Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. I | ✓

Chapter 50: Lave Tet

       
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"Are you crazy?!"

Mikael was furious. And he did have every right to be. I had asked Sajida the Shunned to perform a lave tet upon me, while also agreeing to spend the night at her treehouse. It was an impulsive decision, but I was so desperate for answers that I was willing to do anything.

I didn't know how to respond to him. The reality of the situation finally kicked in the moment Sajida left the study and went downstairs. The Damiyas continued lightly clawing at my ankle, staring up at me but of course, unable to say anything.

"It's the only way, Mikael." I said to him. "Sajida's willing to give me the answers I need. She's the only one that's willing to do this."

"You think one lave tet is going to give you the answers you need?!"

"Why wouldn't it?!"

"This isn't just some one-stop quick-fix, Lisa," Mikael stressed. "This head washing is sacred, and one is never good enough."

"But one is a start, Mikael! It's more than the Coterie ever offered to me."

He sighed, "Lisa, please. There are other ways we can figure this out—"

"No, there isn't!" I snapped at him. "My mama's in complete denial: about me, about tempus summatum, about the Council, about everything! She thinks that sweeping everything under the rug and 'convening' is going to fix everything and it isn't!"

"Lisa—"

"The loa want me to do this. They're guiding me on this path. I'm not exactly sure to where, but I'd be an idiot not to follow it."

"You can follow the loa without having to undergo a lave tet by an evil bayou witch!"

"Sajida is my family!"

"She's evil, Lisa! Evil! Regardless of whether or not she's family, you have no idea what her true intentions are!"

The Damiyas kept clawing. I picked up Pentagram in my hand and asked it what was wrong; to give me a sign or to use some form of gesturing. But it only continued to claw at my hand that it sat in.

"They're trying to tell you what I'm telling you, Lisa," Mikael said, referring to the dolls. "This is a horrible idea."

"I don't care," I said to him. "I'm going through with it, with or without you."

Mikael was taken aback by how serious I was. He expected me to cave in—to realize just how dangerous this endeavor was. But I was so close. I wasn't going to give up the race when the finish line was in reach. There was a confliction that overtook him. He was angry; his hands were balled into fists, his lips pursed. I waited for him to leave me there alone with the Damiyas—to travel with the Gatekeeper out of the bayou. But he wouldn't leave; he couldn't. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he left me there and something went wrong. So, he remained seated on the couch and said nothing else about the matter. Though he wore how he felt about it on his face. I almost felt bad for unconsciously forcing him to go through with the lave tet with me; I was Madam Dumont's daughter, and if he went back into the city and told the Coterie where I was, they would crucify him for leaving me there alone.

He essentially had no choice but to stay.

When Sajida came back into the study, Mikael and I pretended as if our animated conversation never happened. The Damiyas huddled together, Pentagram jumping off of my hand, and waddled back to the table they came from, hiding in the shadows.

Sajida went around her desk but only stood instead of sitting back in her throne. "Y'all gots to share a room; all the other ones are occupied."

"That's fine," I said. I wanted to be as uncomplicated as possible. Sajida nodded her head to the door, in which Mikael and I both stood up and followed her out of the study. We walked down the staircase and through an adjacent hall. All of the doors were closed; there was no sound coming from those rooms. At the end of the hall, however, there was an open door to a small room lit by a few lanterns with a full-sized bed; the window was closed and the curtains were pulled together, but there was a rotating fan that was on full power in the corner. There was no electricity, but luckily, the treehouse didn't need it with Sajida's magic.