Rai drove downtown to pick up camping essentials.
Back at the academy, Nan sat alone in a corner with her headphones on, grinning at a how-to book on dating. Zoe, Madison, and Queenie were chattering excitedly about how to make tomorrow's trip extra fun.
Fiona appeared in front of them.
"What are we talking about?" She let her gaze sweep over their young faces, smiling.
"Camping," Queenie said, breezy as ever. "Tomorrow's going to be a great day."
"Good choice," Fiona said, a little wistful. "When I was young, I spent a long stretch doing nothing but camping. Forests, mountains, islands, deserts, no-man's-lands… nature's beauty is endless. Youth really is wonderful."
"Enjoy it while you can, so you don't regret it when you're old."
"Oh, and one more thing."
She turned to go, paused, then crooked a finger at Madison. "I missed the welcome party. Madison, come tell me how you and Rai handled that evil spirit. I'm very interested."
Madison's heart tightened.
Armed with what Rai had told her about the Supreme Witch, she now read every word and gesture of Fiona's differently.
Good thing she was an actress; basic performance was no problem.
"Sure."
She gave Fiona a picture-perfect smile, stood without fuss, and walked off with her.
Zoe and Queenie didn't think twice and went on with their plans.
…
Three hours later.
Loaded down with shopping bags, Rai came back and heard from Zoe that Fiona had taken Madison off. His face tightened. He asked at once, "Where did they go?"
"No idea," Zoe said, a little envious. "Fiona seems to really like Madison. And Madison's power is growing the fastest among us. Maybe Fiona thinks she's the next Supreme."
That was exactly what made it dangerous.
Frowning, Rai pulled out his phone to text Madison.
Zoe noticed his expression. "What's wrong? Something off?"
"It's nothing," Rai said. "Just asking if she needs anything else for tomorrow."
He sent a text that didn't say it out loud, but Madison would understand.
Her reply came quickly.
"All normal. Don't need anything."
"Don't need anything…"
Rai let out a breath.
If Madison said so, she must have her safeguards in place.
He relaxed a little. Just in case, though, he messaged her at intervals to confirm she was fine.
Night fell.
The big witch and the little one lingered in a bar for quite a while before finally heading home.
To avoid any mishaps, Rai decided to stay up.
Hungry, he went to the kitchen and found Queenie eating like a champ while Delphine kneaded dough with a long-suffering face, ready to serve up fresh plates on demand.
"Still up?" Rai said to Queenie.
"Got hungry," Queenie said, perfectly justified.
She slid over a fresh plate of pastries. "Want some? They're still warm."
"Of course."
Rai accepted, took a bite, and critiqued as he chewed. "Too much sugar. It's overly sweet."
"Really? Tastes fine to me." Queenie looked at her identical pastry, popped it in whole, savoured, then frowned. Even so, she called over to Delphine, "Another plate, and go lighter on the sugar."
Already irritable, Delphine dug into the dough harder. "Oh Lord, what did I do to deserve this? One bottomless pit wasn't enough; now there's another. This is sleeping time, not feeding time!"
"As a maid, you follow orders. At least Queenie isn't whipping you," Rai said dryly, very glad he'd only been a manservant for a day or two.
He had little fondness for this woman who'd gloried in torture, even imprisoning and abusing her own daughters. No matter how much she reformed, a sadist was still a sadist.
"Good point, thanks for the reminder, Rai," Queenie said. "Hurry up and get cooking, and don't slack. Or I'll whip you, you damn white supremacist."
"One black, one yellow…" Delphine muttered under her breath. She was about to say more when, out of the corner of her eye, a shadow flashed past the window.
"What was that?" She jumped.
"What what? Don't make excuses to slack off." Queenie said.
"There's something outside. Really!" Delphine edged toward the window and peered out.
Queenie glanced over, unimpressed. "There's nothing! Get back here and work before I start swinging, slave."
