Allure tha-2

by Lea Nolan

Envelop the evil in your tide

  To make things right with all who died.”

  Pointing my open palm toward the marsh, I concentrate on the cool, blue-green liquid that’s laden with salt, the boo hag’s only nemesis aside from the sun. Instantly, I feel a connection to the water and all the life forms in it. It’s as if my energy flows into them and theirs into mine. We are one. I sense the throb of their collective pulse as easily as I feel mine ping against my temple.

  As I force my hand forward, the water ebbs, receding from the reedy shoreline. As the marsh retreats, its power and strength coils like a spring waiting to be let loose. Even from here, half lying on the ground in the cemetery above the marsh, I can tell the tide has withdrawn at least halfway to where the water normally is. I raise my forearm as far as it will go, lifting the pent-up water in a massive curling wave, then drag it toward the bank.

  I can’t make the boo hag go into the water, but it looks like I can bring the water to the boo hag.

  Sabina’s floating form hovers above me, her face drawn and filled with a mixture of surprise and distain. “Your magic is stronger than I realized.”

  I focus on the tidal wave I’m trying to build and attempt to ignore her. But it’s nearly impossible because she looms before me, blocking my view.

  “There are others in the Lowcountry with power just as strong who will help me seek my revenge. This is not over. We will meet again. And when we do, any happiness you have, I will crush it, along with those you carry in your heart so that you may know the pain I’ve endured for nearly three hundred years. Then perhaps, you will understand why I must have my revenge. If you manage to escape the boo hag and save your friends,” she taunts then floats up into the air, tosses her turbaned head back, and laughs before dematerializing, this time, hopefully for good.

  I spy Cooper dashing around the bank, keeping just out of the boo hag’s reach. It’s so intent on catching him and draining his life force, it doesn’t notice the salty death trap looming just over its shoulder.

  “Cooper, now!” I yell, hoping he realizes what to do.

  “Got it.” He calls, then pivots and changes course. Rather than running from the creature, he tucks his shoulder and heads straight for it, barreling into its slimy, crimson gut.

  Caught off guard, the boo hag launches off the bank and flies into the waiting wall of water. It shrieks as it crashes into the salt-infused, captured wave. Sparks fly and its gangly limbs flail as the liquid consumes it. Its rectangular head bobs up over the surface, howling as its red flesh melts and oozes with chunky, black sludge. Steam floats off what’s left of the dying boo hag as its flesh cooks, turning an ashy gray.

  Overwhelmed, I exhale a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and blink to make sure I didn’t just imagine all this. Nope, there’s still a wall of water looming over the bank, pieces of the boo hag are bobbing on the surface, and Cooper’s safe. At last.

  Cooper throws his arms in the air and shouts in victory. He spins around to face me, his picture perfect smile wide across his face. “We did it, Emma! We did it!” He howls with joy, then curls his hand in a colossal fist pump.

  Happiness floods my chest as a sense of security and accomplishment sets in. We did do it. Together. The Beaumonts are finally free. Amazing! Giddy, I clench my own hand into a ball and send him my own fist pump.

  Only it’s the worst thing possible because I completely forgot that my hand was holding back the wall of water, and that simple gesture is enough to release the flood, releasing its pent-up power on Cooper and the rest of the cemetery.

  Cooper must realize what’s about to happen because his face falls slack and his eyes stretch wide. “Emma—” He begins, but the salt marsh crashes down on him and slams the rest of the graveyard.

  “Take a breath, Jack!” I manage just as the water gushes over me, lifting me off the ground, but the vines hold tight and keep me in place. The wave finally crests, then recedes after dousing the fire and splashing all the burning artifacts.

  The spirit lights dim and slowly shimmer to earth, then wiggle back into their graves.

  Gasping, I look for Jack to make sure he’s okay.

  His pale blue eyes lock on mine. “Mmmm!” His mouth is still covered by vines.

  “I’ll get you out as soon as I can,” I call, then strain my neck to peer over the bank to the salt marsh for Cooper. I don’t see anything but a lot of frothy salt water seeking its equilibrium in the normally calm marsh.

  With each passing second, my heart races faster. After all we’ve been through to save him, I might have accidentally drowned Cooper because I foolishly forgot what the heck I was doing.

