CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A break at the Hollow was exactly what I needed. Sitting there for a while among the trees, the flowers and the grass, thinking about nothing and letting the sounds, the smells, and the magick infuse my being, left me feeling refreshed and magickally capable; more than I had felt in a long time, even before my attack last night.
I would have wanted some more time to relax, but we didn’t have time; we had to get to the Garden District house before Tamara could infect the gathered crowd with her subtle vitriol. She would talk about me, and about Remy, and would use our deaths to kickstart her crusade against the vampires living in New Orleans.
Starting with Jean Luc.
The Garden District itself was as quiet as ever when we arrived, serene and peaceful. But when Jared shut the bike off outside, a ruckus reached my ears. Looking around at the other quiet homes on the district, it was a wonder no one had called the police yet. Nicole’s car was nowhere to be seen, but that was because she had parked it in a public lot not far from the house. We had driven right to it. Even before getting off the bike, I had begun dulling my aura enough so the magick wards wouldn’t trip.
I had set them up, so I knew how to bypass them without bringing them down.
“Nicole’s already inside, then,” Jared said as he dismounted.
“Sounds like she’s stalling for us,” I said, “Can you hear what they’re saying?”
“No, but we should hurry.”
I walked briskly along the sidewalk, toward the front gate, and then up to the front door which Nicole had left ajar. Going through the garden would have drawn suspicion, but going in this way, I knew I wouldn’t be seen; everyone would be too busy staring eyes-front to see me hiding by the entrance to the ballroom. The closer I got, the louder the voices got. There were people here, alright, but the ruckus wasn’t being caused by many voices, only two: Nicole and Tamara.
It seemed I had walked into the tail end of a conversation between the two where they were discussing my ignorance, and how it had gotten me killed. Nicole, who was the only voice contesting the point, argued that it hadn’t been ignorance that had killed me, but a lack of support. What if I had changed my ways and decided to go hunting for vampires? And what if, being ostracized as I had been from the witches in the city, I had felt too alone to ask for help?
I had to hand it to her; she was making one hell of a case.
“Madison is dead, Nicole,” Tamara said, “And whatever the reason may be, there is nothing that can change that fact.”
Jared nudged me, and I took that as my cue to act. He yanked the ballroom door open for me, and I strode inside to a room full of stunned faces and witches standing as rigidly as statues. They followed me with their eyes as I walked through the room—Harvey, Nina, Nicky, Dean, Emmett, everyone. But I didn’t look at any of them. Instead I kept my eyes fixed on Tamara, the woman who had tried to have me killed, the bitch who had burned down my house.
“Bullshit,” I called out, pointing a finger at her from the center of the room.
“You’re alive,” she said, her face twisted into a scowl.
“Yeah, no thanks to you.”
Her hand flew up to her chest. “Me?”
“You sent for me,” I said, as I advance on her. “You asked me to come and talk to you, and I came to you under a flag of truce. But you didn’t like what I said, so you knocked me unconscious, drove me out into the swamp, and left me there to die.”
She glared, now, her eyebrows pinching at the middle. “Careful,” she said, “I don’t take kindly to baseless accusations.”
“It’s true,” Nicole said, “I picked her up from the swamp myself. She almost died.”
A series of murmurs erupted around the room as witches began to discuss among themselves what they were hearing.
“That proves nothing,” Tamara said.
“That’s not all you did,” I said. “First, you drove me out to the swamp. Then you told the vampires—the same vampires who attacked us in this very ballroom—where I would be, and had them come after me. And when it was all done, and I was out of the picture… you burned my house to the ground.”
“You can’t seriously expect these people to believe that I did any of that.”
“No,” Nina said, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I saw it on the news—there was a fire in the French Quarter. But… Lumière is gone? Your home?”
I swallowed, and nodded. “Yeah,” I said, fighting against my quivering lower lip. “It’s a ruin.”