"What is it?" Their back-and-forth drew Rai's attention mid-munch.
The moment he turned his head, Delphine let out a blood-curdling scream and stumbled backwards again and again.
"N-no… impossible! This can't be real!"
Shaking all over, she rushed to bolt the doors and windows.
"What are you even doing?"
Queenie stood up, baffled, meaning to grab the panicked Delphine. Rai's face went hard.
"There is something out there. Queenie!"
"You two lock the doors and windows. Do not go outside. I'm going upstairs for my gun and to wake everyone. Wait for me!"
Time was short. He rattled it off and sprinted upstairs.
When Delphine recoiled from the window, he had clearly seen a bull-headed man standing outside.
Which was obviously not a normal visitor.
He moved fast, burst into his room, snatched up his pistol, and shouted for "Cordelia," "Zoe," and "Nan."
Not wanting anything to go wrong downstairs, he didn't wait for answers and pounded back down.
By then, Delphine had already stammered out her true identity and that the Minotaur was her former manservant Bastien, once the Voodoo Queen's lover.
She had put the bull's head on him herself.
Queenie shot Delphine a look.
She wanted to step out and face that poor fellow Black, but remembering Rai's words, she stayed inside, grabbed a sharp knife and fork, and watched the room warily.
"How is it?"
Barely ten seconds later, Rai had returned before the upstairs witches had even fully woken, the front door thundered under heavy blows, each thud telling him everything he needed to know.
"He's coming, he's coming…"
Delphine shrieked in terror.
"Shut up," Queenie snapped. "Go hide somewhere else first."
"No. Leave her here," Rai yanked the fleeing Delphine back and said coldly. "Like she just said, that thing is here for her. You need bait to hunt the prey."
He had zero interest in playing hide-and-seek with a monster in the middle of the night, especially with girls like Nan and Zoe upstairs, unarmed.
Delphine could not die anyway; using her as bait and a meat shield was perfect.
"No, no, let me hide. Bastien will tear me apart." Delphine struggled for all she was worth. She had lived a long time, but her strength was still just a normal woman's, and she could not break Rai's grip.
Queenie saw it. Though she never stopped cursing Delphine, she was soft-hearted. "Let Delph…"
She cut herself off.
Because the violent pounding on the door abruptly stopped, and the whole first floor fell into an eerie silence.
"He's coming… he's coming…" Delphine trembled in Rai's grasp.
Behind her, Rai had already thumbed off the Glock's safety and was ready to fire at any second.
"There," a voice called from upstairs. It was Nan, closest to the scene.
She pointed at a window, face white with fear.
Knowing exactly what Nan could do, Rai did not hesitate; he swung the muzzle toward the spot she indicated.
Sure enough.
A heartbeat later, glass exploded.
A bull-headed figure with dark skin and a massive, powerful frame crashed through the window, huffing like an ox, murderous eyes locked on his former mistress, Delphine.
Bang.
Muzzle flame flashed.
Rai did not bother with warnings and opened fire.
The 9mm round struck the Minotaur square in the heart.
It only made him stagger. Stinking black blood welled from the wound, and he bellowed and charged again.
"I hate monsters that don't die when they're shot."
Already thinking he should stash a machine gun at home to shred creatures, even if bullets could not kill them.
The sounds of howling, gunshots and screams all mixed together, which made the witches upstairs, who were still half asleep, move faster.
"Shit. A voodoo stitch-job," Cordelia said as she hustled out in a robe, pulling Nan behind her. One glance and she recognised what he was.
"Rai, buy me time."
"On it." Seeing Cordelia getting to work, Rai kept firing calmly.
The Minotaur did not just stand there and take it.
If he weren't much faster than a normal man, missed many rounds.
With the magazine running dry and the Minotaur closing, Rai did not hesitate. He shoved Delphine straight at him.
Bastien had eyes only for his old mistress.