  After a long minute without any sign of him, I’m trembling, and my heart has dropped to somewhere around my knees. I’m sure he’s dead and gone thanks to my incompetence. Tears stream down my cheeks as I tear at the kudzu that’s wrapped around my body. But since only my forearms are free, it’s nearly impossible to break the thick, knotted vines.

  A splashing sound cuts the nearly silent night. My heart skips a beat as I peer into the darkness. There are only a handful of spirit lights still hovering in the sky so it’s difficult to tell shadows from real objects.

  More splashing. A hand slaps against the surface, followed by the steady beats of kicking feet. It’s Cooper’s freestyle. I’d know it anywhere.

  “He’s alive!” I yell to Jack whose eyelids close with relief.

  Another long minute later, Cooper hauls himself out of the water, then slogs up the side of the bank.

  “Cooper!” I yell, unable to contain myself. I’ve never been so happy to see him in all my life.

  His chest rises and falls as he drags himself across the graveyard. Despite his panting, he grins. “I’m okay. That wave pulled me halfway to St. Helena Island Sound. Wasn’t really expecting that.”

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to drop the water on you.”

  Staggering toward me, he waves away my concern. “Nah, I needed the exercise.” Then he stoops to where the fire was and digs through the artifacts that were scattered by the wave. He picks up the pirate’s dagger, then heads straight for me. “Let’s cut you loose.”

  I shake my head. “No, get Jack first. At least I can move a little. Him, not so much.”

  Cooper glances at Jack and laughs. “You do look pretty funny, bro.”

  “Mmmm.” Jack glowers.

  Cooper crosses his arms. “Are you seriously going to back talk me now? After everything I just went through? And before I free you?”

  Jack growls.

  “Fine.” Cooper chuckles then stoops to cut him loose.

  “Thanks, dude,” Jack says when he’s finally liberated and Cooper helps him to his feet. He stretches his arms up over his head. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Cooper scoffs. “I think I’ve had my fill of crazy this summer. What do you think Emma?” He smiles as he crouches next to me and cuts the vines. Amazingly, the knife is pristine, not even scorched. But that’s not nearly as amazing as the fact that Cooper is here, next to me, alive and not possessed by a hideous monster. If my biceps weren’t still tied to my side, I’d throw my arms around him and weep with joy.

  I laugh as my cheeks burn from smiling so wide. “Every time I think it can’t possibly get any weirder, somehow it does.” Luckily for me, the summer’s nearly at its end. Soon I’ll be back in DC, safe and sound, and hopefully out of Sabina’s vengeful reach.

  When the last of the kudzu is cut away, Cooper stands and extends his hand to me. I slip my fingers into his broad palm and he pulls me to my feet.

  His strong arms clasp me, tugging me tight to his soaking wet body. He stinks like the marsh, but that hardly matters. I’ll take dead fish over boo-hag funk any day.

  “Happy birthday, Cooper.” I squeeze him tight, grasping the hard muscles in his back as my heart swells with happiness.

  “Thank you, Emmaline. For saving my soul. For killing the boo hag and freeing my f
amily. For everything,” he whispers, his breath warm against my neck.

  “I couldn’t have done it without you guys. All I did was say a few words. You’re the one who fought off the boo hag and pushed it into the water. I couldn’t have done that.”

  He pulls back just enough to lay his fingers beneath my chin and gently tilt my head to meet his gaze. “No. It was you. It’s always been you.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  We load the last box of artifacts into the golf cart just as the sun rises over the salt marsh. The cemetery is so tranquil it’s hard to imagine all that happened here overnight. But it did, and we’ve got Cooper’s freedom to prove it.

  The joy I should be feeling is overshadowed by the lingering dread from Sabina’s truly demented threat. Why would someone deliberately set out to destroy another person’s happiness? To crush not only the love in their heart, but also those responsible for putting it there? If Sabina makes good on her promise, everyone I care about is in danger. That means my father, Jack, Miss Delia, and especially Cooper, will be walking bull’s-eyes.

