“The Otherworld,” Arelia translated.
Amma knelt down, unwrapping a cloth filled with small bones and charms. She might as well have been a doctor preparing her surgical tools. “Callin’ the sorta help we need's my specialty.”
Arelia took out a rattle, and Twyla sat down and got comfortable. Who knew what she was going to have to raise. Amma spread out her bones and struggled with one of her mason jars. “South Carolina graveyard dirt. Best there is. Brought it from home.” I took the jar from her and opened it, thinking about the night I followed her into the swamp. “We can take care a those Vexes. Won't stop Sarafine or Melchizedek's good-for-nothin’ brother, but it'll cut off some a her power.”
Gramma looked up at the dark cyclone of Vexes fueling the fire. “My goodness, you weren't exaggerating, Amarie. There are a lot of them.” I saw her eyes move from Sarafine's motionless body to Lena, in the distance, and the lines in her brow deepened. Ridley let go of her hand, but didn't leave her side.
Link let out a sigh of relief. “Man, I'm goin’ back to church next Sunday for sure.” I didn't say anything, but what I was thinking wasn't that far off.
Amma looked up from the dirt she was spreading below her feet. “We're gonna send them back down where they belong.”
Gramma adjusted her jacket. “Then I'll deal with my daughter.”
Amma, Arelia, and Twyla sat cross-legged on the damp rocks and joined hands. “First things first. Let's get rid a those Vexes.”
Gramma stepped back and gave them some room. “That would be lovely, Amarie.”
The three women closed their eyes. Amma's voice was strong and clear, despite the whirring of the vortex and the humming of Dark magic. “Uncle Abner, Aunt Delilah, Aunt Ivy, Grandmamma Sulla, we are in need a your intercession once more. I call you now to this place. Find your way into this world and banish the ones that don't belong.”
Twyla's eyed rolled back in her head, and she began to chant.
“Les lois, my spirits, my guides,
Tear apart the Bridge
That carries these shadows from your world into the next.”
Twyla raised her arms above her head. “Encore!”
“Again,” Arelia spoke the word in English.
“Les lois, my spirits, my guides,
Tear apart the Bridge
That carries these shadows from your world into the next.”
Twyla continued to chant, mixing her French-Creole with Amma and Arelia's English. Their voices overlapped like a chorus. Through the crack in the cavern ceiling, the sky darkened around the ray of moonlight, as if they had summoned a thundercloud to bring on a storm all their own. But they weren't calling a thundercloud. They were creating a different kind of vortex, darkness spiraling above them like a perfectly formed tornado touching down in the center of their circle. For a second, I thought the enormous spiral was only going to get us killed faster, attracting every Vex and Incubus within sight of it.
I should have known better than to doubt the three of them. The ghostly figures of the Greats began to emerge: Uncle Abner, Aunt Delilah, Aunt Ivy, and Sulla the Prophet. They were forming from the sand and dirt, their bodies being woven from it bit by bit.
Our Three Fates kept spinning.
“Tear apart the Bridge
That carries these shadows from your world into the next.”
Within seconds, there were more spirits from the Otherworld, Sheers. They were being born from the spiraling earth, like butterflies from a cocoon. The Greats and the spirits attracted the Vexes, causing the shadowy creatures to rush toward them with the horrible scream I remembered from the Tunnels.
The Greats began to grow. Sulla was so big, her rows of necklaces looked like ropes. All Uncle Abner needed was a thunderbolt and a toga, and he could've been Zeus looming above us. The Vexes shot out from the flames of the Dark Fire, black streaks tearing across the sky. Just as quickly, the shrieking streaks disappeared. The Greats inhaled them, as Twyla had seemed to inhale the Sheers that night in the cemetery.
Sulla the Prophet glided forward, her heavily ringed fingers pointing at the last of the Vexes, turning and screaming in the wind. “Tear apart the Bridge!”
The Vexes were gone, leaving nothing except a dark cloud overhead and the Greats, Sulla in the forefront. She was shimmering in the moonlight as she spoke her final words. “Blood is always Blood. Even time cannot Bind it.”
The Greats disappeared, and the dark cloud dissipated. Only the billowing smoke from the Dark Fire remained. The pyre was still burning, and Sarafine and Lena were still tied to the slab.
The vortex of Vexes was gone, and something else had changed. We were no longer silently watching, waiting for an opportunity to make our move. The eyes of every Incubus and Dark Caster in the cave were on us, canines bared and yellow eyes blazing.
We had joined the party, whether we liked it or not.
6.20
Seventeen Moons