He snatched the panicking Delphine up. Old hatred and Marie Laveau's commission both burning, he was about to work her over and haul her back to a coffin's darkness when Queenie moved.
She drove a dinner knife straight into her own forearm.
Nothing happened to her. A matching through-and-through ripped open the Minotaur's arm, the reaching hand collapsing.
That was only the start.
Queenie drew the knife across her own throat.
Instantly, the Minotaur was cut open at the neck, black blood spraying.
"Nice work, Queenie."
Rai, who had briefly hopped back, rushed in again. While the Minotaur clutched his throat, Rai grabbed a horn with one hand and kicked a knee out with his foot. Together they toppled him.
The floor boomed with the impact.
The Minotaur thrashed, trying to rise.
Rai pinned him, slammed in a fresh magazine, and pressed the Glock to the bull skull to keep firing as he shouted to the shaken Delphine, "If you don't want a repeat of just now, get over here and help."
Delphine forgot all about being used as a shield. Gritting her teeth, she lumbered over; three hundred pounds of weight crushed the Minotaur back down.
Meanwhile, Cordelia had finished her array and began the incantation.
Notes of power, strange and strong, flooded the room.
Rai and the others felt nothing.
The Minotaur, though, reacted like he had been hit with a killing blow, letting out a soul-tearing animal scream.
He tried to flee, but Rai and Delphine held him fast.
With Queenie's help, besides.
At last, with a final razor-sharp wail like a vengeful spirit, the Minotaur went still.
"He's dead?" Queenie asked, not a drop of blood on her despite all she had cut.
"Yeah." Rai nodded, feeling the Grimoire update with a fresh page.
Cordelia confirmed, "That twisted, evil soul is gone."
"Good." Queenie sagged, tossed the knife, and flopped into a seat. She was unhurt, but using the human-voodoo-doll trick had cost her plenty of power.
Rai glanced at her, a little envious.
That living voodoo-doll ability was phenomenal, especially against people. One cut, one kill.
If only he could get it.
Thinking of Madison's Special Containment, Rai looked at Queenie, then..
A shiver ran through him.
No way. He could not do it.
He crushed that dangerous thought at once.
Getting off the Minotaur's body, he turned to speak to Cordelia when a high-pitched buzzing whine ripped through the room.
"What's that?"
Rai looked over. Zoe had found a chainsaw somewhere and came running in, looking very determined.
The noise had woken her, too.
She had not screamed like a normal girl. Knowing her own ability would only drag things down, she had run to the storeroom, found a chainsaw she remembered, and prepared to do a Texas Chainsaw cameo.
"Love the thinking, Zoe," Rai said, giving her a thumbs-up.
Against this thing, her people-splitting chainsaw would have been better than his pistol.
"It's over already?" Zoe blinked at the suddenly quiet room.
"You're late," Queenie said, waving. "Show's over."
"Right." Zoe set the saw down, somewhere between relieved and disappointed.
-
When Fiona and Madison came back in heels and a haze of liquor, they walked straight into a scene of smashed glass, overturned furniture, a bull-headed corpse, a chainsaw, black blood, and a ritual array.
"Are my eyes playing tricks, or did we come to the wrong house?" Madison rubbed her eyes, unable to believe it.
"Looks like our place," Fiona kneaded her temples and sobered up fast. Her gaze swept past Cordelia and the others. "Who's going to tell me what happened while I was gone?"
Fiona looked at Rai.
Clearly, she remembered how much trouble he could attract.
Rai spread his hands. This one really was not on him.
"Don't look at anyone else. This is the mess you brought us," Cordelia stepped up and said to her mother.
"Me?" "Yes, you."
Cordelia pointed at the Minotaur. "Voodoo work. You went to her and started a fight on purpose. This is her payback."
Fiona's eyes narrowed. She flicked a hand.
Crack.
The Minotaur's neck twisted like a rope. With a tug, flesh, windpipe, and bone were torn apart. Black blood geysered. The bull head flew neatly into Fiona's palm.
