hair hung in his eyes, limp and greasy. His clothes looked like he'd slept in them. He held a crucifix in one hand and a book bound in black leather in the other.
Karen, on the other hand, almost glowed. Her eyes were bright as a fever, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, with only one stray lock to soften her face. She was wearing what looked like military surplus gear-thick canvas pants and jacket over a ribbed white T-shirt. There was something inhuman in the way she held herself. Carrefour was so close to winning that it could taste the victory, only here I was interrupting the party. Once the young Legba was plucked out of Sabine's body, Carrefour could turn on us all, but until then it had to keep the masquerade going.
I smiled as if I meant it and walked up like I assumed they'd let me pass. Karen almost held her ground, then with a growl like a dog ready to bite, she took a step back, and I went in.
The shed had seemed bigger when it was empty, but it was still a wide, high space. The halogen lamps burned in three corners, fed by bright-orange extension cords. A matte black shotgun lay against the wall like a presentiment of doom. The dirt floor was covered now with symbols in paint and earth like Amelie Glapion's cornmeal veves. The designs seemed to move in my peripheral vision, and they filled me with a deep unease. In the center of the floor, a black iron ring stuck out of the newly poured concrete. Sabine was chained to it, bright steel links going to manacles at her wrists and a tight leather collar at the throat.
Her clothes, ripped and bloody, were the ones she'd worn at the ceremony, the ones I had seen her in only hours before. They were almost unrecognizable. Her eyes were puffy and closed, and she rocked back and forth on the ground, whispering to herself. Louvri le p贸t. Legba. Legba. Louvri. Please, please, Legba louvri le p贸t. I wanted to sweep over to her, to wrap my arms around her and comfort her and tell her it was going to be all right, even though I thought it probably wasn't.
How had I ever believed this was a good idea?
"What's going on," Karen said. "Why are you here?"
"We got back this morning. I needed to see Ex," I said.
"He doesn't answer to you anymore," Karen said, moving to him in a fair imitation of protectiveness. She took his hand, and he let her. The confusion in his expression hurt to see.
"You fired me," he said, which wasn't exactly the same as Karen's statement.
"Yeah, I know. Look, could I just talk to you for a minute? Alone?" I gestured toward the door. If I could get him outside and out of the line of fire...
"No," Karen said. "We're in the middle of a ritual cleansing. Every minute we let it rest, the rider gets its control back over the girl. We have to get her free."
I nodded and smiled as ingratiatingly as I could. It was a doomed effort, but I tried.
"It'll only be-"
"What's going on here?" Karen said. Her eyes swept the door and walls like she could see through them. "Where have you been? What do you want?"
"It's okay," Ex said. "I can handle this."
She turned on him faster than a human could, a hand pressed to his sternum.
"Don't you fucking move," she said. "Something's wrong here. Are you alone? Did you bring someone here?"
"Aubrey and Chogyi Jake are outside," I said, nodding to the door. Karen lifted her head, sniffing the air like an animal. Ex stepped back from her, crossing his arms and frowning.
"I'd love to talk," he said, "but I can't."
Sabine's litany trailed away into a low keening. She looked up, her eyes no more than slits, as if she was seeing me for the first time.
"Jayn茅?" she said.
The silence that followed was like a thunderclap. The fear tasted like pennies and tinfoil.
"How," Karen said, her voice low and dangerous, "does it know your name?"
"You've got the wrong rider," I said. "Ex, get outside now."
Before he could move, Karen dove, scooped up the shotgun, and whirled. The barrel was pointing at my head, and it was big as a tunnel. And then Ex was between us, shielding me with his body.
"Karen!" Ex shouted. "Stop it! What are you-"
"She's with them," Karen said. "She's been taken over by them. Don't