The Witch of Painted Sorrows

Chapter 36

Hands pulled me out. Lifted me up. Carried me up the stairs. Coughing, I gasped the fresher air. Gulped it down.

They took me to a room in the back of the club. Laid me on a cot.

“No one has ever been in the box that long,” Alexandra said as she wiped my face with a cool cloth.

“Drink this,” Dujols said, and held a glass of water up to my lips.

I took several sips. Then several more.

“How long was I there?” My voice sounded hoarse.

“Over two hours,” Dujols answered. “When you closed the lid, it slammed, and the vibrations set off an avalanche of small rocks. A part of the wall caved in. We had to dig you out. We were worried the whole time that you wouldn’t make it.”

“And only two of us at a time fit in that small space. Without any real tools. We had to use our hands and cups,” Alexandra said. “Did you sleep?”

“I don’t think so. But then again it didn’t seem like I was there more than a few minutes. I just did what you said and slowed my breath.”

I sat up. I knew I could no longer pretend-or hope-that La Lune was a manifestation of my guilt. A figment of my imagination. She was not a response to my father’s suicide. My grandmother was right. La Lune was a malevolent force, and she needed to be evicted from my soul.

“I’m under a spell, aren’t I?” I asked Dujols.

“Yes, yes, that’s why you can’t take off the necklace. Why you can’t send her away,” he said. “She doesn’t want you here. Doesn’t want you to see us. She may not let you come to us again.”

I nodded. I could feel a fight coming from La Lune. I didn’t know how she was going to manage it, but I was sure she was getting ready.

“I think you’re right. Around you all, it seems as if she has less strength. Everything seems a little more clear to me. Can you tell me how I can end this? How I can break her spell?”

“The ritual would be written in La Lune’s grimoire,” Dujols said.

“Why would she write it down? Wouldn’t that be risking someone doing just what I plan to do?”

“Spells are complicated and dangerous. They must be followed exactly, and so they are almost always committed to paper. There are too many steps to remember with exactitude. I would guess that the magick she’s used all these years to stay contained, to merge, to get what she wants, is recorded on the pages of her book.”

“What do I need to do?”

I knew what he was going to say before he said it from the way his eyes were shining.

“Bring me the book. I will help you figure it out.”

“And what do you want from me?” I asked.

“What I’ve told you all along. To study the book. To find the secret. To learn the formula.”

“The formula?”

“ ‘Make of the blood, a stone’…”