“Oh, no. No, no!” Therese whispered, staring at it. “Jax, we didn’t do it. He just chose another to take my place!”
“It’s okay, Therese.” Jax’s deep voice was soft. “I brought Adrienne here so she can help you. She’s going to stay and work on it. Right, Adrienne?”
Adrienne turned to him, unwilling to be trapped in the attic with a zombie and a black magic wielding gang leader.
Jax’s sharp look, however, made her reconsider refusing.
“Yeah,” she forced herself to say.
“Oh, Addy! Thank you!” Therese hugged her.
“We need to talk, Therese,” Adrienne said.
“Next time,” Jax said quickly, calmly. “Therese, we need to give Addy time to figure things out.”
“Yes, Addy. I can’t stand the idea of losing you to the Red Man,” Therese said, her face growing sad. “You can save us both.”
No pressure. Adrienne nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“Come on, Therese. We’ll go to your favorite spot beneath the trees.”
Therese’s attention went to Jax, and the look of affection on her face was enough for Adrienne to understand why her smile was so large in the picture. Jax’s gaze warmed, a smile touching his lips.
He held out his hand, and Therese went to him.
“Go downstairs, baby,” he told her warmly.
She smiled at him and went. Jax watched her until she’d reached the bottom of the staircase.
They really loved each other. Adrienne wasn’t certain what to think, knowing Jax was using black magic to bring her sister back from the spirit world.
When Jax faced her, her fear returned. The smile was gone, the predatory threat back.
“I’ll help you, but please don’t make me stay here,” Adrienne said.
“This is where you should be.”
“What’s going on?” she whispered. “What did you do to that woman?”
He didn’t reply.
She wasn’t able to see his face in the darkness of the attic. He moved towards her, and she tried to skirt around him to get to the stairs.
Jax blocked her.
“I just needed a bokor. I didn’t mean to … intrude,” she said, struggling to keep calm. “Whatever’s going on here, I swear I won’t tell.”
His hands rested on her shoulders. He gripped her hard enough to keep her still. His intensity and size scared her.
Adrienne’s breathing was harsh in her own ears.
“You’re safe here, Adrienne. The Red Man can’t get you. The girl from school can’t get you,” he said quietly.
“Jax,” she whispered. “Please take me home.”
“Candace says you can break the curse.”
She swallowed hard. “Maybe.”
“How?”
“Therese’s journal. I’ve been working on it on my iPad.”
“I’ve got something better.” He released her with one hand. A moment later, he pressed the familiar leather journal into hand. “How long do you need?”
“For what?” she asked.
“To break the curse.”
“I don’t even know if I can. It’s just … just a theory. Maybe, if I could talk to Therese some more …”
His hand slid from her shoulder to her neck, and he pulled her closer.
Adrienne stopped speaking, scared. She braced her arms against his chest, silently praying he wouldn’t kill her, at least not with her sister upstairs.
“You better have more than a theory.” Jax’s voice was low, calm. “I’ll give you two days, Adrienne. If you can’t break it, I’ll save the Red Man a trip.” He squeezed her throat in warning. “You understand?”
“Y…yes.”
“Good.” He released her.
She sagged, catching herself against a stack of boxes.
Jax moved away towards the stairs. “I’m going to Coffee Loa with your sister.”
“Can I do this at home?” she said in a trembling voice.
“I’ll be back tonight. It’s in your best interest to have something to show me.”
“Jax, wait!” she cried, panicking. “Please don’t leave me here!”
“Do what I say, Adrienne!” he snarled, striding towards her.
Adrienne tried to duck away, but he snatched her arms and shoved her hard into the wall, nearly knocking the breath from her. Lowering his head to meet her gaze, he glared at her, his eyes hard.
“You will do this. You will bring her back or you will take her place. I don’t give a damn which it is, Adrienne,” he growled. “Because of who you are, I’m giving you one chance to fix this. If you can’t, you’ll be the next girl the police find in an alley.”
His words terrified her. Adrienne said nothing, struggling to register the horrors that had occurred in this cellar.
“I can’t stand seeing you,” he added, a note of despair in his voice. He released her roughly and moved towards the stairs. “Too much like Therese. We tried every black magic spell there was to break the curse. Spirits help you, you better be able to do what we can’t.”
“Can I talk to her again?” Adrienne asked uncertainly.
“Maybe.” He jogged down the staircase. “Show me some progress.”
A moment later, she heard the heavy metal door slam shut and the sound of it being bolted.
Adrienne dropped to her knees, hugging the journal and breathing hard. It took a long moment before she was able to master her emotions enough to stand without sobbing. She pulled herself up with the help of the boxes and looked around.
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.