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Dannika clutched Raine’s arms. “We need this information. I also need to know about my sister.”
“You have a sister? Another female shadow?” Hakim’s excitement spilled over like a child with a new toy.
“I don’t know. I found out I had a sister, but there’s a possibility she died when she was a baby.”
Hakim put his hands in the air, closing his eyes as he chanted words Dannika didn’t understand. His eyes snapped open when he lowered his arms. “You have a very specific energy about you. I have not sensed this in my travels to the spirit world. That does not guarantee she hasn’t left the human one. Spirits take time to pass through purgatory. I give you this information for free, as I cannot give you a definitive answer.”
“Thank you. Do you have a way to locate her if she’s alive?”
The Bokor grabbed a wooden bowl from a cabinet beneath the counter, with symbols carved around its base. “Do you have an item that belongs to her?”
“No.”
He placed the bowl on the counter. “I require a personal item to make a connection. You may return to me when you have an article of hers, provided you don’t die in the upcoming war.”
Raine touched her cheek. “This is a bad idea, Dannika.”
Hakim grabbed some herbs from an unmarked jar sitting on a store shelf. “I am losing patience. Leave my shop or I will ban you. Trust me, I have the means.”
Colton rubbed his neck. “I will make the deal.”
Dannika grabbed Colton’s hand. “This was my decision.”
Raine growled.
Hakim removed Dannika’s hand from Colton’s. “My deal is with the cougar.”
His smile raised the hairs on Dannika’s skin.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
Hakim grabbed various jars from his shelves before putting pinches of each in the carved bowl. “You will need a reaper sedative.”
Colton’s eyebrows arched. “Even blessed steel doesn’t render a reaper unconscious. How does the sedative work?”
Hakim ground the ingredients in the mortar bowl using a thick, rounded pestle. “I will give you the means to subdue a reaper for a short time. It may not render them unconscious, but it will render them immobile.”
Dannika glanced at the powder inside the bowl. “How does a mixture of herbs affect a reaper?”
Hakim’s eyes met hers. “This affects anything with a demon soul. Do not let it touch your skin.”
Raine shook his head. “Reapers heal even faster than we do. How will this incapacitate them?”
The Bokor grabbed a small brown bottle and extracted the liquid with an eyedropper. “This potion has many components that effect the shadow soul and the human body. Be warned. For this to work on a reaper, the poison is potent. It will kill a human.”
“No poison works on a shadow shifter, reaper are not.”
Hakim continued to mix the ingredients in the bowl. “This will.”
Dannika sniffed the sweet-smelling herbs. “What’s in it?”
Hakim shook his head. “There is no point in giving you the recipe. You cannot re-create it. Only the blood of a Bokor or priestess will render a shadow immobile.”
He grabbed a dagger from the counter before slicing his hand. He squeezed his fingers into a fist as blood dripped into the bowl. It sizzled as steam rose into the air.
Raine’s eyes narrowed. “A thermogenic reaction? How does it work?”
The Bokor smiled. “Giving a reaper power-infused blood creates a temporary high, but when it’s not followed by death, the demon soul will rage. My blood will consume his hunger, making him lethargic for a time. His aggression will be two-fold when the euphoria passes. I recommend you not use this on the same subject twice.”
