Still snuffling, Inez led us through to Kenzie’s phone stash, the plastic boxes piled just as high as ever. Finch leapt into action, pulling down boxes and handing out burner cells and SIM cards. As soon as everyone had theirs working, I texted the numbers to Astrid, who was waiting. Now at least we’d be able to communicate with our eye in the sky.
“Will you help Kenzie now?” Inez’s eyes were wide with hope.
Finch shrugged. “We’ve got a lot to do first, but if we get that done, then I’m sure she’ll come back around.”
“You said you’d help!” Inez protested.
“I am helping, but it’s not a quick fix. Sorry to disappoint.” Finch started rummaging in some of the other boxes. “The only way to help her is to kill the woman who caused all of this. Once we’ve done that, then we can worry about your sister.”
“Finch!” Tatyana hissed.
He glanced over his shoulder. “What?”
“You could try a little empathy.”
“I’m not going to lie, am I?” he replied.
“No, but there’s a way of doing things,” Santana cut in. “Show some compassion, you turd. How would you like it if your sister was in danger and nobody knew if she’d make it through?”
Finch arched an eyebrow. “Been there, done that. Still living it, to be honest.”
“Jeez, Finch.” Wade frowned. “I thought you were done with that ‘don’t give a crap’ attitude?”
Finch sighed and turned around. “Look, it’s not that I’m heartless. I’m not. But we need to keep our eyes on the big prize. Is it sad that Kenzie is trapped somewhere? Sure. Do we have time to worry about it? No. We need to find these Hermetic Batteries, and that’s all there is to it. Kenzie’s predicament can come later, once we’ve figured the rest out.” He looked down at Inez. “Sorry, kiddo.”
“You watch who you’re calling kiddo,” Inez hissed back.
“Before you all make me out to be the big bad wolf here, get your heads in the game and see the bigger picture,” he continued. “We need to be as cold and calculated as Katherine if we want to beat her to a pulp. Wasting time on the small stuff is only going to hold us back. We need to compartmentalize, because if we don’t make this work, then we can all kiss our asses goodbye. Like Wonderboy said, we can’t forget that this is our last shot. Our actual last shot. This is the part in the game where we’re on half a heart and we’re about to face the big final boss, only we don’t get to start again if we fail.”
He turned back to the stack of boxes and continued his rummaging, leaving the rest of us dumbfounded. His analogy was so very Finch, but it struck a chord. I couldn’t have put it better myself.
“Do you even know what you’re looking for, Finch?” Dylan asked.
“Just give me a sec. Aha, found it!” He tugged a smaller, blue plastic box out of the pile and held it up like a trophy. A label on the side said Power Sources. Bringing it back down, he tore off the lid and set it on the side so we could all peer inside.
“Are these the Hermetic Batteries?” I gasped.
“Yo, Alton!” Finch called through to the kitchen, where Alton was leaning against the counter. “Are these what we’re looking for?” He brandished one of the objects—a thick brass cuff that looked like it would cover the entirety of my forearm, with glass windows revealing tiny metal mechanisms inside. There were five of them inside the box. Not enough for the whole crew, but it would be a start if these were the right objects.
Alton nodded wearily. “Yes… they are Hermetic Batteries.”
Finch punched the air. “Yes! Thank you, Finch. Oh, not a problem. Just doing my job.”
“Yeah, but they’re empty,” Dylan replied.
“I’m aware of that.” Finch rolled his eyes. “We’re going to need some help filling these babies up. Kadar, care to work your magic? I’m sure Krieger was just being cautious about the whole exploding thing.”
Raffe stepped forward, changing into the djinn. He stared at the five Hermetic Batteries and shook his head. “I’m afraid he was not being cautious. He spoke the truth. My raw Chaos, even in a small quantity, would cause this to explode once the refining process started. I was uncertain when Dr. Krieger said that, but now that I’ve seen them, I know he is right. Do you see that brass disc inside?”
We nodded.
“That is, as far as I can tell from my vague knowledge of magical objects, a Chaos gauge. It should work as a circuit breaker for energy that is too strong, like mine. Hence, an explosion. However, I should be able to use my djinn abilities to draw Chaos from a magical and fill them up. I suspect it would be a similar process to Ephemeras. I just can’t put my own Chaos inside them.”
“I thought you said you were useful.” Finch looked frustrated.
I shrugged. “Look, let’s not get bogged down by operational details. The fact is, we’ve got these things, but we’ve got no way of using them or filling them because we aren’t magicals anymore, unless we want to go around ambushing cultists to get their Chaos out of them. Who else might be able to fill these things? There has to be someone.”
“What about the message Kenzie was trying to write? Do you think she might’ve been writing it for you? Did she know you were coming?” All of us turned to Inez, who suddenly went shy.
“What message?” I was trying hard not to sound too desperate.
“She usually takes notes when she’s out doing her morph stuff,” Inez explained. “I took the pen and paper out of her hands, but she was writing something. Like, she’s unconscious and everything, but her fingers kept twitching and moving the pen a bit. There were some letters, but I don’t know if they mean anything.”
“Show us,” Wade urged.
Heading back into the front room, Inez fetched the piece of paper and held it out. There, in shaky black ink, was a word. Well, one word and the start of another, to be precise:
Marie L
“Marie Laveau,” I whispered. She had Chaos by the truckload—the kind that Katherine couldn’t take away, because she wasn’t a magical in the ordinary sense. Would her Chaos be more suitable than the djinn’s?
“And you said Kenzie had gone out to seek further help for your mother?” Alton asked the girl.
Inez nodded. “Yeah. Don’t know where, though, so don’t ask.”
Alton smiled. “Kenzie probably went to Marie Laveau for help and used an animal’s body to get there quicker.”
“What did I say? She’s stuck in a pigeon!” Finch punched the air in excitement.
“If anyone can help us with the Hermetic Batteries and the Grimoire, not to mention everything else, it’s Marie Laveau,” I admitted. “She might even be able to fill them up for us, since her Chaos is likely still intact.” I wasn’t going to let myself get too excited yet, though. We still had a long way to go and, apparently, more hoops to jump through. Great.
“New Orleans, here we come!” Finch whooped.
Just then, my phone beeped. I took it out of my pocket, expecting a reply from Astrid. Instead, Ryann’s name flashed up with a message attached: