Page 9 of Langiappe & Lost Legends (Twisted Sisters Midlife Maelstrom #13)

CHAPTER 9

DREYA

S leep? Yeah, that wasn't happening with a bomb like ‘Hey, you're part of the Larmes du Bayou’ dropped in our laps. So, there I was, puttering around our magical kitchen. I was trying to look productive while my brain did backflips. I sorted herbs like a possessed Martha Stewart. I also counted bottles and checked expiration dates because apparently, even magical crap could go bad. Who knew? Meanwhile, my thoughts ping-ponged between ‘Holy shitballs, we're special!’ and ‘What the actual hell?’

The Smith determination, my ass. It was more like the Smith stubbornness. Plus, the ability to bang our heads against a wall until something gave. And don't get me started on this Yearsley intuition business. Was that what I'd been calling my occasional good guesses about which drive-thru had a working ice cream machine?

Then there was that room full of magical gadgets and gizmos that would make Dumbledore jealous. And apparently, we were supposed to guard some fancy crystal like we were the witchy version of the Secret Service. Right. Because six women who'd grown up thinking magic was something you saw at kids' birthday parties were totally qualified for that job. That was Nylah’s job as the Relic Keeper.

I'd have bet my last dollar on finding Bigfoot doing the macarena in our back forty before believing we were some magical crystal guardians. Yet here we were, hip-deep in Hogwarts, the Bayou Edition. The converted house reeked of dried herbs like some kind of witchy Bed Bath & Beyond. Lavender was supposed to be calming, but right now it was doing jack squat for my nerves. I jammed more rosemary into the jar, probably bruising half of it. Oops, my bad. We needed the protection more than we needed pretty herbs.

I grabbed the bag of marshmallow root we'd scored for the kids' healing potion. Not that I was opposed to making magical boo-boo juice. My grandkids were always getting scraped up. I’d feel better if our kids had something should the worst happen and I wasn’t around to help. Grinding the root would be a bitch, but hey, at least it gave my hands something to do while my brain spun like a hamster on crack.

The mason jars lined up like good little soldiers, all neat and labeled because my sisters were anal like that. Honestly, I was too, but not as much as Kota and Phi. Next to them sat our baby grimoire. It was leather-bound and trying so hard to look mysterious and important. It was too new to be anything of the sort. Now that we knew about our witchy bloodline, every chicken scratch in that thing felt like it might be the key to something bigger. It made me wonder if there was an older family spell book floating around. Maybe collecting dust in that room we'd only half-assed searched?

I was still up at ass o'clock, destroying perfectly good marshmallow root, when Phi exploded through the door like she'd been shot out of a cannon. Her hair had staged a full-scale rebellion against her pristine braid. And her eyes were doing that whole dinner-plate thing that screamed, 'Oh shit’.

"Dre, you need to see this. Now." She was panting and sweating.

Something in her voice had me dropping everything and following her outside. The early morning air was thick with humidity that pressed against my skin like a wet blanket. That wasn't what made it feel heavy. Power thrummed through the atmosphere. It made my healing abilities tingle uncomfortably beneath my skin. It was like the warning ache in old bones before a storm.

We hauled ass back to the main house, where everyone else was already doing their best impression of a paranormal neighborhood watch. Dani was trying to merge her hands with the porch railing. Her knuckles were whiter than a vampire's ass. Kota and Lia were playing bodyguard on either side of her, while Dea was getting her Zen on in the porch swing. It looked like she was either deep in meditation or fighting a food coma. The sunrise was doing that whole dramatic lighting thing. That really wasn't helping the whole 'we're so screwed' vibe everyone was rocking.

"What's with the doom squad..." I started, then followed their thousand-yard stares. "Well, holy shit on a shingle."

The Mississippi River had apparently decided physics was more of a suggestion than a rule. That massive stretch of water was having some kind of aquatic seizure. It was twisting and turning like an epileptic snake. Parts of it were straight-up giving gravity the middle finger and flowing backward. It looked like it was auditioning for a role in ‘Rivers Gone Wild’.

