Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“Yeah, that. You say it just like her.” Phil chuckles, but Caz is not laughing. His face is grim.
“Caz, what’s going on?” I ask.
“Whoever this woman is, we can’t go to her.” His words come out without hesitation. “We’ll have to find someone else.”
“Why?” I counter. He can’t be serious. “We’re so close to a possibility. We don’t have time to look anywhere else, Caz.”
His eyes swing to mine. “Yakaree is a Vakeeli term for someone who will soon meet their demise. This woman…her energy can’t be good if that’s the title she’s running around with.” He looks at Phil. “What happened to the man who got his legs?”
“Last I heard, he was living with his mother. Lost his job. Drowning in a bunch of debt. Probably gave everything he had to that woman just to keep feeling like he was walking,” says Phil.
Caz points his gaze to me. “Willow, I’m not sure about this.”
“Do you think she’ll hurt us?”
Caz blinks, then lowers his head. “I don’t know.”
“But who else can we go to?”
A pause. Then another, “I don’t know.”
I release a frustrated sigh.
“Yakaree can mean so many things. Perhaps she means a financial demise, or mental,” Caz goes on, pacing a bit. “Phil here was caught taking money so he could give it to her, and the man who found his legs lost all his money by giving it to her.” Caz rubs his forehead, trying to wipe away the frown.
“We have to try,” I tell him. “She could be from Vakeeli, which could help us. If Beatrix got us here, then maybe this woman tried what Beatrix did on herself and ended up here.”
“It’s possible, but why the hell would she be hiding here, on Earth?” he asks.
“We can only find out if we meet her.” I turn to Phil. “Thank you, Phil. We won’t bother you anymore.”
“Yeah, and sorry about your fiancée,” Faye adds, standing.
“Y’all really going to that Effie woman?” Phil probes.
I look at Caz hesitantly. His brows are puckered, forehead wrinkled as he stares out the window. He doesn’t want to do this, but we have no choice. What other option do we have? Someone here has a link to Vakeeli, and we can use it.
“Well,” Phil says when we don’t respond. “Good luck to you on that one. But if it were me, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that money hungry witch again.”
Chapter 31
CAZ
When we leave the detention center, Faye and Willow are rambling about this Effie woman and how it makes sense to find her, despite all the dangers that clearly surround her name. All the while, I can’t bring myself to say much of anything about it out loud.
My mother told me stories about people who used yakaree to hurt others. They’d run to Mythics after being assaulted or bullied, and they’d beg them to put the spell of yakaree on their enemies. The next thing anyone knew, the person they’d put the spell on would be dead and had the mark of yakaree on their body, the letter Y with a slash through the bottom. I always liked to think it was a coincidence—these people dying and ending up with the mark—but yakaree has somehow made its way to Earth, which proves how powerful it is. Though none of them have the mark here, it’s clear the stories are true. The demise can happen to anyone, anywhere.
After driving to a rental car lot, Willow sees Faye off. As badly as she wants to come, she can’t swing it to New Orleans—something about being there for her grandmother and getting back to work at her bookshop. Frankly, I’m glad she’s taking off. She’s gotten on my nerves too many times to count.
When they hug goodbye and Faye drives away with her rental car, Willow returns to ours, plopping behind the wheel. The car is quiet for several seconds, droplets of rain splashing on the windshield and blurring our surroundings.
“Do you think we should find another way?” she finally asks, her gaze shifting to me.
I let the question linger. “Depends. Am I allowed to take my gun when we meet this woman?”
She smirks. “I think that would be best.”
“Then we’ll go. But if she tries to curse us, I’ll know it. There’s a hidden language in Vakeeli that goes back thousands of years, and if she knows the work of yakaree, then she’s likely ancient. This woman, whoever she is, is very cunning.”
“Well, let’s hope she’s nice.” Willow enters a location on the map app of her cellphone. “Fourteen hours. We’ll have to make an overnight stop.” She appears nervous as she grips the steering wheel and pulls onto the main road. “I’m worried that if we stop, though, Decius will find us. There’s no telling what he’ll use this time.”
“We don’t have to stop if you don’t want to. I can drive when you get tired,” I offer.