“Dr. Facilier can’t curse you directly,” she explained, “and he can’t take the necklace unless you give it to him, because of the protection spells placed on it. But because you gave him something of great value to your brother, it rendered him vulnerable to the shadow curse.”
“Ugh, I’m so stupid,” Jamal said, his head falling into his hands. Remorse washed through him. “I have to fix this. I’m going to give him the necklace so he’ll reverse the curse.”
“My child, then Dr. Facilier will grow even more powerful,” Grandma DeSeroux said with a worried frown. “Eventually he might get more of the necklaces from the remnants of my order. Then there will be nothing and no one to stop him.”
“But I have to save my brother and reverse the curse.” Jamal jumped to his feet and paced around her hut. “You said yourself that he’s already fading. If I don’t at least try to make a deal with the shadow man, then my brother will disappear forever. I can’t let that happen.”
Grandma DeSeroux looked deeply troubled. “It is a terrible choice indeed,” she muttered. “But that’s how the shadow man works.”
“Isn’t there something you can do?” Jamal said, looking at her in desperation.
He was used to living in a world where adults held all the power and could always help him. He had expected that Riley’s grandmother would save them from the shadow man. But what if the adults didn’t have the ability to save them? What if it was up to him this time?
“My child, you have to make a choice,” Grandma DeSeroux said. “I wish I could help, but it’s up to you to decide now. It’s either Malik…or the entire city of New Orleans.”
“But how do I make that choice?” Jamal asked. “Either way, somebody loses.”
“I’m so sorry, my child. I wouldn’t wish that sort of terrible choice on anyone. But I know you’ll do the right thing—” she started before the door to the hut blew open.
She whipped her head around. Jamal followed her gaze: the dolls crowded into the doorway. Their button eyes fixed on Jamal hungrily. They wanted the necklace.
“W-what…they broke my protection spells?” Grandma DeSeroux stammered, clutching her staff and raising it. “Child, the shadow man’s power has grown stronger.”
The dolls’ eyes fixed ravenously on the skull necklace.
Jamal felt a jolt of fear and tucked the necklace away into his shirt. He couldn’t let them get it. The necklace was his only bargaining chip to use with Dr. Facilier to save his brother.
The dolls swarmed through the doorway, scrambling across the floor toward Jamal.
“Riley, get your staff!” Grandma DeSeroux yelled, lighting up her own.
Riley grabbed a smaller staff, raising it to fight against the dolls. She reached into her pocket, producing a handful of gold dust. She joined her grandmother.
“Wait, you have good magic, too?” Jamal said in shock, staring at Riley.
“Grandma’s been training me,” she said, “ever since we moved back…. It runs in my family’s blood.”
Riley blew the dust at the dolls. It swirled around them, but then it faded and the dolls regrouped and lurched toward Jamal. One doll grabbed his foot, while another reached for his arm, and another leapt off the sofa toward his neck.
“Protect the necklace!” Grandma DeSeroux yelled, blowing more dust at them. “Riley and I will hold them off—but you have to run. Take your brother. They’re too strong. We can’t hold them back forever.”
* * *
“Malik, hurry,” Jamal yelled as he fled from the hut with his shadow brother trailing right behind him.
He glanced back, hearing sounds of struggle coming from behind them. Unnatural explosions of reddish light and silver and gold dust swirled around the hut as Riley and her grandmother fought back against the dolls. Jamal hoped they would be okay, but he didn’t have time to worry.
Run.
Grandma DeSeroux’s cries echoed through his head, spurring him to run faster. He staggered into the dark bayou, plunging into murky water that sloshed over his shoes. A warm wind whipped through the cypress trees while thunder rumbled and lightning crackled.
“The hurricane…” Malik warned in his ear. “I think it’s making landfall tonight…. I heard it on the news.”
Jamal remembered his parents watching the local news and tracking the new storm. It had recently intensified over the Gulf of Mexico. It was now threatening their city.
More lightning bolts exploded overhead, followed by a sharp crackle of thunder. The bayou lit up for one brilliant second, then fell into thick darkness again.
Hurricanes were a normal part of life in their gulf city. But as Jamal looked up at the sky, he realized that something seemed different about this storm. Unnatural, even.