Queenie silently set down her snack.
Fiona held the head without caring about the filth, expression unchanged. After a quick inspection, she sneered. "Exactly that bitch's handiwork. She sent this thing to attack the Academy. That is provocation. A trampling of the peace accord."
"If anyone started the provoking, it was you, lighting a fire at her place first," Cordelia said, foul mood written all over her. The Academy had not taken a hit like this in decades. "You went to see her. For what?"
"That is my private business. You do not need to know."
Fiona gave a cold little laugh. "Don't need to know? Let me guess. You went to have those voodoo people cast a fertility spell for you. Marie's conception rite, heh. You did it because you think their power is higher than ours."
"Maybe I can verify that from personal experience," Cordelia shot back. "Thanks to you, she refused."
"So everything is my fault?"
"Of course."
"I went to show our archenemies a display of strength. What you did shamed Salem."
"A display? Then what about the famous Delphine LaLaurie?" Cordelia pointed at Delphine.
She had already learned Delphine's true identity from Queenie.
Fiona fell silent.
She glanced at the young witches, drew a slow breath, and said to Cordelia, "Mother and daughter can fight in private. Spalding, clean this up."
Still holding the bull head, she crooked a finger at Delphine and walked with her toward Cordelia's office.
The family melodrama paused there.
Rai watched them go, more intrigued than the younger witches, who only half understood. He knew the whole cause and effect. In short, after discovering Delphine's immortality, Fiona got greedy and went to Marie Laveau, hoping to live forever the same way. They clashed. Marie learned the Delphine she had buried had been dug up; add Fiona's provocation, and tonight's play followed. A warning to the witches and a chance to snatch Delphine back. Too bad the Minotaur died, soul and all, swallowed by the Grimoire.
Knowing trouble between the two camps was coming, Rai looked at the young witches. "So, is the camping trip still on tomorrow?"
"Of course. It's handled," Madison said as if it were obvious; the drink had worn off a bit.
Rai looked at Queenie.
Her dark, plump hand started toward a snack, then stopped. She nodded solemnly. "I need a change of scene to improve my appetite. Rai, leave extra trunk space for my snacks."
As for Zoe, fine. The look on her face said, If you go, I go.
Sure enough, nothing could stop American youths from going out to play.
"Then we stick to the plan," Rai said.
…
After midnight, everyone, including Fiona and Cordelia, finally turned in, exhausted.
Rai meant to sleep too, but a text changed his mind.
A soft knock came soon after.
He opened the door. Madison slipped in fast, wearing a slinky camisole.
"Zoe didn't see you?" Rai asked, a little worried.
"Relax. I used a new trick Fiona taught me to help her sleep soundly. She didn't notice," Madison said with a smile.
"A new trick?"
"Yep. Want a demo?"
Fox-smile on her lips, Madison did not wait for permission. She hitched up the already short hem and, in a tone that brooked no refusal, ordered, "Help me."
What...
Rai's mind blanked. His body moved on its own, head lowering.
Just before contact, a jolt ran through him. He snapped free of the control, straightened up, and shot Madison a look. "That joke is not funny."
Madison blinked innocently. "It's not like we haven't done that before."
Not the same. One is willing, one is compelled. Big difference.
Rai warned her never to pull that again.
After Madison promised repeatedly, he let it drop. "So that was your newly awakened ability."
He knew exactly what it was. Mind Control(Concilium), one of the Seven Wonders, is able to seize a person's thoughts for a short time. With power like Fiona's and the right methods, you could even alter someone's cognition permanently.
It was a formidable gift. Alongside Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Transmutation, Descensum, Divination, and Vitalum Vitalis, it made up Salem's most important set: the Seven Wonders. A Supreme is born by passing all seven.
Madison now had three.
Think ahead, and aside from Divination, she would someday grasp the other six. No wonder Fiona had tagged her as the next Supreme. Her talent was simply too outstanding.