Back in Roseline’s yard, I placed the lion ingredients on the table.

“Thank ya, child.” She collected the items and put them in a bag by her side as if the contents were too precious to sit outside in case they blew away. Sure, lion parts were scarce, but I didn’t for a second believe they’d bring Ryder any harm. Roseline didn’t play that way.

Ryder slouched next to me, his hooded eyes studying Roseline.

Roseline poured a glass of rum as a libation to the Loa spirits. She hummed to herself, her eyes closed, and did so for a decent ten minutes. Her body shook—more like vibrated—and sweat dripped down the sides of her face, but that could have been the sun beating down.

At once, she clapped her hands and her eyes snapped open.

White as snow, she had no pupils and stared at me so intently my way, she might as well have been peering into my soul. My breath caught in my chest. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen her this way, but it still left me wanting to leave as fast as possible. She’d crossed over into the shadowy corridors between our world and the afterlife.

Sweat slid down my stomach. Despite all the questions parading in my head about what she saw or heard, they didn’t need voicing. She’d tap into the energies and return with information.

Roseline screamed, and I leaped up from my seat. Ryder’s fists curled as he moved by my side, ready to fight. Except when Roseline broke into a humming chant, I slowed my breaths and pulled Ryder backward. She’d once told me when she opened her third eye, she always yelled. It helped draw spirits’ attention. Knowing what she did and then experiencing her shouting were two very different things.

She swayed in her chair, humming but came to an abrupt stop and slammed her hands on the table. That time no jumping for me. Hooray. But breathing was a battle as I swore the air felt like tar, and each inhale left me wheezing.

Roseline started a conversation in Haitian Creole, and I had zero idea what she said. Not even close to understanding one word, I watched and waited. Next to me, Ryder’s gaze locked on the woman like she were a deer he intended to take down. But then again, the guy stared that way when anything grabbed his attention. He gawked with intensity, and I bet if I stripped right that moment, he wouldn’t notice.

Her arms flayed about and her voice rose, clear she was in an argument. Her lips peeled upward as she offered some poor spirit sucker a mouthful of verbiage. Better them than me.

A grunt erupted around us, and I flinched, as did Ryder. Out of the blue, the table between us flew across the yard, tossed into a shrub.

My pulse sped up, and my muscles froze in place.

But at once, Roseline bellowed and her palms shot out in front of her in a defensive move.

Ryder’s gaze swung left and right, fists raised. A wind swirled through my legs, whistling and rustling the surrounding trees.

Roseline shrieked. The next thing I knew, she flew out of her chair and hit the ground with a thud. Her whimpers plucking at my heart. I darted to her side as her seat lifted into the air.

Ryder charged toward it, snatching the two front legs and playing tug-o-war with an invisible fiend. His snarls filled the air, and I grabbed Roseline by the arm. Her eyes returned to their usual brown irises.

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” I drew her to a sitting position on the lawn, and she clapped once. Loud and deafening.

The heaviness pressing against me faded, and Ryder stumbled backward with the chair still in his hand but flying over his head from the momentum.

“I’m good, girl.” Roseline staggered to her feet, and I held her arm, helping her upright.

“What the fuck was that?” Ryder stormed across the yard, his hair wild and eyes crazier with panic.

“Relax, lion. This is normal. Some spirts always try to crawl into our world.”

“Shit, normal? I just fought an invisible creature. I prefer to stare into the eyes of what I’m fighting.”

I moved to his side and laid a hand on his arm. “We’re okay, Ryder. Should have pre-warned you about that possibly happening.”

“You think?” He huffed and patted down his scrunched-up top.

“Do something useful, boy,” Roseline said. “Go bring the rum and three glasses to the sitting room.” She curled an arm around mine and pulled me into a stroll. “We have much to talk about.”

My stomach turned into a boulder at the tone of her words.

Inside the house, we had our first round of shots. Roseline sat on the middle of one sofa, hands on her knees, staring at me as if deciding how to broach what the spirits had shared with her. Roseline was a no-nonsense woman, so her hesitation had me perched on the edge of the couch, while Ryder reclined alongside.

Roseline cleared her throat, and she blurted out, “Sephy, ya’re possessed.” With a moan, she blew out a long breath, and her lips pinched together, clear getting those words out had tested her.

I broke into a nervous laughter. “That’s not possible, otherwise, I would know or have attacked someone by now. Right?” I looked at both her and Ryder. “Oh, crap! It’s that creature who made me grope my breasts at your place, Ryder.”

A chill crept up my spine.

Ryder had his hand on mine.

My breaths were coming too fast and I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, so I got to my feet I paced back and forth near the window. “Can’t this be a mistake.”

“Sephy, sit down.” Her voice streamed across the room, but her earlier revelation wasn’t sinking in.

Me possessed. I eliminated the monsters with the fire in my veins—I always believed none could take me, but I’d been wrong this whole time.

Fuck! I rubbed my chest with my fist, trying to coax my constricted lungs to open. “Are you sure it was a demon, not just a ghost?”

Roseline raised one brow and the corner of her mouth pinched. “Girl, I ain’t short of hearing. Now put ya bum down and listen.”

