"Like your vision," Lucas said, leaning against the doorframe.
Phi looked up from her books. “You had a vision?”
Nodding, I gave them a rundown of what I had seen. Dre’s eyes narrowed. "Anything else connecting these calls?"
"They occur at cemeteries or historically significant locations," I reported as I scanned the details. "And they all started in the last forty-eight hours."
"Whatever this is, it's just getting started," Dre concluded with a grim expression.
"Breakfast!" Dea called from the kitchen. "Get it while it's hot!"
The plantation's main kitchen could easily accommodate a dozen people, which was good because we frequently had at least that many bodies to feed. Dea had outdone herself. There were stacks of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and enough coffee to fuel a small army. Adèle sat perched regally on the counter. She surveyed the chaos with her clear blue eyes and tracked the bacon with laser-like focus.
"Your vision contained significant necromantic energy," Adèle projected directly into my mind. It wasn't surprising she was aware of our discussion. She had probably tuned into me when she felt me slip into the vision. "The spirits you saw were being manipulated against their will."
I had surmised that. "How do you know that?" I asked.
"Know what?" Dea asked, turning from the stove.
Adèle's tail flicked and she met Dea’s gaze. "I was explaining to Dahlia that her vision suggests a violation of the natural order. The dead should not be bound to a practitioner's will." She projected this thought to everyone in the room, makingSteve, Dre’s husband, jump as he entered the kitchen. He was still getting used to our familiar's telepathic abilities.
"Good morning, everyone," Kota said as she entered with Jeff. Her hair was windblown, and dirt smudged her cheek, but she looked happy. Having her husband around always improved her mood. “What did we miss?”
"I heard we've got ghost problems," Dani interjected as she joined us before anyone else could respond. "Again." Noah trailed in behind her.
I waited until everyone had filled their plates before sharing my vision. Eating together when we had the chance had become an unspoken rule. We never knew when we would be called away and had to fill our bellies when we could. The kitchen quieted as I described what I'd seen and the ghosts.
“I have no doubt that this is something you guys will have to stop.” Adèle hopped down gracefully and weaved between our legs. "But first, I require bacon," she announced to the room. "I’m going to need some sustenance. These insights into the magical disturbances are taxing."
"Since when isn’t your kibble good enough?" Kota asked as she slipped the familiar a piece of bacon. “By the way, thank you for cooking, Dea.:
“I figured you and Cami cook often enough that I should pitch in.” Dea inclined her head. “So, what does this mean?”
"Gris-gris bags are traditional voodoo," Phi observed. "I would ask if Marie could have been the individual you observed, but I can’t see her combining them with a ritual that manipulates ghosts. It sounds like someone's mixing practices."
"Never a good sign," Dre said with that tone she gets when shit's about to hit the fan. “You don’t think it’s the Society, do you?”
I shook my head as my stomach did that familiar flip it did when we were about to walk into something nasty. "This wasn’tthem. Combining magical traditions creates unpredictable results. This could get dicey."
"Like blowing up half the Quarter," Kota added, stabbing the air with her fork like she was reliving the moment. "Delacroix got lucky he didn’t cause more damage."
"Did you recognize any of the headstones in your vision?" Dea brought the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Anything that might help us identify which cemetery it was? We could go and look around."
I closed my eyes, letting the vision replay. The broken angel, the weathered stone, and the sense of wrongness that had jolted me. "There was a mausoleum with a broken angel on top. The name was weathered, but it started with 'L'."
"That narrows it down to about fifteen places," Phi said as she typed on her tablet.
"Did anyone die?" Jeff's question made everyone freeze. All eyes shifted from him to me.
"Not in my vision," I replied. His question had jolted us, but it wasn’t surprising. I often saw people losing their lives. "But whatever ritual they were performing, it wasn't meant to help those spirits move on."
"Trapping souls between worlds is dark magic,” Adèle explained. “It violates every natural law."
"And probably half a dozen supernatural treaties," Dre added, like that was the part we should be worried about.
My phone rang with its obnoxious default tone—I really needed to change that. It was Cyran. The leader of the Light Fae was a friend and ally. I prayed he wasn’t calling to give us more bad news. We had enough already.
"Morning, Cyran," I answered. I hit the speaker and put the phone onto the table. "You're on with all of us."