  My only hope lies in the fact that Jack and I will be leaving St. Helena in ten days to return to Washington, DC, and Cooper will be back at boarding school, far from my danger zone. Maybe, after we get Miss Delia released from jail, if we lay low and I don’t mess with anymore hoodoo, Sabina will realize I’m not a threat and she’ll give up on her vendetta.

  Ten minutes later, we pull up to the Big House. Dad is sitting on the wide front steps, his arms crossed. He doesn’t look happy.

  Oops.

  As we climb out of the cart, Dad races up to us. “Emmaline Claire, don’t take another step!” His face is creased with concern as he heads right for Cooper. I freeze, stunned by his ferocity.

  Dad grasps Cooper’s arms and stares directly into Cooper’s eyes. “Who are you?”

  Cooper’s eyes stretch wide. “Uh, what’s going on, Uncle Jed?”

  Jack races up to Dad. “Everything’s fine, I promise.”

  “Stay out of this, Jack. Go stand with your sister.” Dad grips Cooper harder. “Forget the Uncle Jed stuff. You’re not going to wiggle your way out of it this time by acting dumb. I know something’s changed. I can feel it. So tell me, who are you?”

  “Cooper. I swear.”

  My chest sinks. Did the boo hag suck my father and mess with his mind, too?

  Dad searches Cooper’s eyes, then drops his hands in frustration. He darts toward Jack and snatches his shoulders. “Are you in here this time? Is that how this works? I don’t know how, but I’m going to stop you. You won’t steal my son.”

  A chill races over my body. Dad’s memories haven’t been screwed up. He obviously knows more than we realized.

  Cooper, Jack, and I exchange looks. It’s time to let him in on our secret.

  “There’s something you need to see.” I take his rough, calloused hand.

  A minute later we’re at the entrance to Beau’s study.

  “What the—” Dad asks when I push on the busted mahogany door. Strange, that he doesn’t seem to care that it’s cracked or that we’re venturing into a forbidden room.

  “It’s a long story. But I promise to tell you everything after you’ve seen what’s behind this door.”

  I turn the lock and twist the knob. The room is exactly as we left it, except the note we left the boo hag is lying on the floor by the open window. It must have flown out of here in a rage.

  The secret bookcase door is wide open.

  Dad’s jaw drops.

  Jack crosses the room. “Come on. It’s not half as impressive as what’s behind it.”

  Jack leads the way to the secret stone room. Beau’s skin suit is lying in the middle of the floor, more shriveled and desiccated than just a few hours before.

  Dad falls to his knees. His head drops into his hands and his shoulders shudder with what can only be silent tears.

  Oh no. We didn’t prepare him for what he was about to see. He’s probably in shock, or maybe even thinks we’re murderers.

  I stroke his shoulder. “I’m sorry. It isn’t what it looks like. We can explain.”

  Dad lifts his gaze to meet mine, a wide smile across his face. The deep creases are gone and there’s a brightness to his eyes I’ve never seen before. “I don’t care how you did it, but I’m glad you did.”

  That’s unexpected.

  “Dang.” Jack laughs.

  “For real?” I ask.

  Dad nods. “Where’s the creature that was in Beau’s skin?”

  “Gone. Burned up in the salt marsh forever,” Cooper answers.

  Dad rises to his feet and squares his shoulders. He looks taller than usual, almost strapping. “From the moment your mother called this morning, waking me up, I knew something had changed. I felt…free. I could speak my mind and do as I chose. I haven’t felt this way since I was a teenager. It’s been more than a quarter of a century.” He glares at the carcass lying on the floor. “Somehow that…monster stole my friend when he was just sixteen. And that same day something happened to me that enslaved me to him, stole my free will, and forced me to do his bidding even though I didn’t want to. The only thing I could do on my own was keep things clean and orderly to somehow protect them from his filthy reach.”

  My stomach sinks as his words set in. Somehow, the day the Beaumont Curse took hold of Beau, it also sunk its teeth into my dad. Now I get why he put up with Beau’s viciousness and why he’s such a huge neat freak. Judging from what I gleaned at the cemetery, Sabina helped the boo hag inhabit Beaumont bodies, so it’s reasonable to think she must have had a hand in my father’s servitude as well. But what exactly connects a soul-sucking hex like the Beaumont curse with becoming a modern indentured servant? A chill races up my spine as a terrifying thought comes to mind: if the boo hag had possessed Cooper, would Jack have been forced to serve Cooper, too? Is that why Beau kept insisting that despite all the Guthries’ attempts to the contrary, they always ended up working for Beaumonts?