"It’s been at it for an hour," Kota said. She sounded about as relaxed as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. "The animals are losing their collective shit. The birds are as bad as the dogs." I noticed how the six French bulldogs were growling and snipping at nothing. That wasn’t unusual for Kota’s three Frenchies. But Frida was always cool as a cucumber. Dani was trying to corral her with her foot, to no avail.

"So are the squirrels," Lia chimed in as she looked over at one of the massive oak trees. "They're running around like they just discovered caffeine. Not like their usual ADHD selves, either. This is next-level nuts. Pun not intended, but I'm keeping it."

"It's the crystal," Dani added, never taking her eyes off the river. "It has to be. Sure, that storm woke up a multitude of things we have yet to discover, but the timing of this fits with the Lost Legends."

Dea's eyes suddenly snapped open. They were glowing faintly with her spiritual energy. "We have company."

“Is it Cami’s mom?” I asked as I looked around.

Dea lifted her shoulders as the air around us shimmered. Translucent figures materialized on our lawn. Several ethereal women with flowing hair that moved like underwater currents hovered there. Their skin had a bluish tint that shifted with the light. Their eyes reflected the unnatural movements of the river behind them. Some appeared younger, with features as fluid as spring rain. Others bore the weathered look of ancient riverbeds.

"They’re water spirits," Phi breathed.

"River nymphs,” Lia clarified. “The legends say they're as old as the Mississippi itself."

“How the hell do you guys know that? I thought they were ghosts since Dea knew they were coming.” I flapped my arms and gestured to our visitors.

The tallest of them stepped forward before my sisters responded. Her movements rippled with grace. Unlike her companions, who seemed to drift with an underwater fluidity, she moved with purpose. Her presence carried the weight of centuries. It made me think of the accumulated wisdom of the river itself. Patterns like riverbank erosions marked her translucent skin. Her body told stories of floods and droughts, of changes and constants.

"Children of two bloodlines," she spoke in a voice like water over stones. "We come with a warning. The Larmes du Bayou corrupts the natural flow of magic. The river remembers its true course, but the crystal's power pulls against time itself. This will not end well if it is left unchecked."

"We know about the time manipulation," Lia muttered as she pushed away from the railing to pace. "How can they affect the magic and the river like this? I mean, isn't that like forbidden, or something?"

The river spirit's expression darkened. The water patterns in her eyes swirled faster. "They should not. And cannot, without consequence. The artifacts they stole have amplified the crystal's power beyond its limits. They will be able to fully bend time to their will. Magic has its own flow, its own current. Force it too far..."

"And everything breaks," I finished. My instincts were screaming at the wrongness of it all. "Like a dam giving way. The damage would spread beyond just the timeline they're targeting, wouldn't it?"

The river spirit's companions moved closer. Their forms rippled with agitation. The one wearing what looked like centuries-old Spanish colonial dress reached out to touch the air near Dea. My sister’s gasp made every protective instinct in my body flare to life. "They're showing me where there’s a disturbance," Dea said. Her eyes went distant and started reflecting the same watery patterns as the spirits. "I can see the trail the Lost Legends left through their memories. They’ve left a scar in the river's history."

"Power is concentrated in an old warehouse," another nymph said in a voice like rainfall on a tin roof. She wore the tattered remains of nineteen-twenties fashion. It made me wonder if these nymphs were once women. Was that how Dea felt about their approach? "Where the industrial canal meets the river. Time bends there and folds upon itself. The water remembers what was, what is, and what should not be. Time is running out."

I shared a look with my sisters. We'd learned enough about our heritage last night to know we couldn't ignore this. The Smith determination and Yearsley intuition weren't just fancy words in an old journal. They were calling us to action. They were thrumming in our blood like a second heartbeat.

"We need a plan," I said, already mentally cataloging our potion supply. The marshmallow root I'd been grinding and the protective sachets I'd prepared through my sleepless night weren't meant for temporal wounds. But they might help ground us. "If they're really manipulating time fully now, we have no idea what kind of damage they could do to themselves or others."

"Or reality itself," Phi added grimly. Her fingers traced patterns in the air as if trying to map invisible energy flows. "The artifacts weren't meant to be used this way. They were designed to work in harmony with the crystal. Forcing it to go against nature's flow goes against everything it was made for. Look at what it's already doing to the river."

