Page 65 of A Shade Too Far
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Ephraim’s voice surrounded us.“You had your question. Moving on.”
“Answer me.” Laurent had gone to some cold place that reminded me of Zev and it was terrifying. This wasn’t him. He was the supernova always on the verge of self-destructing. This… I didn’t know what this was.
I shied away from him, unable to go anywhere because of these invisible seat belts imprisoning us, but I longed to clap my hands over my ears and run as far as I could.
If Banim Shovavim could place actual curses and somehow pilot dybbuks, Laurent would become a one-man crusade to destroy every last one. And I’d have to stop him, because as dangerous as that magic was, these were my people.
Battle lines appeared around my internal house of cards. Was Poe’s game of Memory, with the card faces flipping violently between darkness and light, predicting this ultimate clash between Laurent and me? I’d speared one of Poe’s cards to end that mad game, but was the sunlight that appeared in the wake of that action because I’d win this war?
Or lose it?
I shot an anguished look at Laurent.
A stranger looked back.
“I’ll answer the original question. Properly.” Hiram gripped the podium with trembling fingers.
Laurent tensed like he was going to argue, then nodded.
“Only a Banim Shovavim can place a real Pulsa diNura,” Hiram said. “That burn is the proof. Think of it like marking someone for death, be it in a day, a year, or twenty years.”
“Dealer’s choice,” Laurent said snidely.
Hiram bowed his head, then gave a weary shrug. “Dealer’s discretion.”
This was bad, but still I eagerly drank in this new information. Any fact at this point would help.
“But the mark is only part of the magic.” He paused.
Laurent crossed his arms, his raised eyebrow conveying more aggressive menace than a loaded gun.
Hiram wasn’t a fool and he kept talking. “The Banim Shovavim with that ability acquire a familiar soon after they’re born.”
“Like a cat or an owl or…” I grabbed the domino off the seat, its edges cutting into my flesh. “A dybbuk.”
“Then she is controlling it,” Laurent said, his eyes dark with fury.
“Not exactly,” Hiram said. “It’s more like she exists in a state of permanent enthrallment.”
“With each of them gaining control at different times?” I said.
He nodded.
Talk about a house divided. I’d chosen to first suppress my magic and then reclaim it, but she’d constantly been at the mercy of hers. I rubbed my finger over the domino tile. What a horrific fate. “How is she not insane from a lifetime of that?”
“How do you know she isn’t?” Laurent retorted. Our camaraderie felt as impossible as him having an ounce of sympathy for this woman’s plight. “Why have I never heard of this before?”
Hiram jutted his chin up, his own anger flaring in his eyes. “Everyone with that power was killed long ago. Or so I thought,” he added quietly.
“Hiram, don’t upset yourself with this,” Ephraim said.
Our host held up a hand. “It used to be a fairly common ability of ours, and a deadly one because unless the curse was removed by the curser, nothing short of compliance or the curser’s death would stop it.”
My head reeled. “What about wards?”
“They’re powerless against the curse.” Hiram swept off his hat and wiped his brow, looking frail. “The Banim Shovavim who can curse people with the Pulsa diNura are the ones who have familiars. But since Ohrists couldn’t see the dybbuk familiar to kill it and were especially vulnerable to this curse, they didn’t like that we had this edge on them. They came up with a solution to remove these Banim Shovavim from the playing field.”
