What happened in Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab? Read a full recap.

Read a full summary of Bridge of Souls, book #3 of Victoria Schwab’s Cassidy Blake series, right here! This page is full of spoilers so beware. If you are wondering what happened in Bridge of Souls, you are in the right place!

Special thanks to Jen, a BSR contributor who wrote this great recap! Visit her on Twitter to keep up with her latest news.

Author
Victoria Schwab

Ratings
4.7 stars on Amazon
4.12 stars on Goodreads
Add Bridge of Souls at Goodreads.

Cassidy Blake Series
#1 City of Ghosts
#2 Tunnel of Bones
#3 Bridge of Souls

***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in Bridge of Souls?

Cassidy, her ghost best friend Jacob, her cat Grim, and her parents wake up in New Orleans, the site of her parents’ latest episode of The Inspecters.

Cassidy has a lot to worry about. Jacob is becoming more powerful, interacting with the physical world, and Cassidy worries she will need to send him on before he becomes a dangerous poltergeist. But her biggest worry is the skeleton in the black suit she saw on the Metro in Paris.

Cassidy, her parents, and Jacob have breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, where they meet their guide Lucas and discuss their plans for filming. Their first stop is the Place d’Armes Hotel, originally a schoolhouse, that burned down with the children trapped inside. As she enters, Cassidy feels the Veil pressing on her and hears the voices of the children who died in the fire. But then she hears another voice, rasping, “We are coming for you.” Cassidy panics, especially when Jacob doesn’t hear the voice.

The family’s second stop is the restaurant Muriel’s. When the group enters the seance room, Cassidy feels the Veil leaning into her and struggles not to cross over. After her parents film their segment, the group goes downstairs, but Cassidy and Jacob stay behind to cross into the Veil to send on a ghost. Unlike other times she has entered the Veil, Cassidy struggles to focus. She realizes there are overlapping Veils because the building is home to several different ghosts, so she uses her camera to help her focus on one at a time.

Cassidy focuses on the ghost of Pierre Jourdan, who committed suicide in the seance room after he lost everything, including the house, in a poker game. She successfully sends him on before she and Jacob run out of the house, which is burning in their current Veil layer. They escape the Veil and join Cassidy’s parents and the film crew for dinner at Muriel’s like nothing happened.

Afterward, the group returns to their hotel for a seance. The seance starts normally, a performance Cassidy and Jacob easily see through. But then Mr. Blanc, the psychic, enters a real trance and begins speaking directly to Cassidy in the voice of the skeleton in the suit. The voice tells Cassidy she stole something from them, but she can no longer hide from them, and they will return her to the dark to balance the scales. As the voice speaks, a skeleton begins to form in the room. Jacob pushes Mr. Blanc, who falls and breaks the trance.

Cassidy calls Lara, who is visiting Chicago with her parents. Cassidy tells Lara about the skeleton in the suit and the strange message at the seance. Lara, terrified, tells her it’s an Emissary of Death, a being from beyond the Veil who hunts in-betweeners like Cassidy and Lara. The best thing Cassidy can do, Lara says, is not cross the Veil and stay with Jacob and her family as much as possible until Lara can figure out how to defeat the Emissary. That night, Jacob stands watch while Cassidy sleeps.

On their way to one of the cemeteries the next day, a fortune teller with tarot cards approaches. Cassidy draws the Two of Swords, which means Cassidy is approaching a crossroads, and no matter what she chooses, she will lose something. Instantly, Cassidy thinks of Jacob, worried defeating the Emissary will somehow result in losing him. Her father arrives and tells Cassidy not to take the tarot cards seriously; they are mirrors, only showing her what she is afraid of, not what will happen.

The group arrives at the St. Louis No. 1 cemetery, but Cassidy and Jacob feel relatively safe since ghosts reside where they die, not where they are buried. Cassidy listens as her mother tells the story of Marie Laveau, a voodoo practitioner buried in the cemetery. Cassidy asks Lucas about voodoo. He tells Cassidy it’s not magic but instead power, and just like the tarot cards, it involves a give and take.

