The invisible force struck the female corpse with explosive power.
One moment, she was leaning over Charlie and trying to tear the Golden Arm from his hands.
The next, her decaying body flew across the bedroom as though it had been hit by a speeding truck.
She slammed into the far wall with enough force to crack the plaster.
Charlie turned toward the doorway and saw Fiona Goode striding into the room.
Her expression showed more annoyance than concern, as though an undead corpse attacking one of the academy’s residents was merely an interruption to her sleep.
Relief flooded through him.
The Supreme had arrived.
“I expect a complete explanation when this is over,” Fiona said.
She casually lifted one hand.
The female corpse had already begun pulling herself from the damaged wall, but another wave of telekinetic force slammed her back onto the floor.
“Of course.”
Charlie scrambled upright, grabbed the Golden Arm, and hurried behind Fiona.
Standing near the most powerful witch in the Coven seemed far safer than attempting to fight the creature again.
Zoe and Madison arrived moments later.
Zoe wore a nightgown and looked terrified.
She rushed toward Charlie before paying any attention to the corpse struggling across the room.
“Are you hurt?”
She caught his arm and examined him for blood, torn clothing, or broken bones.
“My back hurts, but I’m all right.”
Charlie gave her a reassuring smile even though his body still felt as though he had been struck by a car.
He then noticed Madison standing behind Zoe in a black camisole and matching sleep shorts.
Unlike Zoe, Madison did not appear surprised to see the creature.
Her face had gone pale.
“One of those corpses appeared in our room too.”
Charlie stared at her.
“Another one?”
The corpse that had attacked him remained trapped beneath Fiona’s power.
If Madison had encountered another manifestation at the same time, then they were not dealing with a single undead woman.
There was only one Golden Arm.
Charlie could not understand how several identical corpses could be searching for it at once.
Fiona showed no interest in allowing the creature to struggle any longer.
Her gaze settled on the corpse, and flames erupted across its rotting body without warning.
The undead woman screamed.
She clawed at herself with her remaining hand, but the supernatural fire spread faster whenever she tried to extinguish it.
Rotten flesh blackened and collapsed while the flames burned without touching the floor beneath her.
The corpse twisted toward Charlie.
Her only hand reached for the Golden Arm.
“My arm…”
Before she could finish, the fire consumed her completely.
Her body collapsed into dark ash before disappearing along with the blood, insects, and decaying flesh she had brought into the room.
The supernatural cold vanished.
Fiona flicked her fingers, extinguishing the flames that remained along the wall.
Aside from the broken plaster and disordered furniture, no evidence of the corpse remained.
The encounter was over almost as soon as Fiona arrived.
Charlie and Madison had struggled desperately against the same creature at the Hotel Monteleone.
They had emptied bullets into it, torn its body apart with telekinesis, and eventually beaten it with the Golden Arm until it disappeared.
Fiona had destroyed the new manifestation with a glance.
That was the power of the Supreme.
Ordinary witches usually possessed one or several supernatural gifts.
The Supreme was believed to command nearly every ability associated with the Salem bloodline, including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, divination, transmutation, and far more.
Fiona was also weaker than she had been during the height of her power.
Age and illness were already draining her, yet the creature had still been unable to resist her.
She turned toward Charlie and Madison.
“Now, would either of you care to explain what kind of disaster you brought into my house?”
Charlie opened his mouth to answer, but hurried footsteps approached from the hallway.
Cordelia arrived with Queenie and Nan close behind her.
“What happened?”
“A dead woman came back,” Nan answered before anyone else could speak.
Her face twisted with discomfort.
“She was angry and kept thinking about her arm.”
Queenie rubbed her eyes and looked around the room.
“What dead woman?”
The hallway had become crowded and noisy.
Fiona watched everyone attempting to speak at once before releasing an impatient sigh.
“We are not doing this in a bedroom at midnight.”
She looked toward the younger witches.
“Get dressed and meet downstairs.”
Fiona then glanced past them toward Spalding, who had arrived last.
The old servant still wore the oversized childlike clothing he used during his private doll games, though his expression remained as stiff as ever.
“Spalding, change out of whatever that is and make coffee.”
He nodded silently and disappeared toward the servants’ staircase.
Ten minutes later, everyone gathered in the first-floor parlor.
The young witches had changed into ordinary clothes, while Spalding served a large pot of coffee before standing silently near the wall.
Charlie placed the Golden Arm in the center of the table.