As if to emphasize her point, a section of water near the bank suddenly surged upward. It defied gravity for several seconds before crashing back down. Scout and Willow whimpered, pressing closer to Kota's leg.

Kota pulled out her phone, her free hand still soothing Scout because he stuck his big head above his sister’s. "I'll call Phoebe and have her get over here. After what we found last night, and now this, we need her hel..."

But before she could dial, the river spirit in front raised her hand and a ripple of energy blasted us. "Time grows short. The corruption spreads. What was stolen must be returned before the damage cannot be undone." Her form flickered like sunlight through moving water. "The barriers between then and now wear thin. If they succeed in accessing the past..."

"How long do we have?" Dani cut her off. Her magic was visibly sparking around her fingers despite her attempt to stay calm. She was a few minutes from shifting into her dragon. If only our beasts could slay this enemy.

The spirit's form flickered like sunlight on water. Parts of her became temporarily transparent. "Until the river forgets its course completely. Days, perhaps. No more. Already, the waters of yesterday mix with today. Soon, time will lose its way."

"Not enough time to wait for backup," Lia said as she turned and headed inside. Her lucky charm bracelet jingled with a sound that seemed to echo strangely as if coming from multiple moments at once. "We need to move now."

Twenty minutes later, we were in Lia's SUV, racing toward the industrial canal. I'd packed every healing herb and potion I could carry, along with the spelled bandages and crystals I used to amplify healing energy. Phi brought the family journal and what notes we'd managed to take about the artifacts. She’d spread them across her lap as she searched for anything useful. Dea slumped against the seat with her phone clutched in her death grip as she fired off another text to Phoebe. The AC in the car was doing jack squat against the New Orleans summer heat that turned even breathing into a workout.

"Need a favor. Check plantation + river situation. Buy time. Please?" She added the please because manners still counted when asking your very pregnant friend to wade into supernatural BS.

The plan had been coffee and gossip this morning, maybe some beignets if Phoebe's demon spawn wasn't performing backflips in protest. But now? Total wash. Between the babies using her bladder as a trampoline and whatever magical clusterfuck was brewing back in Maine, Phoebe couldn't exactly set up camp in the bayou. She was needed at home.

"Take the next right," Dea blurted. "The energy signature is getting stronger. I can feel the time distortions now. Some moments feel stretched, others compressed. It's making me dizzy."

"I'm getting it, too," Dani said. She was doing her best not to vibrate out of her skin next to Dea. "The crystal's gone from Zen master to rabid raccoon on bath salts. Someone's forcing it way off its normal frequency."

The Warehouse District rose up ahead of us like some hipster's wet dream gone wrong. These weren't the pretty parts with the converted art galleries and overpriced coffee shops. No, we were headed for the grimier edges where gentrification hadn't bothered to plant its flag. Past the National WWII Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center. I was glad to continue past the fancy condos and gastropubs that had taken over the old cotton warehouses on Julia Street. There were too many innocents around there. We were aiming for the sketchy-as-hell section near Tchoupitoulas Street, where some buildings still wore their Katrina scars like badges of honor. The morning sun was playing peek-a-boo between the old industrial buildings, and the shadows were dancing to their own beat.

"That one," Dea announced. She pointed at a crusty-looking warehouse that was probably old enough to have stored goods for the Confederate army. "The spirits are practically screaming about it."

"Holy shit!" I yelped when Dea's nose decided to audition for a Tarantino film. This had never happened before when she used her spirit powers. The crystal's temporal fuckery was written all over the impression of Niagara Falls her nose was doing. I’d never seen her bleed so much.

I practically assaulted her face with my healing powers. Normally my abilities worked faster than a caffeine junkie mainlining espresso. This time it seemed to take forever. It felt like trying to patch a tire while someone was still stabbing it. "Whatever time-warping shenanigans the Lost Legends are pulling with that crystal is treating your brain like a squeeze toy. I'm fresh out of supernatural Band-Aids, so we need to be careful with our magic."

