Lia leaned forward, leaning her elbows on her knees. "Long story short, your families have been guardians for over a century and a half.” She proceeded to tell them about the Collector and how their ancestors locked it in a spiritual prison before going into hiding.
"What happened to the other families?" Sarah asked quietly.
"They were all killed when Hurricane Katrina hit during a previous renewal attempt," Dani explained gently. "Which is why the binding has been deteriorating faster than expected."
"You're telling me my great-great-grandmother was some kind of... witch?" Margaret asked.
"We aren’t sure what kind of supernatural she was. But her role in this was as a Guardian," I corrected. "The Fontaine family specializes in sanctuary magic. You can create safe spaces where other powers can be amplified. That's why your garden has always felt so peaceful."
"The Moreau family maintains the binding through music," Lia continued, looking at Claude. "Specific songs and melodies reinforce spiritual barriers. Your public performances were actively protecting the city."
Claude looked through the doors at his trumpet. "Sweet Lord. Every jazz funeral, every street performance... I was doing magic and didn't even know it?"
“That’s right,” Phi said with a nod.
"And the Castellano family," Dani said, turning to Thomas, "guards the physical anchor points. The cemetery is one of the sacred spaces where part of the binding was originally anchored."
Thomas nodded his head. "I told you the spirits have been trying to tell me something for months, but I couldn't understand."
"Because the knowledge was deliberately fragmented," I explained. "Your ancestors thought it would be safer to hide the truth from future generations. They thought it would allow your line to survive. But now, with the binding failing and the Collector breaking free. We need you to work with the other lines to ensure that doesn’t happen."
"What exactly is this Collector?" Margaret asked. “You said it was evil...”
"It’s an entity that feeds on human souls," Lia said, cutting her off. "When it was last free, it killed thousands by creating a plague before your ancestors managed to bind it. If the prisonfails completely, it will manifest physically in our dimension and start feeding again."
Sarah moved closer to her mother. "The things that attacked our house yesterday... those were its servants?"
"Yes. They’re called harvesters," Dani confirmed. "It's been sending them out to take out the bloodline families. If you guys are all gone then there will be no one to renew the binding."
The silence that followed was broken only by Claude's shaky breathing and the distant rumble of thunder. "How long do we have?" Thomas asked quietly.
"Less than two days," I replied. "The ancestral spirits are burning through their own essence to hold the barriers together, but they can't maintain it much longer."
Margaret stood up abruptly, pacing to the window. "This is insane. You're asking me to believe that my family recipes are actually spell components, that my garden is some kind of magical sanctuary, and that if I don't figure out how to use powers I didn't know I had, something is going to eat everyone's souls."
"That's... actually a pretty accurate summary," Kota said.
"And what if we can't do it?" Sarah asked. "What if we don't know enough, or we're not strong enough?"
"Then the Collector manifests physically in this dimension," Marguerite Castellano's spirit announced as it materialized in the center of the room. Her translucent form flickered. "It will consume your souls first. It will grow stronger with each feeding until nothing can stop it."
Margaret spun around, her eyes wide as she stared at the ghostly figure. "Oh, sweet Jesus."
"She’s one of my ancestors," Thomas explained. "One, I should have listened to more."
“Can’t go back now,” Claude replied.
"No, we can’t," Margaret said. "What exactly do we need to do to prevent the end of the world?"
CHAPTER 16
DAHLIA
"That is the million-dollar question," Dre replied with a smirk. "We need to come up with a plan that'll not only stop this cosmic nightmare from getting through to eat everyone's soul. But also make sure we don't end up in this exact same mess in another hundred and seventy years."
My gaze lifted from the collection of artifacts we'd rescued from three different locations. Dre was right. We needed a plan. We had hours before the binding collapsed entirely. The problem was that we had zero idea how to make any of this work.
"Right," I said, channeling every ounce of crisis management energy I'd developed as a social worker. "We should start by modifying the ritual used to bind him. How hard can it be?"