Fiona lit a cigarette and studied him through the rising smoke.
“Start from the beginning.
How did you manage to become involved with a hostile spirit less than two days after arriving in New Orleans?”
Everyone turned toward Charlie and Madison.
Charlie had already prepared a version of the story that concealed the Book of Containment.
He explained that he had become interested in New Orleans’ haunted locations and invited Madison to help him investigate.
Their search eventually led them to the Hotel Monteleone.
A nervous man had abandoned a travel bag in the lobby, and the Golden Arm was the only object inside.
After they carried it upstairs, the female corpse appeared and demanded its return.
Charlie described their fight and the creature’s disappearance but avoided mentioning the Containment Points he received.
He also admitted that they had brought the object back to the academy because they believed the threat was gone.
Fiona listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she exhaled a stream of smoke and shook her head.
“Young people have an astonishing ability to turn boredom into attempted suicide.”
Queenie glanced toward Madison and smiled.
“Were you terrified when the corpse appeared?
Did the great Madison Montgomery hide behind Charlie?”
Madison gave her a contemptuous look.
“If you had been there, you would have curled into a ball and cried until someone saved you.”
“At least I wouldn’t carry a cursed arm into my bedroom.”
“Enough,” Cordelia said before the argument could escalate.
She turned toward Fiona with a serious expression.
“Did you destroy the spirit?”
“No.”
Madison’s arrogance faded.
“What do you mean, no?
You burned it until nothing was left.”
Fiona looked around the room as though surrounded by slow children.
“You girls desperately need to spend more time reading.
Every conversation with you makes me fear for the future of the Coven.”
She tapped ash into a nearby tray.
“That corpse was not the original spirit.
It was a manifestation created by a curse.”
Zoe moved closer to Charlie and wrapped both hands around his arm.
Fiona continued before anyone could interrupt.
“A curse is not a monster in a video game.
You cannot simply attack it until it runs out of life and expect the problem to disappear.”
Her gaze shifted toward the Golden Arm.
“A properly constructed curse functions like a supernatural law. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
It follows a set of rules established by its creator.
Unless those rules are broken or the person maintaining the curse is killed, it will continue operating.”
Charlie finally understood why the corpse had returned.
“So the woman we fought wasn’t the real owner of the arm?”
“She may resemble the original owner, but she is only something produced by the curse.”
Fiona gestured toward Charlie and Madison.
“You both handled the Golden Arm.
That allowed the curse to attach itself to you.
The corpses are merely hunters sent to recover the object and punish whoever possesses it.”
Queenie had been reaching toward the Golden Arm out of curiosity.
She immediately pulled her hand back and tucked it beneath the table.
Charlie glanced at Madison.
That explained how identical corpses had attacked separate rooms at the same time.
The curse could create as many manifestations as necessary to pursue everyone marked by it.
He looked back at Fiona.
“Does that mean the corpses will keep coming every night?”
“Yes.”
Fiona took another drag from her cigarette.
“The curse activates after dark.
It may appear once in a night or several times depending on its strength and how closely you remain connected to the arm.”
She leaned back in her chair.
“The attacks may become less frequent over time.
Some cursed people survive for years between manifestations.”
Madison stared at her.
“That’s supposed to make us feel better?”
“It means you might occasionally enjoy an uninterrupted evening.”
Madison’s expression became even worse.
The thought of spending every night locked inside the academy horrified her almost as much as the corpse itself.
Cordelia ignored her reaction.
“Can you protect them?”
“I can place wards around the academy.
As long as they remain inside after dark, the curse should not be able to manifest here.”
“No,” Madison said immediately.
Everyone looked at her.
“I’m not spending the rest of my life trapped in this house every night.”
Cordelia frowned.
Fiona’s solution would protect them, but it only controlled the symptoms.
Charlie and Madison would remain cursed, and any mistake could expose them to another attack.
“As the Supreme, you must know a permanent solution.”
Fiona’s eyes narrowed slightly at the challenge.
“The Supreme is not God, Cordelia.”
She crushed her cigarette into the ashtray.
“Breaking the structure of an old curse is possible, but it would require time, research, and far more effort than these two deserve after stealing an obviously suspicious golden limb from a stranger.”
“We didn’t steal it,” Madison said.
“He abandoned it.”
Fiona ignored her.
“There is a simpler solution.”
Charlie leaned forward.
“What is it?”
“Find the source.”
Fiona looked directly at the Golden Arm.
“Discover who created the curse and kill them.”
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