I’d leaned forward, about to tell Gaby to hurry up already, when I heard a soft groan somewhere behind me. I spun around, trying to find the source of the sound; but I couldn’t see anything in the blackness.

The groan repeated, so I took a few blind steps backward.

“Gaby, someone’s out here.”

I fumbled behind me for a light switch, a flashlight, anything. Over the sounds of my floundering, I could hear ragged breathing from the corner nearest to me.

“Seriously, Gaby,” I hissed. “Get out here and help me.”

Cursing wildly, Gaby stumbled out of the tiny back room and started groping noisily along Marie’s shelving. She must have found whatever she sought, because I heard a sizzle and then smelled the stinging scent of sulfur. Suddenly, candlelight flooded the room.

Gaby grabbed a lit candelabrum and held it up beside me. When she did so, the glow of the flames fell into the corner of the room, and we both gasped.

A body lay crumpled in the corner. If not for the rasping breaths, punctuated by near-inaudible groans, I would have thought it was a corpse. But Gaby knew who it was on sight.

“Marie!” she cried, dropping beside the body and grasping at it. Of course, Gaby’s hands passed over Marie without touching her. One of the many perks of being Risen.

Gaby growled in frustration. In the dim light, I saw her flicker out of and then into focus; going visible.

“Marie,” she called out again, snapping her fingers next to the old woman’s ears. “Marie, wake up.”

Feeling incredibly unhelpful, I willed myself visible and then kneeled beside Gaby as she continued snapping. At that moment, Marie’s head lolled back, just enough to reveal her face.

Her dark skin looked waxen, her cheeks sagged, and her eyes were bloodshot, unfocused.

Studying her closely, I frowned. For some reason, this hunched, sick old woman reminded me of someone. Maybe just because of their similar ages. Or maybe because of how fast they’d both deteriorated. Something about Marie’s current state, and Ruth’s appearance last night, itched at me....

“Gaby,” I murmured, lost in thought, “how would you go about drugging someone?”

Gaby’s head snapped toward me, and her eyes widened in surprise. After a beat, she turned back to Marie and leaned close to the old woman’s face. Gaby pulled in a sharp breath through her nose and then sat back on her heels.

“How is that possible?” she muttered, before jumping to her feet and bounding over to one of the well-stocked shelves. There, she sifted through items until she grabbed a small brown bottle, uncorked it, and took a deep sniff of its contents.

“Serpentwood. Holy hell. This stuff is a serious sedative. Mix a little bit of it with wine and it makes the drinker dizzy, confused—you name it. Marie never uses this crap, but over half the bottle is gone now.” Gaby’s eyes darted to Marie’s slouched form and then back to me. “How did you know?”

I pressed my hands to my knees and stood. “Because I think someone’s doing the same thing to Joshua’s grandmother. And I’m pretty sure I know who.”

Gaby raised one eyebrow in question, and I grimaced.

“Annabel Comeaux. Joshua’s cousin. She may or may not be working with this Alex guy they’ve all been hanging out with, but … everything points to just her right now.”

Gaby’s eyebrow arched higher. “I find it hard to believe that someone would poison their own grandmother. And what about Marie? I heard Marie say she didn’t even know the girl.”

“But Annabel knows her. She’s the one who told Joshua that Marie could help me. And … there’s something else. Something I didn’t want to tell you earlier.”

I hesitated, studying Gaby one more time. Looking for some indefinable trait that meant I could trust her. Unsure if I’d actually found anything, I continued haltingly.

“Last night, when the Faders tried to take me, they wanted to give me to … an intermediary. Someone who would use me to secure their freedom. From the demons. And … they called the intermediary ‘she.’”

Gaby frowned deeply.

“O-kay,” she said slowly, reminding me—painfully—of Joshua. “You didn’t tell me this earlier because …?”

“Because I wasn’t sure whether you weren’t the one who was trying to trade me to the demons,” I said, shame seeping into my voice. “And I still don’t know for sure. But you didn’t even know Ruth before you met me, so …”

As I trailed off, I saw hurt glimmer in Gaby’s eyes. But she recovered quickly and shook her head. “It still doesn’t make sense. Why would Annabel hurt her grandmother?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head as well. “But I’m betting Ruth would strongly disapprove of a Seer working with demons. I know for a fact that Ruth would do anything within her power to stop something like that.”

“So would Marie,” Gaby said, looking back at the collapsed form in the corner. “Maybe Marie helped Annabel, and then found out what she was planning to do.”

“That’s what I think too. But that still doesn’t explain why Annabel told Joshua to bring me here.”

Gaby bit her lip. “I don’t know. I think we need to find a Mayhew, fast. Before we leave, though, let’s make sure someone knows that Marie is sick.”

“Absolutely. We shouldn’t leave her like this.”

I crossed over to the entrance, more than ready to let someone know and then get out of this place. But before I drew the curtain aside, I noticed Gaby pull another jar off the shelves. She dumped its contents into an incense burner, struck a match, and dropped the flame into the burner.

“Hawthorne,” she explained quietly. “To protect Marie.”

I pulled one corner of my mouth back. “I’d tell you that I don’t believe in that stuff, but I guess I’m living proof otherwise. Well … sort of living.”

“Amen,” Gaby murmured, either to me or to the Hawthorne offering. Then she turned away from it and hurried past me, obviously trying not to throw backward glances at Marie’s huddled body.

Once we reached the relative brightness of the café, Gaby stormed over to the attendant, who still stood behind the counter flipping through what looked like an outdated TV Guide. Gaby cleared her throat, just once. When he didn’t look up, she slapped her hands on the counter and shouted:

“Hey! Jackass!”

That certainly got his attention. His head shot up from the guide; and, after his eyes widened in momentary surprise, he scowled.

“What do you want?” he mumbled, no more pleasant today than yesterday.

“Marie’s in the back, and she’s really sick,” Gaby said curtly. “Call an ambulance.” Obviously unconvinced, the attendant sneered at Gaby. “Oh yeah? And just who the hell are you?”

“Mother freaking Teresa,” she snapped. “What do you care? Now get back there and help her before she dies and you lose your cut of the weekly profits.”

Finally, the threat of losing his paycheck seemed to break through his apathy. With a begrudging sigh, he turned to tromp over to the back room. At the same time, Gaby caught my gaze.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said through clenched teeth, “before he calls the cops on us.”

I couldn’t have agreed more.

I tried not to run out of the café, and I could tell that Gaby also struggled to keep a calm pace. The moment we stepped onto the outside curb, however, we both instinctively flickered invisible again.

Eyes wide with fear, confusion, I turned to face her.

“What’s next?” I whispered, although I already knew the answer.

“What’s next,” Gaby said, “is a visit to the Mayhew family.”

By the time Gaby and I crossed from Royal onto Ursulines, I wondered whether the entire population of New Orleans—living and dead—could hear my heart racing. Given the fact that I was now some kind of rare supernatural being, maybe my heart’s pace would set it glowing again.