He is crushing my windpipe. I gurgle for air. My feet kick at him but they don’t find purchase. The chair shifts and tips wildly.
My eyes bulge and swim, but when I look at Blanck, I see a man in a wide-brimmed hat instead, his two cronies crouching behind him, over me. Their tongues are snakes, their eyes blackas ink. They inhale inhale inhale and I choke, gasp, fight for air. I look away, terrified to look directly at them. I plead with the guests with my eyes,Help me. They do nothing but watch with horror.
My breath is a delicate wisp of smoke, leaving my body, and I am terrified as the Trio drinks it in. I am cold. Colder. Blanck and the Trio are one.
Spirit howls and hisses at this evil like a cat, trying to scratch Blanck’s eyes, his face. No, that’s me, with one hand free now… I fight. I feel the strength of my Team of Light with me. But his grip on my windpipe is strong.
I am blacking out, my head light and spinny, and the three shadowy figures smile with rotted teeth, their garbage breath filling my nostrils, my lungs. My eyesight floods red.
Ending him is justicccce, Sssstella, the Dark Legion hisses.Daisy wants justicccccce.
I am five years old again and I feel the surge of power and ire I felt then, when I summoned this Dark Legion to help my mother fight the lecherous landlord. The landlord I pushed. The landlord who fell to his death once this Dark Trio took over.
End him, the Dark Trio urges, their voices slimy.You know you can end him.
I can do that again. I can kill him. If anyone deserves it, it’s Blanck. My red eyesight darkens still. Everything is the color of blood. But I cannot look into the eyes of the Dark Trio. It is too terrifying. I will lose myself to them if I do. I kick and claw.
“Stop! Police!”
It’s the last thing I hear before I slip into deep, black unconsciousness.
DEATH
THE 13TH MAJOR ARCANA CARD
The grim reaper rides on horseback. Death’s horse has already trampled a king. Three others—a religious leader, a young woman, and a child—all beg for Death’s mercy.
Upright: spiritual transformation, new beginnings, letting go, endings, upheaval
Reversed: lethargy, hope destroyed, negative patterns, resisting change, dependency
You are going to die. I am not here to relieve you of your anxiety about your mortality, Friend. But this card, Death, rarely refers to the act of dying itself. It is a painful card, absolutely. But at its core, Death is about change.
Allow me to reiterate: Death is about change.
“No!” I scream at Blanck, at the three figures looming over my Stella, sipping her soul, pulling her into the darkness. I see them lay out the horrible memories in her mind’s eye: The push. The trip. The crash. The fall. The blood. The brokenness.
I see them tempt her again.
I saw firsthand what the Dark Trio did to that landlord. I sawhow it destroyed my sister Stella—Rose—for months afterward. Years. How to this day, she does not trust herself. I see how that jagged glass, that broken neck haunts her. I will not let them work their evil through her again.
“No! Stop!”
I know what will make them stop. I know what I need to do.
“Take me instead!”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
I regain consciousness just enough to see awful, soot-souled Blanck leap backward off my throat. He throws his hands in the air, as if innocent. As if he weren’t trying to strangle me. As if he weren’t a murderer, through and through.
The moment that follows is long and painful; I wished death upon someone, and I could’ve made it happen. But it didn’t happen, and I’m not sure why. I am grateful and ashamed and confused.
The reality of the power I tried to wield leaves me nauseated. I droop in this chair. Why would I do thatagain? It destroyed my literal existence before.
Doyle checks his pocket watch. “Nice expediency, boys.” He gives the police a detailed overview of the evening’s events, and ends his lecture with, “Everyone here believes that Kiyoko the Mystical, the performer you’ll find locked in the back room, is guilty.”
He continues, surprising me. “But gentlemen, her innocence is obvious. Mrs. McLean’s injury was on her forehead, and Kiyoko stoodbehindher. It is impossible for her to have inflicted that wound. So obviously, we must check the safe.” Doyle looks to me expectantly, as if I’d lead them forward from here.