“Girl, you are way out of line,” Tamara said, raising her voice as if to lord over the rest of us. “First you accuse me of trying to kill you, then you say I’m in league with the vampires who attacked us, and now you claim I burned down your house. I’ve been a busy woman, haven’t I?”
“So, you deny it?” I asked.
“Damn straight, I deny it!”
“Then let Nicole into your thoughts.”
Tamara turned her eyes on Nicole. “Do you think I was born yesterday? She’s in your coven; how are we to know she’s telling the truth?”
Nicole stepped toward the stage Tamara was standing on. “I can create a link with everyone here if I have permission,” she said, “Everyone will be able to see your thoughts.”
“I won’t allow it.”
“If you have nothing to hide, you should let Nicole do it,” Nina said.
“Yeah, an innocent woman has nothing to fear” Harvey said. He was standing next to her, as were the witches to both of their covens. “Let her do it.”
Tamara shook her head. “Would you allow for a public screening of your most private self? I don’t think so, and I think it’s entirely unfair to suggest I allow it to be done to me, especially on the grounds of a baseless accusation.”
“You refuse, then?” I asked.
“Unconditionally,” she said, staring me down from across the room.
“Fine. In that case, I challenge you to a duel, Tamara. Right here, in this ballroom, in front of all our peers. If you beat me, I will drop all the charges. If I win, I want you to leave New Orleans.”
Her face hardened. “When I win, you are the one who will leave. You’re homeless anyway.”
I buried the sting, but her childish taunts had sent a ripple of quiet murmurs cascading throughout the ballroom. No one liked what she had just said. Good. That would work in my favor.
“Fine,” I said, “I accept the terms.”
A smirk crossed her lips. “Then, so do I.”
The murmurs going all around me intensified as Nicole came rushing to my side. “Madison, what are you doing?” she asked.
“I have to do this, Nicole. It’s the only way.”
“You remember what she did to you the first time you met, right?”
“Of course I do, I was there.”
“I was too. You have no idea what kind of power this woman has at her disposal, and if she wins…”
“She won’t win.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because we stand to lose everything if she wins, everything we’ve fought for and built. That can’t happen.”
The crowd was starting to part, creating a circle for Tamara and me to duel in. Already my heart was starting to buck wildly inside my chest, and seeing Jared standing there, watching me with eyes full of concern, made my heart pump even faster. I was already weak from my battle with the vampires, I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, and I was magickally drained.
But I still felt like I could beat Tamara.
Something was different, something inside of me. It was as if a warm light had lit within my chest, a light I hadn’t noticed until now. While I didn’t know what the light was, or what it meant, I knew it could give me power if I asked for it, just as I knew I could jump if I motivated my legs to do so.
Tamara entered the circle the witches had made, and I entered as well, standing across from her.
Nicole, who had volunteered to mediate, stepped between us. “There are only three rules,” she said, “You must use only clean magick—no curses or lasting hexes, you must duel only using your primary style of magick, and you must also swear not to kill each other. Otherwise, your lives shall be forfeit.”
“Agreed,” I said.
Tamara bowed her head. “Agreed.”
Nicole stepped back into the crowd and held her hands out for a witch on either side of her to hold. Soon, each of the witches surrounding us were holding hands, and with their heads bowed in silent prayer, they created a bubble of magick around us that shone and shimmered like a semi-invisible force field, creating a clear partition between the combatants and the observers that would allow no one outside to intervene, and no magick used inside to spill out.
I flexed my right hand, clenching and releasing the fist.
“You give yourself away,” she said. “Now I know you’re right handed.”
“If you think that’ll make me easy to beat, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“You forget, I’ve seen you fight. Or, rather, I’ve seen you defend yourself. You’ve got a strong shield, but you can’t use it forever. Eventually, I’ll get the better of you. So, I’m giving you a chance to back out now with your dignity intact.”
“No,” I said, “I knew from the moment we met you and I would have to fight. Truthfully, I’ve been looking forward to it.”
“Good,” she said, and before I knew it, she had stretched her right hand toward me and sent a shower of lightning hurtling in my direction.