Where was he?
“I worry it will not work. Or that it will not be enough for Papa.”
He leaned around the tree to see who spoke.
A couple dozen feet away, under another tree, a brunette with porcelain skin took the hands of the dark-skinned man seated beside her. She rested them on her dress, which was pale blue. The man beside her wore all red, a robe of some sort.
“You are so quiet, Charles.”
“I am praying to our gods, my Brianne,” the man’s voice was soft.
Jayden climbed to his feet, flinching when his first step snapped a branch. He paused, afraid of drawing the attention of the strangers.
Jayden!
He cocked his head to the side, recognizing Tara’s voice without seeing her.
The man said something too quiet for him to hear.
The woman laughed, a light, contagious sound that drew his attention.
He felt like he was intruding but moved closer, intrigued by the strangers in his dream. Jayden stopped and leaned against a tree a few feet behind the couple.
The woman’s eyes were clear, green amethyst, resembling Adrienne’s, the girl Tara swore he was dating. He found himself mesmerized by their color. The woman was around Adrienne’s age. The similarities stopped there. This woman’s hair was dark and curly, held in check by a bonnet. If the length of her skirts were any indication, she was also tall.
Jayden tried to figure out where they were. While peaceful and pretty, it wasn’t anywhere he’d been in Louisiana, which made him wonder how he was dreaming about it in the first place.
“Marie comes.”
His focus returned to the couple. He saw a portly, African woman in a long dress and bonnet approaching from the direction opposite of the stream. She carried a small, wooden box inlaid with carvings Jayden couldn’t see from the distance.
“Today is the first day of our forever,” the young woman said, lovingly gazing at the man she called Charles.
“Go. Claim our future,” he urged, nudging her.
The green-eyed woman rose quickly. Jayden was pleased to see he was right about her height. She was about six feet tall and slender. He watched her hurry to the woman bearing the box.
His breath caught. He was startled to see the birthmark the between the portly woman’s eyes. It was the same that Grandmama Toussaint wore, the same his mother and every female member of her family was born with. He started forward, curious to meet the two women with familiar features.
“Que bien aime, tard oublie.” A hand rested on his arm. “Every time I am here, I think to myself, I would do it all again for her.”
Jayden looked up and froze.
The man in the red robe was a mirror image of him, with the exception of his eyes and his aquiline nose. Charles had green eyes but was the same age, build and size as Jayden.
“The Baron lets you watch, not interfere,” Charles warned him.
We’re losing him.
Jayden shook his head again, uncertain where this voice came from or whose it was.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“At the beginning,” Charles answered, smiling faintly. “The Baron Samedi likes to remind me that I am not wholly lost. Imagine a man out of his time and away from his own spirit not being lost.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. This will remind you.” Charles held out his clenched fist.
Jayden eyed it. Reluctantly, he held out his hand.
Charles dropped the familiar skeleton key into his palm.
“The beginning,” he repeated. “The day before I used this key for the first time.”
“You,” Jayden breathed, wanting to throw the dreaded key. “You’re my ancestor, who sold all those people into slavery. Is this a dream? Did I go back in time?”
“Neither. You are in-between life and death. My home, until I fulfill my … obligation.”
“Which is …”
“One more life.”
Jayden inched away. He heard another laugh and faced the creek. With the man in red beside him, he saw three figures passing around the box. The older woman bearing the mark of his family appeared grim, while the young girl with Adrienne’s eyes was beaming happily. Charles – now wearing plain black clothing – also appeared happy.
“What’re they doing?” he asked the robed man beside him.
“Charles – me in the past – and Brianne have just incurred a curse. Tonight, they will be happy, make love under the stars and swear to love another until the day they die, which will be in one year for Brianne, after the man her father marries her off to beats her to death,” the robed man explained. “Tomorrow, I return to Africa, never to see her again. I, however, will live for four hundred years, committing atrocities you cannot imagine.”
“You wanted gold, so you could marry her,” Jayden said, recalling the story his father told him of his family’s gruesome history. “You sold out your own people.”
“I swore to do whatever it took. The curse led me in the direction I had to go. I didn’t question it,” Charles said. “I never knew she was dead for five years after this day.”
The three figures vanished.
“No, wait!” Jayden exclaimed. “The woman, the older lady. I know her, don’t I?”
“There were three Houses involved in the curse. You represent two.”
“So … yes.” Jayden guessed. “My mother’s family helped my father’s family with this curse.”
“Yes.”
“Then you killed ninety-nine firstborns in my father’s family. The girl … is she Adrienne’s ancestor?”
“She is. As my penance, I had to kill ninety-nine firstborns in both Houses. You are the first born outside the curse in four hundred years. Adrienne should be as well,” Charles said. “One more, and I’m free.”
“You said she should be. What does that mean?”
“It means my final kill was taken from me. I’ve been patient. What’s five years when you’ve been alive for four hundred?” Charles shrugged. “I tracked her sister Therese through the Baron’s spirit world. Sometimes, when she emerges into the human world, I kill whatever form she takes as a reminder that I have not forgotten. I can’t quite get to her, but I’m done playing games. Obviously the spirits and gods have other plans, or sweet Adrienne would be mine already.”
The tale chilled Jayden as much as the key in his hand. It didn’t seem possible that the boy his age had killed two hundred people.
“And then you’re free,” he whispered.
“And then I’m free,” Charles agreed. “I can finish out my life in peace and die with dignity.”
Jayden didn’t ask about the lives Charles claimed. There was no dignity in being struck down by a four hundred year old boogeyman from a curse.
Hang on, Jayden. You can do it.
Another voice, this one familiar, though he wasn’t able to place it.
“It’s not right. The people you killed weren’t even involved in this,” Jayden said, motioning to the spot where the three had stood.
“We knew the risks,” Charles replied.
“You knew so many would die?”
“We knew the curse would return upon us three times whatever harm we caused,” Charles said. “We both swore to bear the penance. The more gold I got, the more I wanted, and the more I did wrong to get it. I was stricken by gold lust. I forgot why I wanted it and destroyed as many lives as it took to get more. I feel fortunate the price was only ninety-nine from each House. Considering the evil I did, I could’ve wiped out both families many times over.”
Jayden felt sick. He couldn’t let himself imagine how many lives his ancestor had sold into slavery or outright destroyed.
“Not Adrienne.” He didn’t know why entirely, but he knew she had to live.