Blood at the Root

Malik and his friends sit in his dorm room talking about fall classes. Alexis expresses her frustration at not being able to leave campus to help with the disappearances; however, the others insist that they are safe on campus and should stay.

As Malik goes to leave, he finds Officer Antwan Bivins standing at his door. He asks Malik to speak with him.

Antwan takes Malik out to the quad to speak privately. He warns Malik not to trust anyone on the campus and to be careful. Malik initially dismisses him, pointing out that police officers are part of the problem. However, he stops when Antwan tells him that Malik’s mother and Taron were his only friends at school.

Chancellor Taron interrupts their conversation. He and Antwan argue, with Antwan insisting that Malik needs more information. Malik demands that Antwan tell him the truth. Antwan explains that there have been killings in Alabama around Malik’s old neighborhood—including the Hudson family. However, before he can say anything more, Chancellor Taron sends him off campus. Malik angrily storms away.

Back in his dorm, Malik video calls Taye. He uses the call to transfigure himself, transporting over the waves back to Mama Aya’s house. Malik goes downstairs and demands answers from Mama Aya about the scroll and his old neighborhood. When she resists, Malik tells her that he needs to go back to Alabama and get answers for himself. She hesitates, then tells him that she will take him there.

Malik and Mama Aya go to the Hudson house. The police have taped off the home, and the inside is destroyed. Malik is transported back to the night they died. Sonya answers the door and is immediately slammed into the wall and killed by a “dark entity” dressed “in a long, tattered cloak” (304). Malik sees that it is the same Bokor leader from the Haitian Revolution. As Carlwell is killed, Malik is transported back to the present. He tells Mama Aya what he saw, and she suggests they go back to Malik’s childhood home.

Malik’s old home is still there, vacant after all these years. As he looks around the living room, he is transported back to a childhood memory. He remembers playing with toys and making them levitate. He realizes that he had magic long before the Fourth of July when his mother died. When he comes back to the present, Mama Aya tells him that he is “blessed” with the Kaave—the blue ancestral magic that swirls around his body when he conjures.

In Lorraine’s room, Mama Aya feels a shift in the magical world. She says an incantation that reveals a hidden compartment under the floor. They find a map Lorraine was drawing and the golden necklace she wore in Malik’s memories of her. He takes both, and the room starts to shake. The walls split open and blood pours down. Malik and Mama Aya run outside.

Malik sees a young boy fleeing on a bike. He can sense the boy’s magic manifesting. Behind him, several Bokor members emerge. Malik and Mama Aya agree that they need to help the boy.

Malik moves to stand in front of the boy and casts a protection spell. However, the Bokor continue to move, with the same leader from Malik’s dreams. The houses around them begin to collapse. Mama Aya yells that they are killing innocent people, which increases their magic. Malik realizes that the boy was a trap; the Bokor is here for him.

Malik and Mama Aya fight the Bokor. Malik makes several of them break into pieces as Mama Aya deals with the leader. Mama Aya’s skill awes Malik, and the Bokor starts to lose. She pulls several werecats from the earth—just as Miriam did. Malik places his hand on the ground, pulling magic from his Alabama memories. He uses it to trap all the Bokor, who are then killed by the werecats. At the last moment, the leader flees.

Back at home, Malik sits with Mama Aya on the porch. She works on a quilt that depicts their ancestry while Malik brushes her hair. Mama Aya tells him that she is sorry for not spending the last 17 years with him. She admits that she regrets not finding him sooner. She tells him that she loves him, but Malik struggles to say it back as he cries.

Chancellor Taron shows up at Mama Aya’s. He goes inside to talk with Mama Aya and then demands that Malik return to campus.

That night, Malik wakes up in the middle of the night. His mother’s necklace, which is now around his neck, pulses with light and power. He takes it off and drifts back to sleep. Malik finds himself in a hallway. He can see a door at the end with a “dark” presence behind it. It pounds on the door. Malik hears his mother calling his name. He searches for her but can’t find her. He then wakes up back in his room.

Malik demands that Taron take him back to Mama Aya’s house. There, he confronts them both, telling them about his dream. He says that they need to find his mother because the dream was real. They try to convince him that he was just dreaming. Even if he wasn’t dreaming, they argue, it could be a trap set by the Bokor. They tell him that his mother chose her path, and Malik needs to let her go.

Malik considers everything. He thinks of how his mother is paying the “price” for the magic that she did. He contemplates letting go of her, which would allow him to heal from the pain of losing her. However, he realizes that he can’t do that and tells himself that he will pay whatever “price” it costs to save her.

Over the next couple of weeks, Malik practices his magic with his friends and Professor Kumale, determined to work on his defense skills. They also take final exams and prepare for the end of the semester. Malik learns that more people have disappeared or died, including two conjurers.

One day after class, Malik goes to eat with Kumale. He seems distant, then admits to Malik that it is the anniversary of his brother Kenson’s death. Malik asks what happened, and Kumale tells him that he was “at the wrong place and the wrong time” (326). He also says that he knows magic always has a price but didn’t know his brother would pay it.

Kumale asks Malik if he would bring back his mother if he could. Malik says that a year ago, he would’ve said yes for sure; now, he isn’t sure if losing everything he’s built would be worth it. Kumale explains that losing something is often easier than truly letting it go.

Malik and Alexis sit on the dorm balcony overlooking the campus. Malik realizes that he is falling deeply in love with her. She kisses him for the first time. Malik kisses her back, but she stops, trying to tell him that “there are things about” her he doesn’t know (330). Malik interrupts her, saying that he doesn’t care about what happened in the graveyard or whatever else he doesn’t know; he insists that she is a good person and that he loves her.

They go into Malik’s room where they kiss on the bed. She stops him again, insisting that there is something she has to tell him. However, Malik again interrupts her and says that he loves her. She says that she loves him back, and they have sex.