  Dad turns back to us, a look of utter astonishment on his face. “How did you all know? And how did it not take either of you?” He searches Cooper and Jack, then notices Jack’s severed middle finger for the first time. He gawks. “What happened to you?”

  Jack runs his hand through his jet-black hair. “It’s been a weird summer.”

  “Emma saved us,” Cooper says.

  Dad spins toward me, his mouth agape. “Emma? My shy, flower-loving, artist girl? How?”

  I sigh. “I haven’t had much time to paint lately. But I have gotten into hoodoo magic.” I pull my lips into a half grin, knowing that I’m probably shattering his image of me, but that’s okay. We’ll ease him into the truth slowly.

  Jack beams. “She’s amazing. You should have seen her call up a bunch of dead Gullah ladies to help kill a pack of plateyes, then break a couple of flesh-eating, soul-sucking curses, and crash a tidal wave into the boo hag. She’s even got her own archnemesis now, another dead root worker who created the curses almost three hundred years ago. But I’m sure she can handle that psycho after a little more training from Miss D, the hoodoo ninja warrior lady. Of course, we’ll have to bust Miss D out of jail first.”

  Thanks, Jack. Way not to ease him in.

  The blood drains from Dad’s skin. “I think I need to sit down.” He stumbles to the small desk and chair on the side of the small stone room. As he goes to prop his elbow on the surface, he knocks over a stack of papers.

  I bend down to scoop up the scattered pages. Most look like accounting sheets for Beaumont Builders, but one is old and yellowed. My fingers tingle as I grasp the thick parchment and squint hard at the tiny, old-time handwriting. It looks like a family tree with two major branches that must go back at least fifteen generations. The names are Beaumont and Guthrie. I can’t help wonder if, and how, each one of these people had been impacted by Sabina’s curses.

  Dad grabs my hand, drawing my attention from the document. “Are you okay? You haven’t
been injured, have you?”

  I grin and place the papers back on the desk. “Yeah, I’m good. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Besides, after we help Miss Delia with her, uh, legal troubles, Jack and I will be back in DC and this will all die down. I’m not planning on working any hoodoo back home so there’s no reason for my archnemesis to bother us anymore.” I frame the words with air quotes as I toss Jack a disapproving glance.

  Dad shakes his head. “This is your home now.”

  “Yeah, for the summer. But we’re out of here in ten days,” I say.

  “That was the plan, but your mother called this morning to say there’s been a last-minute shake-up with the staff at the archeological site in Jordan. She’s been offered a grant to continue the work and lead the project. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her. If she takes a sabbatical this year and makes a couple important discoveries, she could make full professor soon. I told her to take it.”

  I step back, bracing myself against the cold stone wall. Stay? In the Lowcountry? And face Sabina? My mind spins at this unexpected turn of events.

  Jack’s brow creases. “But what about soccer? The school paper? My friends? I’ve got a life I’ve got to get back to.”

  “There’s a school here that’s got plenty of clubs and teams you can join. I’m sure you’ll make new friends,” Dad says.

  “But you’re always so busy with the plantation. And with Beau gone, you might not have a job. Unless Cooper wants to keep you here.” Jack shoots Cooper a glance.

  Dad laughs. “Actually, Beau made me Cooper’s guardian, so I’m the one who makes the decisions. At least until Cooper turns eighteen. Then it’s all on him.”

  Cooper crosses his arm. “I don’t want to go back to boarding school. I want to stay here. Learn about the plantation.”

  Dad smiles. “Great idea.”

  Jack’s brow is still furrowed. “Do you really want to handle us full time?”

  Dad sits up in his chair. “Are you kidding? This is my chance to finally be the father I always wanted to be but never could. And if what you’ve told me is half-true, it sounds as if you all might need a little more parental supervision. Or at least help. So what do you say, Emma? You ready to stay here with your old dad? Maybe I can even help you with this archnemesis of yours.”