Page 56 of Mardi Gras Murders & Midnight Masquerades
"We can free you," Dani offered. "Help us defeat him."
A long silence followed before she finally replied. “His power comes from the movement of essence from vessel to vessel. Every jump fragments his soul further while empowering him atthe same time.”
"How do we use that against him?" I pressed.
“You have pissed him off. He will move on you early, and when he attempts to channel through you six, there's a moment of perfect vulnerability. It is when his essence is fully extended. At that precise point, the transfer can be redirected.”
"Redirected where?" Phi asked.
Eleanor's gaze shifted to the crystals surrounding her. “Into a prison like mine.”
"We're not creating another eternal prisoner," Dre stated firmly. "There has to be another way."
“Redirection doesn't require a living vessel. It merely requires a target that can accept magical essence.”
"The mask," I realized. "The one he created to manipulate us."
“Any of his creations would suffice. It would be poetic justice to use his own tools against him.”
"How do we free you?" I asked, studying the energy field that suspended her.
“You cannot—not entirely. Too much of me is bound to his magic. Breaking these bonds would kill what remains of Eleanor Montrose. But you can end my suffering when you end his. When his power fails, these bindings will dissolve, and I will finally rest.”
"We'll stop him," Lia promised in a voice full of protective fury. "Before tomorrow night's masquerade, we'll end this cycle for good."
“Then you are going to need to know when to hit him. Place your hands upon the crystals. They will not harm you,”she assured us.“I have been watching him for over a century. I understand his magic better than he does. There is a moment during the ritual—a single heartbeat when his essence is stretched thin across vessels—where he becomes vulnerable. You must recognize it to exploit it.”
I hesitated only briefly before placing my palm against the nearest crystal. My sisters followed suit. The moment wemade contact, my mind exploded with images and knowledge. I saw through Eleanor's eyes as she observed Delacroix through decades. She’d witnessed his rituals from the perspective of his unwilling power source. This allowed her to share the precise magical resonance that signaled his moment of weakness.
“One last thing,” she murmured. “Find my locket. It contains the last piece of his original soul. You must eliminate that before he will truly be vulnerable.”
CHAPTER 16
Dahlia
Eleanor's final words echoed in my head as we raced back to the plantation. "Find my locket. It contains the last piece of his original soul..." The revelation had sent a tremor of excitement through our group as we'd carefully withdrawn our hands from the crystals surrounding her emaciated form. None of us wanted to leave her there, but we recognized we had no choice. We were going to end Delacroix and free her so she could finally rest.
My fingers still tingled from the connection and my mind reeled from the centuries of knowledge she'd transferred to us in those brief moments of contact. The woman had been through hell at Delacroix's hand. I could not imagine being his unwilling power source for over a century.
"How much time do we have?" Kota asked as my SUV bounced over potholes at a speed that would've earned anyone else a stack of tickets.
"Not enough," I replied as I took a corner hard enough to make the tires squeal. "The masquerade is tomorrow night, but Eleanor was right. I don't think he will wait to get us under his control for the party."
I pulled into the plantation's parking lot a few silent seconds later. The plantation house stood against the night sky. Its windows glowed with warm light. It had become a beacon of safety in our dangerous world. I loved the place more than I thought possible for an inanimate object.
"We need to work quickly," Dre said as we filed into the library. "Delacroix knows we found Eleanor. He'll be scrambling to secure his backup plans."
Our Siamese familiar slipped silently through the door behind us. Her movements were fluid and deliberate. “His servants are already spreading throughout the city like poisoned fog,”Adèle's voice resonated in our minds, making everyone look her way.
I walked straight to the containment box holding the mask and placed my palms on its surface. "Eleanor showed us how to modify this to trap him instead of us."
“The mask remembers its maker's intention,”Adèle projected as she leaped onto the table and circled the artifact with measured steps. “It will resist the changes you attempt.”
I allowed Eleanor's memories to surface. A vision flooded my mind. It was clear as day and showed exactly what we needed. "We need black iris grown in a cemetery, midnight moss from the underside of a stone baptismal font at St. Louis Cathedral, grave dirt from Marie Laveau's tomb, and water from the Mississippi where it runs fastest below Delacroix's old bank."
"Where can we find the irises and the moss?" Kota asked. “Marie will give us the grave dirt.”
“Both can be found at the Metairie Cemetery,”Adèle explained. “Near the Army of Tennessee monument. The flowers there have absorbed decades of military protection spells. Perfect for strengthening our binding.”
