I did as she asked, taking the strip of fabric and tying it around my hips. Once I cinched it tight, I felt the spell activate. I tried to move the pouch, but it wouldn’t budge. “How do I pick the right one, at the right time?”
“There’s no need to pick,” Marcy said. “They are all defensive. Just make sure you pair the color with the right word.”
All the wolves disembarked from the airboats around me and someone shouted, “Alligators!”
I craned my neck around and saw an army of alligators heading toward us from both directions. “Into the trees,” my father ordered. “They can’t climb trees.”
We all began to jump onto the root banks, and then from tree to tree. Some of the younger wolves scampered higher into the branches, trying to scout our situation better. Rourke took the lead and I followed. Within a minute or two we arrived at roughly the same place we’d crossed over into the priestess’s boundary before.
This time nothing happened.
“Spread out,” my father called from his position down from us. “And stay vigilant.”
I could scent both Danny and Naomi, just as my father had said. Their smells were all over this place and it was incredibly frustrating. James and Marcy were behind us, with Tyler bringing up the rear. Ray had taken to the sky again, but he was hovering close. We were all on the lookout for a potential threat.
Behind us, the alligators were thrashing in the water.
“There must be a hundred of them down there,” Ray called from the air. “It’s totally nuts. All their eyes are beady red.”
I took another careful step over some roots and felt something whisper past my neck. We’ve been waiting, the breathy voice said, almost too soft to detect. I stopped in my tracks. “Did anyone hear that?” I called.
Rourke froze ahead of me, sensing my unease, and glanced back. “I didn’t hear anything. Was it the same voice you heard before?”
I nodded. Marcy was right behind me. I turned back to her. “Did you hear it?”
“No, but I believe you,” she answered gravely. “The hairs on my arm are yelling at me.” She lifted her arm, and sure enough, goose bumps had erupted. “We’re definitely inside her zone. I’ve sent out magical feelers and tried to push a few spells through her ward, but nothing is working.”
Something brushed by my ear again.
I’d had some interactions with ghosts once before in New Orleans, but this was decidedly different. The ghosts there had felt like gusts of cool air brushing against my skin. This was a hot wind, dragging long tendrils in its wake, slashing at me as it passed by.
It was full of evil.
The temperature around us suddenly dropped exponentially.
Rourke’s nose immediately rose in the air. I heard my father yell a command, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying.
Suddenly I was falling, the ground beneath me giving way like it wasn’t even there. I glanced up, my face a mask of surprise. Rourke was shouting, furious, but it sounded like he was talking in slow motion. I couldn’t make out any words. My arms cartwheeled as he reached out for me.
Something clamped onto me from behind and I fell backward like a lead weight.
Right into her world.
11
I landed hard. Onto something soft that uttered a small gasp.
“Jeez, you weigh a lot,” a familiar voice sputtered. “What, are your bones made of steel?” Marcy shoved me. “Get off me, Hercules. I can’t suck in a single breath.”
I rolled once and sprang up. “Marcy?” I choked. “What are you doing here?”
Marcy arched a single eyebrow at me from her position on the ground as she brushed dirt off of her. “Shouldn’t you be asking what we’re doing here?”
“Well… technically, yes.” I peered around at our familiar surroundings. We were right inside the same ring of dead trees where we stood yesterday, just ten yards to the right. “But I thought the bokor targeted me on purpose. I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean to bring you along too.”
“Of course she didn’t,” Marcy quipped as she stood. “That’s why I held on so tight, like a baby cheetah clinging to her mother’s back.”
“Um”—I stifled a laugh—“I’m pretty sure baby cheetahs don’t ride on their moms’ backs, those would be monkeys, and why did you hold on?” I asked suspiciously. “Did you know I was coming here?”
She placed her hands on her hips, her red curls swaying. “No. Well, I had no idea. When you started flailing like a fish on a line, I sleuthed it out fairly quickly. Then there was the dramatic temperature drop, always a good cue for danger.” She shrugged. “So I latched on. So what?”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a terrible liar, you know that? What gives? Spit it out. How did you know to jump on my back?”
“Fine,” she sighed in exasperation. “You want to know how? I’ve been in contact with Juanita, that’s how. And she told me exactly what I had to do, down to the baby cheetah claw-you-in-the-back technique. She said I had to come here with you, and that I had to hold on tight, so here we are.” She held a hand up. “And before you start blaming me, she said if I didn’t accompany you here, then you would die. How’s that for a good reason?” She crossed her arms and gave me a look.
My mouth opened and I snapped it shut. It was hard to argue with her when she mentioned death. Finally I decided on “Why didn’t you just tell me? How could you keep that from all of us? That’s something the entire Pack should’ve known and decided on. And exactly how has she been in contact with you anyway?”