Lia parked our mom-mobile behind some shipping containers like we were in some budget spy movie. The second I stepped out, everything felt wrong. Someone had taken reality, put it in a blender, and hit puree. My magic was going haywire and my healing abilities automatically tried to fix time like the overachiever it was. Everything felt like a cheap dollar store sweater that was one wash away from falling apart.

"Alright, sestras," I said, pulling us into a huddle that would make any football coach proud. I was sure to keep one eye on Dea's still-seeping nose. The river nymphs hadn’t been wrong about the danger the Lost Legends posed to everyone’s survival. And that scared the ever-loving crap out of me. "Remember last night's family history lesson. Our ancestors weren't dumb enough to try this solo, and neither are we." I started passing out little bags of my ‘please don't let time eat us’ herb mix. I’d put it together while I couldn’t sleep. I had added extra oak bark because we needed all the grounding we could get. "This won't stop you from going all Doctor Who, but it should keep your atoms from deciding to take a vacation to last Tuesday."

"Smith determination," Lia chirped. She tried to sound cheerful while her hands shook like she'd mainlined her energy drinks. Her charm bracelet was spinning like a possessed compass. I noticed a thin line of blood starting to form under her nose, too. Fantastic.

"Yearsley intuition," Phi finished. I noticed her wipe discreetly at her nose and silently passed her a tissue. The crystal's effects were spreading faster than mono at a middle school dance party.

We crept toward the warehouse like the world's most obvious ninjas. All of us periodically dabbed at our noses like we'd joined some sort of synchronized bleeding club. The place was trying real hard to look abandoned. It won the gold medal for the number of busted windows and the amount of rust it sported. At least there were enough danger signs to wallpaper a room.

My eyebrows furrowed when I noted the signs that someone had been playing house. There were fresh tire tracks in the gravel and a shiny new padlock. And oh yeah, the air was doing the fucking macarena around the building.

"Check out the hardware store special," Lia said, eyeing the lock while her lucky bracelet went full windmill. She didn't seem to notice when blood dripped onto her shirt. "I can pop that open in?—"

The lock apparently took that as a personal challenge and clicked itself open. The door swung wide as if it was saying, "Come on in, suckers!" The hinges screamed like they were auditioning for a horror movie. The sound echoed like someone had pressed the replay button a few dozen times. Each one made my head throb, and I saw double for a hot second. Past and present overlapped like a badly edited photo.

"This is definitely a trap," Kota announced as she reached for her dagger. She swayed slightly, and I grabbed her arm. The temporal distortions were hitting her now.

"No shit, Sherlock," Dani agreed. She was so agitated her magic was sparking. Though, it flickered like bad wifi every few seconds. Blood trickled from both her nostrils now. Her eyes were getting that glazed look of someone trying to watch six TV channels at once.

"We're still going in because we're idiots," Phi sighed and opened her crossbody bag to get a potion. Her hands left bloody prints on the leather. Perfect.

"Damn straight," I said as I retrieved my dagger. "Stay close. And if anyone starts feeling like they're starring in Groundhog Day - you know if you get dizzy or a case of déjà vu or start seeing multiple yous - speak up. I mean it. No playing hero. And for fuck's sake, use the tissues. You all look like extras in a zombie movie. Better yet..." I trailed off as I started healing each sister’s problem.

We were about to walk into what felt like a temporal blender, and I had six nosebleeds to manage. There wasn’t much I could do about mine, but I could stop theirs. Inside, the warehouse was larger than it appeared. Holy shit on a shingle. The center of the warehouse looked like someone had let a meth-head decorate a mad scientist's lab. Modern equipment shared space with steampunk wannabe devices that hummed like a drunk bumblebee. The computers were running calculations that made my eyeballs want to crawl out of my head and retire to Florida.

And there they were. No, weren't. Yes - fuck. The artifacts kept flickering in and out like the world's most annoying magic show. The stolen crystal pulsed with sickly green energy one second and vanished the next, while the Larmes du Bayou played the same game of temporal peek-a-boo. My healing powers were going haywire trying to fix reality itself. That felt about as great as getting hit by the streetcar.

"Phi, don't!" I shouted as my sister's face went chalk white. She was trying to freeze the moments when the artifacts appeared. She was stretching time like taffy. And it made blood pour from her nose in glowing rivulets. "You're going to kill yourself!"

