Lizzy Ford: Cursed

She touched the cards. She tried to find untruth in his logic or an instinct that warned her he was manipulating or lying to her.

If anything, his words felt truer than any others she’d ever heard.

“If I become … powerful,” she murmured. “I can help Jayden.”

“You can help his family. My family. We are connected to yours and have been for four hundred years. The curse has linked our fates in a way that cannot be broken,” he answered.

“But Therese …”

“Has helped kill twenty three women. Innocent women.”

She looked up, unable to fathom Therese hurting anyone.

“No,” she said forcefully. “She gave me the journal. The song will break the spell. Why else would she do that, if she turned me over to you?”

“Because, sister of Therese...” He knelt beside her, bringing his intensity with him. “The song she wrote will free her of the spirit world. It will allow her to reclaim what she’s lost. Your sister has been dedicated to black magic for quite some time.”

“If that’s true, why did she give it …” she drifted off. “So I could bring her back. She didn’t know it was a song, did she?”

“Not until you figured it out.”

Adrienne felt ill.

“And now you have a choice, Adrienne,” he said. “You can accept your fate or you can become the last life I need to fulfill my debt and let the zombie loose upon the world. I fear, however, that my penance will be extended, if I don’t let you live. A dangerous prophecy is upon us, one you are involved in. If evil is loose upon the world, and I am the one who allowed it to happen … I’ve been down that road before. I don’t want to take a second trip.”

She shrank away from him. Her mind was reeling with the information he provided. The events of her week began to fall into place. The warnings her cards gave her, the connection she felt with Jayden... Jax’s threats.

The dark side of her sister she’d tried to forget.

Even the timing of her ability to sing being stripped. If what the Red Man said was true, she’d missed warnings from the spirits, who had taken a different type of action to prevent her from singing the song. The careful truth she’d been avoiding – that Therese had more than a curiosity for black magic – crystalized. It wasn’t possible that Therese claimed a temporary host without knowing what happened to the women whose bodies she overtook.

She dropped her gaze to the black journal. Pain like that she felt five years ago when she first heard the news her beloved sister had died robbed her of breath and made her double over. Her insides hurt with the kind of pain that came from no physical source but managed to be far more crippling.

Picking up the journal, she began to cry. The pain intensified, fed by fear that she was doing something she’d regret. Adrienne opened the diary with hands that shook almost too much for her to hold it.

She lowered the pages over the candle until they caught fire. Flames devoured the dry paper. She dropped the journal.

“Good girl.” The Red Man said. “Now, you leave, before they come back to claim your body.”

She shuddered, fresh terror filling her. Adrienne gathered her tarot cards clumsily and stuffed them into her backpack.

When she looked up, the Red Man was gone and light from the hallway spilled into the attic, indicating the door at the bottom of the stairs was open.

Unwilling to believe her sister meant to kill her , even if she’d taken other lives, Adrienne stumbled down the stairs, falling more than once. She ran blindly down a second set of stairs to the main floor and darted to the front door, wrenched it open, and ran down the stairs to the sidewalk.

She stopped and looked around, wanting to scream or break down and sob. Aware her danger wasn’t passed, she wiped her eyes quickly and oriented herself. She didn’t know anything about New Orleans or even what direction Jax had driven her. How did she get home?

A flash of red came from her peripheral. She turned and saw the faint glimmer of the Red Man’s robe leading up the stairs of the neighboring house, whose windows glowed warmly with light. The glimmer faded and disappeared.

Rene’s neighbor. The woman from the clinic.

Hope surging, Adrienne raced down the path the red light had gone to the front door of Jax’s neighbor. She pounded on the door and soon heard the sounds of someone approaching the door.

Rene’s aunt opened the door and stared at her.

“Rene do that?” she demanded, taking in Adrienne’s distraught features and swollen eyes.

Adrienne shook her head, unable to help the laugh that escaped. Within seconds, it turned into crying.

“C’mon, cinnamon rolls,” the woman said. “You in time for dinner.”

“I need … phone,” Adrienne managed.

“You need food. You all skin and bones. I’ll call Rene fo’ you and you eat.”

Adrienne nodded and made herself stop crying.

The nurse was on the phone before Adrienne slid her book bag to the ground. She spoke for a moment then handed the phone to Adrienne.

“What the hell you doing there?” Rene demanded.

“Jax.” She couldn’t get out any other words and definitely couldn’t explain that the Red Man had freed her.

Silence, and then, “Don’t go nowhere. You hear me? Don’t talk to no one, don’t do shit until I’m there.”

She nodded, not caring that he couldn’t see her.

“Put my aunt on.”

Adrienne handed the phone off to the round woman waiting. She went to the window to peek out, afraid she’d find Jax on the doorstep. His motorcycle was gone. The strange flashes of light on the sidewalk in front of his home drew her attention.

With a glance at Rene’s neighbor to make sure she was still on the phone, Adrienne cracked the front door open to get a better look.

She gasped, pushing the screen door open and trotting down the stairs.

The journal fire had spread. The flickering light was from flames that filled the attic of Jax’s house. Smoke poured out of one window on the main floor.

Adrienne watched, uncertain what to feel. Sorrow deep enough to make her hold herself. It wasn’t just about losing Therese and her last belonging. It was for the sense of betrayal that had sunk into her gut the moment she felt the Red Man’s words were true.

Horror and anger mixed with the sense of loss.

What if the Red Man was right about everything ? He had to claim his last victim or a prophecy foretelling death would fall upon the world, brought by Therese when she rose again. Therese, Jayden, Rene, Jax … they and their families were all connected.

Adrienne couldn’t let her sister return, even if she didn’t understand yet how to prevent it. She had to learn to listen and channel the magic of the spirits and gods – fast – and find a way to unite those who could help her: Jayden, who didn’t know who she was, and Rene, who was loyal to his brother.

Adrienne watched the flames that began to lick at the roof of the house. Scared yet resolved, she mentally urged Rene to hurry, before Jax returned.

Seated in the ice cream shop just off campus, Jayden was trying to determine the exact shade of Kimmie’s skin was when his phone rang. He blinked out of his stupor. He’d been unable to take his eyes – or hands – off her since Saturday night.

He glanced at his phone to see who called. If it was his mother, he’d hang up. After their last talk, he was trying to figure out if he should call her drug counselor about her strange rant or just let her work things out. Today was the day his daddy was dropping the paperwork off at court to sue her for permanent, full custody of Izzy.