Ryder reached over the back of the couch and placed his hand over mine. “Sephy, we’ll get through this. Let’s not panic just yet.”

“Too late for that. And easy for you to say.” Okay, I didn’t mean sound snarky, but the jitters were surging through me as if at any moment now I might scream.

“Hell, I’m at risk. I spent all day with you, and you had plenty of chances to kill me. And, I slept in your apartment last night.”

I patted my hair down over my shoulder, curling strands over my fingers. I thought back to the scratchy voice in Ryder’s house, the murmurs in my head since yesterday, and me even touching myself without my control.

Bet it was that goddamn demon girl who’d bit me. She’d whispered about claiming me, but if her demon had transferred from me to her, why had she still run away? Had it created the blood circle in Leafside to summon more of its kind? But why?

“Ya have a spirit in ya,” Roseline said, her fingers laced across her stomach. “But yar magic is suppressing the Loa.”

“Like in a huge powerful Haitian Loa—a deity?” I squeaked. Hell, you’d think after dealing with spirits my whole life, I’d have taken this better. But never had I worried about getting possessed, assuming it was an impossible. And yes, add that to my growing list of stupid mistakes.

“Loas are not necessarily deities. They’re intermediaries for Bondye and serve him. Some call him a good god. Anyway, whispers talked about how another powerful Loa that laid claim to yar soul and no one was to get in his way.”

I gasped and sat in a corner of the couch and hugged my stomach. “Why me?”

“Just like your mom warned,” Ryder added.

“So is that who’s inside me?” I asked. “What does it want?”

She shook her head. “Girl, one of his strong followers has attached itself to ya. It’s a temporary placeholder so no one else can take ya…”

“Until he returns.” The words tasted sour on my tongue and the earlier gumbo now churned, promising to come hurling out.

“Okay,” Ryder piped in. “So we have time to eradicate it.”

I cringed and lowered my head. Processing everything seemed impossible, and I swore this was happening to someone else, not me.

With a curt nod, I gave them a summary of what I’d experienced so far.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do what I can.” Ryder shuffled closer, gliding an arm around my shoulders and pulling me against him, and I appreciated his comfort more than he realized.

His attention honed in on Roseline. “So can you a do a cleansing or exorcism?”

“No, boy. Not only was she possessed, but the demon who took her came with a hook spell, meaning it’s connected to her soul. We get rid of it, she dies.”

“Holy fuck!” Ryder’s words exploded.

I rocked on the spot, loathing how everything was getting worse by the second. “So what now? I live with this thing as it tries to control my body until the bigger spirit arrives to claim me? Hell, no! I’m not becoming any beast’s bitch. I’d rather die first.”

Ryder’s arm tightened around me. “Don’t say that. Ever! We’ll find a solution.”

“That’s not all.” Her voice shook and her eyes lowered.

My blood turned to ice at her words.

“Whoever this powerful Loa is coming for ya, he has followers, not just the one inside ya. There are others marked who will stay close to ya and ensure ya don’t evict the spirit.”

Invisible hands squeezed my chest, and I didn’t need to listen to the next words. My throat thickened remembering the demon girl drinking blood from all of us yesterday morning. It hadn’t a feeding frenzy, but a damn ritual. It must have been marking the men with its bite?

I turned to Ryder, whose face paled to the color of snow because he must have put two and two together. We both stared down at his bandaged forearm.

“Oh, for hell’s sake, don’t say what I’m thinking.” He was shaking his head and his expression switched to pure terror. Pale cheeks, downturned lips, curled posture.

“Girl, they keep ya safe for now.”

Ryder shot to his feet, his chest heaving. “Fuck, fuck, and son of a bitch. I only asked for help with my house trying to kill me, and now I’m marked! What does that even mean? Oh, screw this.” His brow glistened with sweat.

“Lion, ya can’t outrun this, but work together. Girl, ya must determine who the other who are marked are because on their own, they could turn dangerous and kill people. In ya company, they shouldn’t be able to do damage. Yar magic tames them. Then—”

“Then what?” I asked, dropping my feet off the couch.

“Well, that’s where my vision darkened. No one would tell me which Loa has claimed ya. They’re scared, so he’s someone dangerous. Knowing the spirit might give ya power to deal with him when he comes for ya.”

Ryder was grumbling, and a snarl rolled through his chest. “I can’t fucking do this. I just want the curse removed off my house, not to deal with this shit.” He stormed out the front door and vanished somewhere in the yard. Ryder didn’t do well with losing control. I stood to go after him, but Roseline grabbed my wrist, stopping me.

“Girl, ya magic is keeping the spirit at bay. But there’s something ya need to know. Once the powerful Loa spirit comes for ya, those marked will be killed as sacrifices.”

She sighed, and I collapsed back into my seat. My brain shut down, numbness taking me.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I could find out. Ya in mortal danger, girl. So more than anything, ya need to discover who’s coming for ya, why, and how to stop him.”

My words didn’t come at first. They jammed in my chest along with my confidence and ability to move. “S-So how do I do that?”

She placed a hand above her heart and her voice wavered. “Girl, I wish I knew how to help ya.”