Fetching a long-handled lighter from a drawer, Casimir lit the first of two candles on the coffee table, a silver pillar. “Hail, fair Lady, queen of night, enfold us in your grace,” he said, and then lit the second, a gold pillar. “Hail, great Lord, ruler of day, protect us in this place.” He set the lighter down. “So mote it be.”

“So mote it be,” the others echoed.

Now that I wasn’t suffering from an excruciating hex-induced migraine, I could feel a faint charge in the air after Casimir’s invocation—nothing like the vastness of Hel’s presence, but a change. Interesting.

“We invoke the Lady and Lord in their archetypal forms,” Casimir said to Sinclair. “Of course, everyone is welcome to address whatever particular facet of the deity speaks to them. Are you dedicated?”

I didn’t understand the question, but Sinclair gave a brief nod. “You might say so. I was raised to honor Yemaya.”

Also interesting. I made a mental note of the name.

“Wonderful,” Casimir said again. “All right! Everyone, please help yourselves to the lovely cheese tray Kim was kind enough to bring for the occasion. Mr. Palmer, tell us about yourself and your situation.”

Snacking on cheese and crackers, I sat and listened while Sinclair related his story. At the coven’s prodding, he went into more detail about his own youthful studies in obeah, which involved using his ability to see auras to diagnose ailments in individuals and gradually acquiring the herb lore to prescribe cures.

“And you didn’t think that was worth pursuing?” Warren Rogers asked in a neutral tone. He was a guy who knew a thing or two about herbs. “The healer’s path?”

“Not at the cost.” Sinclair met his gaze squarely. “The further I went down that path, the further my sister went down the other.”

The other members of the coven nodded in understanding. I guess this whole path of balance thing was a cornerstone of most occult practices.

With a few assists from me, Sinclair finished up with a description of Emmeline’s visit and her ultimatum, followed by a short discourse on the nature of duppies, during which the coven attempted to determine whether obeah’s concept of an earthly soul that was somehow distinct from a heavenly soul corresponded to the notion of an etheric body that was distinct from the physical and spiritual bodies.

Okay, I tuned out for a while during that part. But at least the cheese was good.

At around twenty to eight, Casimir deftly turned the conversation to ways of protecting Sinclair from his sister’s threat.

“Obviously, we should start with a ritual cleansing,” Kim McKinney said. “I’d be happy to oversee it.”

I’d just bet she would. I suppressed an irrational surge of jealousy.