"Almost... got it..." Phi gasped. Her eyes were focused as she fought against the fluctuations. The artifacts stuttered like they were caught between moments like bugs in amber. "Grab them... can't hold it..."

I lunged forward. My fingers brushed the crystal just as Phi's power flickered. Reality snapped back like a rubber band and sent me sprawling. "Stand down, you stubborn genius!" I yelled and watched in horror as more blood streamed from her nose, her ears, everywhere. "They're not worth your life!"

Around us, my sisters were falling apart - literally. Dani existed in four places at once. Lia's charm bracelet was having an existential crisis. Dea looked one temporal shift away from complete collapse. My healing powers were about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

"The spirits..." Dea whispered, swaying like a drunk at dawn. Her words echoed from multiple moments as reality fractured around her. "They're trying to warn..."

Kota caught her before she could faceplant, then nearly dropped her as they both briefly existed at different times. "If they keep this up—" Her voice came from three different moments at once.

"Our powers are—aren't—are—" Dani's warning scattered across timelines like confetti.

"Phi, I swear to all that's holy," I growled as she tried to activate her powers again, "if you don't stop trying to freeze time, I will knock you out myself. We need another way."

She stopped, and the hum built up until it felt like my skull was hosting a heavy metal concert. My healing abilities were screaming, trying to mend tears in reality itself. Yeah, that was going about as well as you'd expect. We needed help. Before my sisters disappeared into the quantum soup. Before Phi burned herself out trying to catch fragments of time in her bare hands.

"Welcome to your worst nightmare," said a voice that came from everywhere and nowhere. It belonged to a woman who flickered between young, old, and holy-shit-what-is-that with each word. Lost Legends emerged from shadows that shouldn't exist, their bodies blurred and split like bad special effects. They were all women and radiated evil. My magic acted on its own and a spell left my hand before I knew what was happening. Kota partially shifted into her dragon form and the rest cast spells of some kind.

"You're breaking everything," Dani managed as she threw a magical bomb that made a shelving unit explode.

"Everything was already broken," the woman replied. Her laugh echoed all around us. "We're just... redistributing the pieces."

Through what I could still see of the windows, the Mississippi River was continuing its existential crisis. It flowed in six different directions, including up and sideways. Reality was stretching thinner than my last excuse for missing family dinner. I tried to grab the artifact when it solidified, but my hand passed through empty air as it vanished again. The Larmes du Bayou did the same temporal dance until I wanted to puke from the visual whiplash.

"Stop!" I shouted. My voice bounced between moments like a deranged pinball.

"We can't grab them," I said, fighting the urge to hurl as another temporal wave hit us. "The artifacts are too unstable. They're not even fully in this timeline anymore."

Phi tried to argue, but her words came out in three different moments at once. Blood dripped upward from her nose. It was defying gravity just like the river outside. "Listen to me," I managed while trying not to figure out which day I existed in from one moment to the next. "We need to get back to the plantation. Right now. Before—" Reality twisted again, and I saw three different versions of our hidden room being ransacked by Lost Legends. Past, present, future? Who the fuck knew anymore. "They're going to hit our house next. The room isn't warded against temporal fuckery yet."

"But the artifacts—" Kota started.

"Will have to wait until we figure out how to exist in one moment at a time," I cut her off. I grabbed her arm - or tried to since she briefly existed three feet to the left.

"Home," Dani agreed as she snatched Dea and Lia’s hands. "We ward the room. Protect what we still have."

"And then?" Lia asked as her lucky charm bracelet spun.

"Then we figure out how to fight a bunch of time-bending assholes without losing our minds," I said as we moved toward the exit. "Right after I throw up everything I've eaten since kindergarten."

We stumbled out of that temporal nightmare like drunks leaving a physics-defying bar. The river was still having its existential crisis, but at least we were all existing in mostly the same moment again. Behind us, the warehouse pulsed with sickly green light. We couldn’t worry about that right now. Our home needed protection.

"Next time," I muttered as we piled into the SUV, "we're sending them a strongly worded letter instead of walking into their time-blender." No one laughed. Probably because the joke reached their ears five minutes after I said it.