’s back.”
The last of her body sank beneath the muck with a sickening pull, swallowed whole by the earth and shadows together.
The bread squishedbeneath my hands as I watched the clock above the stove. Rune had been gone for hours, and there was no way I was going to sleep knowing he wasn’t back and was out there alone. I’d thought he would have at least taken Louis with him, but nope, Louis was currently munching—quiteloudly—on chips in the corner of the kitchen. Adelle was scrolling through social media on her phone, and I was back to ignoring mine.
Maggie had trained her eye on me most of the night until she gave up and threatened me if I left shit all in her kitchen. I would definitely be cleaning up after myself.
At least with this loaf of bread, I could pretend I was in control of something. I took another deep breath as someone burst into the kitchen. Louis sprang to his feet and assumed a warrior pose—I supposed, though I wasn’t really sure, considering he was wearing pajamas.
The small woman looked at us with wide eyes. “We have visitors.”
Adelle straightened where she was slumped over the counter and frowned. “What do you mean?”
