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Grandma DeSeroux sipped her tea. “Once payment is rendered, and the friends have sent their minions from the other side,” she said in a soft voice, “only Dr. Facilier can reverse the curse.”
“You were right,” Jamal said, pulling out the skull necklace. “I have something that Dr. Facilier greatly desires. I think he cursed my brother to trick me into giving him this.”
Grandma DeSeroux’s eyes fixed on the necklace and widened. “Oh yes, he very much wants that necklace. Your grandmother left it to you?”
“Yes, she did,” Jamal said, “along with a note—Beware of the shadows. Only, I didn’t understand what it meant. But maybe if I give it to him, then he’ll save my brother.”
“Grandma,” Riley said, studying her grandmother’s visage, “you recognize that necklace, don’t you?”
“Oh yes, I do,” she replied.
And then she reached into her dress and pulled out a skull necklace that was identical to the one around Jamal’s neck.
“But…how on earth do you have the same necklace?” Jamal said.
He stared at the skull necklace around Grandma DeSeroux’s neck. It was the twin of the one fastened around his neck. A thousand questions rushed through his head as he struggled to make sense of the situation.
“Oh, my child,” Grandma DeSeroux said with a wry smile, “I knew your grandmother. Let’s just say…she was like me.”
“Wait, she had magic?” Jamal said, feeling even more shocked. He glanced at Riley, then at Malik, who shifted around on the floor, contorting.
“Well…that would explain a lot…” Malik rasped. “She was kind of strange. Never went outside. Wore those dark veils. Barely talked.”
“That’s one way to describe us,” Grandma DeSeroux chuckled. “We were both part of an ancient order of people with good magic. These days, there aren’t many of us left in this world. We’re sworn to use our powers for good and to protect our city from harm.”
Riley frowned. “So how do you know the shadow man?”
“Once upon a time, this…entity you’re dealing with belonged to our order and used his powers only for good,” Grandma DeSeroux said, sipping her tea with a grimace. “But he became fascinated by dark magic and, eventually, consumed
by greed and his quest for wealth and power. That was when he named himself after the legendary mythical shadow man, Dr. Facilier.”
“Let me guess,” Jamal said, feeling his stomach churn sickly. “That was how he became a shadow man himself—by aligning himself with evil magic?”
“That’s right,” Grandma DeSeroux said. “We expelled him from our order and tried to strip him of his powers. But he had grown too strong. He fought back and defeated us. Your grandmother tried to stop him…. That’s why she…why she changed so…”
She trailed off as if it pained her to finish her thought.
“Right, my mother said something about that,” Jamal said. “Like how she wasn’t always afraid of the sunlight and unable to venture outside.”
He remembered his grandmother sitting in her rocking chair, the thick curtains drawn against the sun, her body draped head to toe with veils.
“Yes, some dark magic leaves a wound,” Grandma DeSeroux said. “One that can’t be healed. It damaged her too badly. She was never the same. I’m sorry you didn’t know her before that happened. Dr. Facilier did that to your grandmother.”
Jamal struggled to absorb all of it. He glanced down at Malik, wishing they could make real eye contact. His brother swirled across the floor.
“Tell me about the necklaces,” he said, feeling the outlines of the skull sockets pressing into his palm.
“Many long years ago, we forged them to protect us from the shadow man,” Grandma DeSeroux said. “Oh, my child, he is far older than he appears. That’s some dark magic indeed. Then each member of my order retreated into the shadows to hide from him.”
“Our grandmother…became a recluse…” Malik rasped. “She never left her house. She wouldn’t even open the windows. The curtains were always drawn. She wore veils.”
“Yes, and I retreated into the bayou to my family’s land,” Grandma DeSeroux said, “where I’d be safe from the shadow man’s magic. Only I fear that over time, he’s grown more powerful than even I realized. I’m guessing that he’s also the reason your grandmother died. He came after her for that necklace, and she wouldn’t give it to him. Instead, she left it to you.”
“He killed my grandmother?” Jamal said with a start.
Grandma DeSeroux set her lips in a line. “My child, I’m afraid it looks that way.”
“But if the necklace is supposed to protect me,” Jamal said, thinking it over, “and she left it to me to protect me from him, then why could he curse my brother?”
