"The binding is failing," I said urgently. Sweat broke out on my forehead as the Collector's pressure intensified. "We know about the seven convergence points, but we need to understand what went wrong."
Marguerite's expression darkened, and the temperature around us dropped twenty degrees. "The hurricane... BaronSamedi's storm... damaged all of the anchor points. The entire network has been compromised."
My sisters exchanged alarmed glances from their positions around the circle. We'd suspected the damage was extensive. Learning that every single binding point had been affected was like discovering the dam was about to collapse entirely.
"Can they be repaired?" I asked.
"Perhaps," Marguerite replied. "But you must understand. The original binding required the willing sacrifice of seven lives. The Collector feeds on death, and only by offering it what it craves most could we create chains strong enough to hold it."
"There has to be another way," I insisted. "Some method that doesn't require human sacrifice."
Marguerite's laugh was like wind through a graveyard. "Child, the Collector is not some minor demon to be banished with salt and sage. It is hunger given form. It cannot be reasoned with or bargained with. Only contained."
"Show us," I said desperately. "Show us the original ritual instructions. There must be something we're missing, some detail that could make the difference."
The spirit's form solidified, and she gestured toward the northern edge of the square. "Follow. But be warned. The knowledge you seek comes with a price. To understand the binding fully, you must see what we sacrificed and feel what we endured."
“That’s Dangerous,”Adèle projected urgently through our shared connection. “But necessary. I sense truth in her words, but also... deception. Use caution.”
“We always do,”I sent back to her.
Dre and Lia cast a spell to carry the protective circle with us as we followed Marguerite toward a section of the square where I felt the spiritual resonance shift. The ground there was sacred. "Here," Marguerite said, pressing her ghostly hand against whatappeared to be solid earth. "Beneath the roots of that oak lies the true archive of the Guardians."
Wait. My gaze darted to my sisters, confusion flickering across my face. The records weren't beneath the cathedral after all? Perhaps that was the deception Adèle had sensed through our bond. We'd been looking in the wrong place entirely.
I pushed the question aside when the ground at Marguerite's feet began to shift. Soil and grass parted like water, revealing what we'd encountered in so many other supernatural locations. Stone steps leading down into hidden darkness.
"The hurricane's damage was not accidental," Marguerite explained as we descended into the vault. Her ghostly form provided an eerie light in the narrow stairwell. "One among our number—Michel Drake—believed he could harness the Collector's power rather than bind it. He deliberately weakened several anchor points, hoping to control the entity and claim its abilities for himself."
As we reached the bottom of the steps, the hidden vault opened before us. It was carved from the same ancient stone as the cathedral crypts. Except the symbols etched into its walls were far older and infinitely more complex than anything we'd seen before. I couldn’t look around or take in much because the betrayal of his actions hit me like a physical blow. The emotional residue of that ancient treachery still clung to the vault walls like thick soot. My empathic abilities picked up rage, desperation, and crushing regret that had been festering here for over a century.
"What happened to him?" I asked.
"The Collector consumed him first," Marguerite replied with grim satisfaction. "But his sabotage has echoed through the centuries, weakening our work and allowing the entity to gradually erode the binding from within."
The vault contained stone tablets covered in precise ritual instructions. When I approached them, something else caught my attention. There was a presence here that didn't belong. Something vast and hungry that was watching from the shadows between thoughts.
“GET BACK!“Adèle's mental scream hit all of us simultaneously through our bond. “THE ENTITY HAS FOUND YOU!”
Unfortunately, it was too late. The Collector's consciousness slammed into mine. For one terrifying moment, I was connected directly to its essence. The ancient void viewed human souls as nothing more than fuel for its endless hunger. I saw how it was trying to prevent any possibility of being bound again by harvesting the very abilities that could imprison it.
"FINALLY," the Collector's voice reverberated through me. "THE EMPATHIC WITCH REVEALS HERSELF. YOUR SISTERS' EMOTIONAL BONDS WILL MAKE EXCELLENT ADDITIONS TO OUR COLLECTION."
Pain exploded through my skull as the entity pressed against my mental defenses. I could feel it trying to use our empathic connection as a highway into my sisters' minds. It was seeking to harvest their magical essence just as it had with the missing Guardians.
"Dea!" Lia's voice came from very far away. "Fight it! We're anchoring you!"
“I'm severing non-essential connections!“Adèle added urgently. “Hold on!”
My sisters' combined power wrapped around me like a lifeline. Their magical energy created a barrier between my consciousness and the Collector's overwhelming presence. With their protection surrounding me, I managed to push back against the Collector's presence. It took great effort, but I was able to force it out of my mind with a psychic scream thatshattered every piece of glass in the vault. The backlash left me on my back on the stone floor.
My sisters rushed to my side and their worried faces appeared above me before I could suck in a pained breath. Marguerite's spirit hovered nearby. "What did you see?" Dre asked as she helped me sit up.
"Each Guardian descendant it takes has a specific magical ability," I explained. "Spirit binding, dimensional anchoring, protective warding, soul channeling, energy weaving—abilities that, when combined, could recreate the original ritual."
"It's making sure no one can bind it again," Phi muttered absently as she worked through things.
"Which means," Kota said grimly, "that we're also fighting to preserve the only tools that could stop this thing."