The cemetery at St. Louis No. 2 is calm, but when the group arrives at St. Louis No. 3, Cassidy feels something pulling her north. It isn’t the Veil, but Jacob feels it as well. According to the map, there’s nothing in that direction except houses and Lake Pontchartrain.

At the St. Roch cemetery, though, Cassidy and Jacob find themselves separated from the rest of their group, and the Emissary of Death appears. When Cassidy tries to run, she realizes she can’t; something about the Emissary takes away her ability to move. Jacob tries to shove the Emissary but goes through him and collapses. Cassidy tries to capture the Emissary in her mirror pendant so she can send him on, but he just grabs the pendant and throws it at a gravestone, where it shatters. The Emissary continues toward Cassidy, and just when all hope seems lost, Lara appears on top of a rotting tomb, which she knocks over onto the Emissary. They run out of the cemetery and into a funeral parade, where they lose the Emissary.

Lara came to New Orleans to find the Society of the Black Cat—a paranormal society that won’t grant her membership because she’s not 16—and help Cassidy deal with the Emissary. She was able to find Cassidy in the cemetery because of their connection as in-betweeners. When Cassidy’s mother finds them, Lara tells her she is staying with an aunt in New Orleans for a few days.

Lara, Cassidy, and Jacob start looking for the Society of the Black Cat. They check the Veil first, thinking the sign would be posted where paranormal people would see it, but they don’t see anything. Cassidy remembers a picture she took the day before at a voodoo shop called Thread & Bone; there was a black cat in front of it. Cassidy leads them to the shop in the Veil. Jacob isn’t able to enter, so it’s warded against ghosts and spirits. They step out of the Veil and into the shop, and Jacob can enter.

The girl in the shop introduces herself as Philippa but doesn’t answer their questions about the Society until Lara shows a business card from her uncle, a member. Philippa reveals that cats are drawn to the supernatural and serve as amulets against it, which is why the society is named after a black cat. Jacob is shocked when Philippa talks directly to him; she is a medium, so she can see ghosts.

Renee, the president of the Society, and Michael, the specialist in wards and charms, come out from the back of the shop and agree to help Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob. The two members aren’t much help; no one knows much about Emissaries, and the Society doesn’t have an in-betweener on staff at the moment. They tell Cassidy and Lara—Jacob was blocked from the back of the room by wards—to enter the Veil to talk to ghosts of other Society members; fortunately, even their Veil is warded so the girls won’t attract the Emissary’s attention.

The ghosts tell Cassidy what they know about Emissaries: they are drawn to things out of place, like Cassidy, Jacob, and Lara, and they will drag them to the place beyond the Veil to restore order. The ghosts tell them to avoid all living or all dead areas because they will stand out to the Emissaries. Sticking to places will both will confuse the Emissaries, which is the best way to avoid them since they can’t be killed, only banished using a spell.

The girls return to the shop’s main room, and Jacob becomes angry when they fill him in on what they’ve learned about Emissaries. He believes he is why the Emissary found Cassidy. He cracks the display case in his anger, another troubling sign he is becoming too powerful. Lara is confident Jacob has been protecting Cassidy by confusing the Emissaries.

Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob are grabbing supplies for the banishing spell when Lucas, her parents’ guide, arrives at the shop. He is the Society’s historian. Michael gives Cassidy and Lara an evil eye to warn them when danger is close.

Lucas walks Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob back to the hotel. Cassidy’s parents take them out to dinner, and Cassidy’s mother talks about meeting her first ghost in London. Lara tells them about the first ghost she saw when she was in the hospital ill with scarlet fever, and Cassidy knows this is the moment when Lara almost died.

That night, Lara stays at the hotel, and Cassidy has another nightmare about the Emissary. When she wakes, she grabs a compact from her mother’s makeup bag so she can protect herself from ghosts.

Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob decide to wait for the Emissary to come to them rather than seeking it out, so they travel to more haunted sites with Cassidy’s parents to watch them film. They end up at the LaLaurie Mansion, the most haunted place in New Orleans. The owner, Madame LaLaurie, was a socialite and serial killer. When her mansion burned down, all the slaves locked in her attic died. The mansion’s Veil is angry, and Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob don’t want to go in, so they leave to get a snack.

