Page 40 of Mardi Gras Murders & Midnight Masquerades
My phone rang again. This time it was Dre. “Hey, sestra. We're looking at Jeff’s pictures now.”
"Nearly all of the floats are covered in modified sigils," Dre confirmed. "The Society doesn’t seem to be very bright if they haven’t caught onto what is really going on." I snorted at that.
"It is mind-boggling. Each modified sigil creates a tributary that diverts power," Phi added.
"Let me guess," I said, "all those tributaries lead to a single destination."
"Bingo," Dre replied. "And I'll give you three guesses where that is, though you'll only need one."
"Willowberry," we said in unison. “It makes sense because that’s where the masquerade is being held,” Dre added.
"But why would he change his strategy now?" Dani asked,frowning. "He's been channeling power directly to himself for centuries. Why divert to the plantation instead?"
Adèle's tail twitched anxiously as she projected her thoughts to all of us. "This is a significant departure from his usual methods. The ritual he's attempting requires exponentially more power. That’s why he needs the six of you. He's seeking to extend his life and attempting ascension. To become a god, he needs a nexus of magical energy concentrated in a single location at a precise moment when the veil between worlds is thinnest. The masquerade falls on that exact night. By diverting power from the parade route—where thousands of people will be generating emotional energy—he creates a magical circuit that amplifies the power a hundredfold before it reaches him at the plantation. It's brilliant and terrifying. If he succeeds, he will be immortal and have the power to reshape reality."
"That is not going to happen. We need to test these counter-sigils before the masquerade," Dani said.
I glanced at the wooden blocks. "Let's take these to the back forty. It's far enough from the house that if something goes wrong, the wards should contain any backlash."
"I was about to suggest that. I'm going out there with you," Adèle announced. "Someone needs to ensure your amateur spell work doesn't destroy everything in sight."
“Keep us on speaker phone,” Dre called out.
“Like I would let you miss this one,” I replied as I helped put the blocks in one of our reusable bags.
Lucas grabbed one, and Noah snagged the other. I put my empty glass in the kitchen as we passed. Less than a minute later, we were trudging through the plantation's backfields, carrying our blocks. We were armed with the counter-sigils. Adèle trotted ahead of us. She periodically stopped to test the magical currents. "This spot will work well," she said as we reached a clearing. "The ground here is saturated with protective energy." When she said that, I opened my senses.The old oak trees formed a natural boundary. Their ancient roots had been soaking up the magic for centuries.
"It’s also far enough in that there will be minimal residual magical interference," Lia added.
Dani began arranging the wooden blocks with the sigils the mage had inscribed on the floats as close to the parade route circuit as possible. Lia placed smaller blocks with counter-sigils at key junction points. Adèle occasionally nudged a block into better alignment with her paw.
"The connective threads need to be established before activation," she instructed. "Sprinkle salt between the major nodes to create conductive pathways."
Once everything was in position, we stood back to assess our work. "Who wants to do the honors?" I asked.
"We should do it together. That way, it doesn’t drain any of us," Dani pointed out.
"Just don't overdo it," Adèle cautioned, retreating to a safe distance. "Use a gentle pulse to start. We want to observe the flow, not trigger a magical tsunami."
I centered myself and drew energy up through my feet from the earth below. My sisters did the same next to me. The familiar warmth of magic gathered in my palms as I raised my hands. Lia and Dani moved into position on either side of me, completing our triangle around the wooden blocks. Inside the circle lay two sets of sigils. The ones that were the exact copies of the mage's work that we'd found on the floats. Beside them, our freshly carved counter-sigils designed to redirect the flow.
"Together on three," I said, meeting their eyes. "One... two... three!"
We released our magic simultaneously. Our three distinct pulses of energy merged into a single wave that washed over the symbols. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the sigils began to glow. It was faint at first, then the brightnessincreased. Gold lines of energy flowed between the blocks, forming a complex web that pulsed with power. Between one blink and the next, shit went sideways.
As the counter-sigils activated, they intercepted and redirected the flow of energy. The smile lifting the corners of my mouth dropped when a darker current emerged beneath our artificial circuit. It had to be something that had been hidden in the sigils.
"What the hell?" Lia exclaimed. "That's not our magic."
"What is it?" Dani shouted. "It feels malevolent!"
Adèle's fur stood on end. "It's a trap line! A magical trigger was built into the sigils. Now we know what the mage’s changes do." Her mental voice was sharp with alarm. "Your redirection activated it! The counter-sigils shouldn't have altered the path of the energy."
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. None of that mattered. It was too late. The dark current surged and broke through our carefully constructed circuit. The wooden blocks shattered, sending splinters flying in all directions as a wave of corrupted energy rippled outward.
"Cast a shield!" I shouted, at the same time, I threw a defensive barrier around us. The backlash hit a second later.
The ground beneath our feet trembled and cracked. My heart started hammering in my chest when shadows emerged from the ruptured earth. Right before our eyes, they coalesced into solid form. Four massive hounds with glowing red eyes and obsidian bodies took shape. Their muscular frames absorbed the light around them. Their growls echoed with otherworldly resonance, and vibrated through the air like distant thunder.
