anger, the sense of having been betrayed. When he had first met her, she had been the consummate professional, her personal life kept at home. Since apprehending me, those boundaries had begun to break down. She had become sexually aggressive in ways that alienated her from her colleagues. He saw her manipulating the people around her to no clear end. Every time he reached out to her, he had been refused or redirected. When I told him what had happened, he didn't want to believe me. But two months later, he returned. I don't know what had happened, but he knew that Karen was no longer herself."
"And then she killed him," I said. "I'm pretty sure she burned her parents to death too."
"Yes, I heard of that," Mfume said. "There was very little I could do. I was a convict. A serial killer in jail without hope of parole. I was on record saying that I had been possessed by a demon. I was like the Groucho Marx joke. I wouldn't trust anyone idiotic enough to find me credible. And so... I escaped."
"Okay, you could expand on that a little," I said. "You just said, Wait, this sucks, and walked out?"
"At my prison, there was a meditation group. An outreach to help people within the system become well. I joined it at first because I wanted to find some purely psychological peace. But as I coordinated my reading on the loa, my practice with the group, and my experiences being ridden by Carrefour, I found a way to walk in the crossroads."
"You taught yourself magic?" Aubrey said.
"There is a certain amount of spare time in prison," Mfume said. "And I was better prepared than most. I used what I learned. And one day, yes. I walked out. Since then I have been hunting Carrefour, but it has Karen now, and she is a very clever, very resourceful woman. When I learned that the hurricane had injured Carrefour's enemies, I felt certain that the rider couldn't resist. I came here, made contact with Legba, and offered my services in exchange for its aid."
He spread his hands to show the world before us, the dark streets glittering with lights, the black sky glowing.
"Okay," I said. "But how come I was able to get involved when it tried to kill Sabine?"
"You have also lived in the crossroads," he said. "Learned how to step between the moments."
"Yeah, only no. I really haven't," I said. "Seriously, I didn't know about any of this a year ago."
"Her uncle put some protections on her," Aubrey said.
Mfume looked from one of us to the other and shook his head.
"I know of no protections that would do what you describe, but my knowledge is... opportunistic. I am no master of this art."
"What does Carrefour want?" Chogyi Jake said.
"I didn't know its agenda until I came here," Mfume said. "Not precisely. I knew it hated Legba above all other loa, but not why. I knew it sought to return to its place. Having spoken to Amelie and her granddaughters, I believe I understand now, but you must take everything I say on this for what it is: my best guess."
"Consider the caveat emptored," I said. "What've you got?"
"Legba is also a master of the crossroads. It controls the path by which loa pass into human bodies, and it is the gatekeeper between the loa and all other riders. It has terrible power, but it is also weak in some ways. It is more involved with humanity than other loa. It is connected to the world in a way the others-even Carrefour-are not. Each person Legba enters into, it never leaves. It dies with them."
"That's a shitty design," I said.
"No, it's not," Aubrey said. His voice was stronger than I'd expected. Less shaken. "It's normal. Pretty much any terminal or chronic disease works the same way. When a tuberculosis patient dies, all the bacteria in their lungs go with them. The point is to get daughter organisms out before that happens. To spread."
"And so," Chogyi Jake said, "Sabine."
"Sabine," Mfume agreed.
"But Legba's still in Amelie," I said. "Sabine's not being ridden yet, right?"
"No, not right," Mfume said. "Legba is also in Sabine. A Legba. Growing to maturity. Finding its strength and hers."
"And she knows?" Aubrey asked. "She's okay with it?"
"She has always known," Mfume said. "It is what her family has always been. Only now Carrefour intends to pull it out, to sever the connection between the rider and the bloodline that