The friends realize the Emissary will not come to them because they’ve been in crowded tourist traps, so they decide to get the Emissary’s attention. They make their way to the seance room at Muriel’s, where they set up the supplies for the spell: grave dirt, oil, and matches. When the Emissary doesn’t show up right away, Cassidy and Jacob enter the Veil to get his attention. When they cross back, the Emissary appears. The friends lure him into the circle created by the spell ingredients. Lara lights the oil with the matches, and the spell starts to work.

Unfortunately, the spell to cut the tie between Cassidy and the Emissary also severs the connection between her and Jacob. When she tries to save him, she disturbs the circle, which ends the spell and sets the Emissary free. The Emissary reaches for Cassidy but grabs Lara when she jumps in front of Cassidy to defend her.

Cassidy and Jacob find Lucas and ask him for help. He mentions a bridge called the Bridge of Souls that connects the Veil to the beyond. Jacob realizes the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the Bridge of Souls, explaining why they were drawn to it earlier.

Lucas calls Philippa for a ride to the bridge, and she drives them in her hearse. During the ride, Cassidy worries this is the choice the tarot cards talked about: She can either save Lara and banish the Emissary while losing Jacob, or save Jacob and lose Lara and not escape the Emissary. She remembers what her father said: The tarot cards just show what she is afraid of, not the future. There is a way to defeat the Emissary and save everyone.

How did Bridge of Souls end?

They arrive at the bridge, and Philippa ties a red string around Cassidy’s wrist to remind her what’s real. Then Cassidy and Jacob enter the Veil.

Cassidy finds herself on her bike, riding as fast as she can to beat the sunset so she can get a good photograph of it. Then she is almost hit by a truck and falls into the river. She knows she is drowning, but when she sees the red thread on her wrist, she realizes this isn’t what happened because Jacob saved her. She looks around and sees Jacob below her, a piece of driftwood hitting him. She swims down to him and pulls him out of the river, and when they surface, they are on the Bridge of Souls again.

They see Lara ahead of them, and she seems to be sleepwalking. When Cassidy touches her to get her attention, she and Jacob are pulled into her hospital room right before she almost died. Cassidy wakes her up, and she and Jacob pull her out of the hospital bed. They reappear on the Bridge of Souls and turn back to cross the Veil into reality, but the Emissary is in their way.

Jacob offers to slow the Emissary down, but Cassidy refuses to leave him behind. Ropes come out of the bridge and capture Cassidy and Lara. Jacob pulls the ropes away, and Cassidy tries to enact the spell with their remaining supplies. Jacob sets the match on fire himself and tells Cassidy that no matter what happens, she won’t lose him. While the spell starts to work, it soon runs out of oil to burn and ends.

Jacob throws himself at the Emissary and pushes him across the line, but the Emissary begins to absorb him to send him to the beyond. Jacob tells Cassidy to leave him, but she refuses and throws her camera at the Emissary’s head. He drops Jacob and reaches into Cassidy’s chest for her life thread.

Lara starts yelling at the Emissary, and the presence of two in-betweeners confuses him long enough for Jacob to shove the Emissary off the bridge. Cassidy and Lara pull Jacob back onto the bridge, and the three friends realize they have successfully banished the Emissary.

They reach for the Veil, but Jacob cannot travel through. His contact with the Emissary seems to have drained him of all the power he has amassed. With Lara, Cassidy can drag him over into the real world, but he is much more ghost-like than Cassidy has ever seen him.

Philippa takes them back to the hotel, and they all meet for breakfast the next day at Cafe du Monde. Lara tells Cassidy she is now an honorary member of the Society until she can get full membership when she turns 16. The three friends cross the Veil one last time to send on the serial killer the Axeman of New Orleans.

Before they leave, Lucas gives Cassidy a card for the Society of the Black Cat, a pouch filled with evil eyes, and a new mirror pendant. Then they all go their separate ways: Lara to catch a plane back home to Scotland, and Cassidy and Jacob to sightsee on their last day in New Orleans.

There you go! That’s what happened in Bridge of Souls. Hope you enjoyed this Bridge of Souls summary with spoilers.

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