Lizzy Ford: Cursed

Her eyes settled on the altar near the candlelight. She knew that smell now. It was the scent of death, like when a cat crawled under the porch of her mama’s house and died.

Except a cat didn’t die here. The woman housing Therese’s spirit had.

You’ll be the next girl the police find in an alley.

She’d been afraid of Jax since she met him, but he seemed to know something about her sister. Was he really the serial killer plaguing the Lower Ninth Ward? Were the bodies police found those of women he’d slain as hosts for Therese?

Did Therese know what Jax was doing to bring her back? Was her sister as guilty of misusing magic as Jax?

Wiping her face, Adrienne ventured closer to the altar and shrine. She’d never feared Baron Samedi, the god who oversaw the dead. His shrine, however, was sinister, the blood splattered cement around it a testament to the blood rites Jax was performing.

Was she next, if she didn’t figure out how to break the curse?

What would the cards tell her?

Adrienne set down her backpack, unaware of how heavy it was until it was gone. She rolled her shoulders back. They felt bruised, if not from the bag then from Jax’s grip on her.

She skirted through the altar and shrine area, disgusted by it, and grabbed a candle. Hurrying back to her bag, she dropped to her knees and set down the candle before pulling out her cards.

With a deep breath to calm herself, she focused on how to escape the attic. Her hands shook as she shuffled, and she laid out a spread of three and three.

“Please, please help me,” she whispered to the spirits. “Show me what to do.”

She turned over the cards one at a time, growing more puzzled as she went. When she was done, she sat back.

Two of Pentacles, reversed

Two of Swords, reversed

Two of Pentacles, reversed

Two of Swords, reversed

High Priestess, reversed

Devil, reversed

“This isn’t possible,” she said, struggling to understand the story before her. Like her vision in the car, the cards had taken on their own life, showing her what she didn’t think was possible. “There’s only one of each card in the deck!” She stared at them, convinced the stress of her situation was making her misread them.

She closed her eyes, counted to three, then opened them.

The cards hadn’t changed.

She was close to crying again.

“A good spread.”

She twisted at the unfamiliar voice and sprang to her feet.

The Red Man was nearby, fully materialized and glowing faintly in the dark attic.

Adrienne backed away until she hit the wall, too stunned to release the scream building up in her chest.

“What does the two mean?” he asked.

She stared.

“Girl!” His sharp tone was accompanied by a snap of his fingers.

“Duality,” she blurted out. “Balance with myself … and others, intuition and thought.”

He moved closer to her cards, peering at them.

Is this really happening? She felt like she was close to fainting. “Are you … are you here to kill me?”

“No.” The dark opening of the hood turned to her. “Your cards say you haven’t been listening to the spirits. Probably why I’m here.”

She said nothing, terrified of moving or speaking.

“Maybe you’re not strong enough yet,” he added. He reached up to remove his hood.

She squeezed her eyes closed, not wanting to imagine what kind of monster he was.

“Girl!” Another snap of his fingers.

She jumped, more afraid of what he’d do if she upset him than what he looked like. Adrienne opened one eye then the other.

Her heart felt like it stopped.

The Red Man was almost identical to Jayden, except his eyes were green. She gazed at him, emotion surging within her, even knowing it wasn’t the boy who held her heart then broke it.

“Sometimes our choices are hard,” he said. “Mine included. To continue chasing Therese or to take low hanging fruit?” His gaze swept over her. “Just one life.” The words were soft, yearning.

She pressed herself against the wall, not liking the way he looked at her.

“The easy route. I almost always take it,” he said. He shook his head. “I still might.”

“We’re going to break your curse,” she managed. “You can’t have either of us.”

“Intriguing,” he said, tilting his head to the side. “You don’t know.”

She said nothing. All along, she’d felt something was wrong. That maybe there was more to Therese’s story in New Orleans than she knew. It was disrespectful to think poorly of the dead, and so she’d chosen to focus on how good Therese was.

“Know what?” she asked, sensing she wasn’t going to be able to be oblivious any longer.

“Therese offered you in her place.”

“What? No.” She shook her head firmly. “She’d never do that.”

“You cannot deny that she is not what others remember. I know you know differently. I know you know she had a side that no one else knew.”

“Yes, but this is different.”

“I’ve had multiple chances to claim you. You’ve seen me and ignored me. Did you not think I wanted to speak to you?”

“How?” she asked. “I don’t never use black magic.”

“Our families are linked, Adrienne. You simply could’ve asked your ancestors, the one who condemned the ninety-nine in your maternal line,” he said. “But you didn’t.” He gestured at the cards. “You asked everyone what Therese was involved in except those who could tell you.”

Adrienne shook her head, starting to tremble. “Don’t matter now. I ain’t leavin’ here unless Jax kills me and drags me out.”

“Jax and the zombie. Almost as tragic as my love story,” he mused. “You don’t want to hear what I have to say, but you will hear it.” He approached as he spoke, his face harder than Jayden’s had ever been. The air around him rippled with his robe and the dark magic clinging to him.

Unable to move, she simply watched him come, tears stinging her eyes and cheeks.

“If your sister succeeds in breaking my curse, if she brings herself back to life permanently, I will claim thousands, maybe millions more,” he said quietly. “I will kill until the debt I owe is paid. The blood of the St. Croix will fill the streets, and I will spare no one. No one. I must claim the last life owed.”

Adrienne flinched at his tone.

“And all that I do will be a fraction of what the zombie will do, if she is permitted to find a new host and break the curse I am here to enforce.”

She looked up, astonished. “My sister –”

“Set you up. Set Jax up. Look at those cards, Adrienne.” He snatched her arm and dragged her back to them. “Duality. Power and intuition. Choices and fate. Life and Death. You and her.”

“I don’t understand!” she cried.

“Good and evil. An ancient prophecy brought to life by the curse in your House. If she rises again, she will bring unparalleled evil with her.”

Adrienne’s breath caught in her throat. She stared at the cards. He was reading them at a level she couldn’t imagine, one only a spirit could see.

He released her. She dropped to her knees.

“Which will you be, Adrienne? Because I know which your sister is. Without balance, there is destruction. I can kill you now, but I risk unleashing her upon the world without you to balance her.”

“You … you’re saying I’m meant to become a mambos , like my mother and grandmother?” she asked.

“I’m saying you are meant to become the mambos who prevents what the spirits fear will happen, should your sister reclaim what she’s lost,” he said quietly. “ This is what prevents me from taking you. You were chosen, girl, to stop an ancient prophecy. The threat and the solution both originate from your House.”