I peeked up over the seat towards the screen before ducking back down and fixing Maia with a glare. “Did you know they were playing Nosferatu?”
“What?”
I stared at her incredulously. “Nosferatu. It’s a vampire movie. Did you do this on purpose?”
“Shhhh!” someone admonished from one of the rows.
“It’s a silent film!” I sputtered, trying to stand up to see who was trying to shush me. Maia pulled me down to the floor again and I fell on my hip. My hand landed in a sticky puddle under the seat behind me.
“Shut up. I obviously didn’t choose this on purpose,” she muttered.
“How long do we have to stay here?” I whispered, wiping my hand on the seat cushion.
We didn’t have long to wait, the theatre door hinges squeaked as the door opened. The gaunt leader poked his head through the door, scanning the seats. Others followed him. I grabbed Maia’s shoulder with my sticky hand, but she wasn’t paying attention to me. Maia’s eyes were closed and she was muttering something I couldn’t hear. Her fingertips glowed faintly blue and I held my breath as I felt whatever she was calling forward creep over top of us.
At least she’d managed to learn something from Ophelia. I stayed perfectly still as the group of Laudans came down the aisle. The other moviegoers grumbled as they came through the seats looking for us.
“Find your seats!” Someone called out, and the leader of the group lunged forward with a growl.
The theatre door hinges squeaked again as the door opened and an usher came in, flashlight sweeping the seats and the floor in front of him. “Hey! Hey! You didn’t pay for your tickets, you need to get the hell out!” The Laudans turned, teeth bared, but the leader snapped his fingers, signaling the group to stand down.
“Fine, we’ll leave,” he said. “But we’ll be waiting.”
“That’s nice, pal,” the usher said stiffly, waving his flashlight in the Laudan’s face. “Now take your friends and get out.”
I swallowed thickly. The Laudan’s words weren’t meant for the usher, they were meant for us. My fingers tightened on Maia’s shoulder as they walked by. The gaunt girl who had touched Maia’s hair paused, sniffing the air. Maia stiffened beside me, but her lips didn’t stop moving.
“What?” The leader paused, looking back at the girl.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I can smell something…”
“You smell popcorn,” the usher said sharply. “Keep it moving.”
The group of Laudans moved past us, and when the door hinges squeaked again the audience broke out into applause and I let out the breath I’d been holding.
Maia kept the spell up for another minute or two before the applause died away and she finally relaxed, falling back against the seats behind us.
“We can’t stay here,” I whispered. “You heard them, they’re going to be waiting out front for us.”
Maia pointed to a red EXIT sign that burned at the end of the theatre. “There. Let’s go.”
I looked at the screen and back at Maia, “But this is the best part of the movie…”
She looked at me incredulously, “we’re getting the fuck out of here.” She got out of her seat and strode for the exit. After stalling just a little as Max Schreck made his first appearance on screen, I followed her. A few of the patrons groaned as our shadows fell over the screen.
Maia planted her boot in the middle of the door’s lock bar, slamming it open. The bright light of the hallway behind the screen filled the first few rows of the theatre and the other people groaned loudly at this new disruption. I couldn’t hold my panicked laughter in any longer as we ran down the hallway, and by the time we burst through the door that led to the street, we were both overcome with laughter.
We ran away from the theatre, not stopping until we rounded a corner and were out of sight of the building.
“Remember when I said I never wanted to do that again?” Maia asked. I nodded, breathless from laughing and running. “I really meant that. Let’s never fucking do that again. Ever.”
“Fine by me,” I replied with a smile. I was itching to peek around the corner of the building, but I was terrified that the gaunt Lauden and his pack of pale scarecrows would be heading in our direction.
“Didn’t they know you were one of them?” Maia asked suddenly.
“I’m not one of them,” I said, a hint of bitterness in my voice. “There’s something wrong. They’re not… they’re not right.”
For the first time I wished that Eli was here to answer my questions. Maybe he would know what was wrong with those Laudan… he’d been to New Orleans before when he was first turned. Maybe he knew them. I’d have to remember to ask him… if I ever went back.
11
Ophelia
Ah, querida, so alone for so long. You have learned nothing, forgotten what you were taught when you were just a child. Afraid to seek help, afraid of so much... Afraid that you cannot save those that depend on you.” Magdalena de Leon Abellan sat in front of me on her bed, her long hair spilling over her shoulders and down to the floor. Books that she had filled with the names of every Daughter of Hecate surrounded her. “The goddess has spoken to me about you, Ophelia… she knows your face. She knows all of your failures. All the ones you have made, and all the ones you will make. She has judged them all…”
My mouth was dry; my hands were hot and itchy. I was back in the old witch’s house, her crumbling building full of moldy regret, dusty anger and entitlement.
She murdered your family. She meant to murder us all. All those books. All those names.
“If you stayed with me, I could have taught you, as I taught my own daughters… they too sat at my knee in front of the fire as I read from the goddess’ sacred texts. They heard Hecate’s voice in this house, and you will too.” Magdalena extended her hand toward me, her ink-stained fingers beckoning me closer.
“No,” I whispered. Magdalena began to laugh as one of the books on the floor burst into flames. It rippled up the bed curtains and across the molded damask coverlet, wreathing her in blue fire. The heat blew my hair back and I covered my face against the surge of power that thundered in the fire.
Maia stood at the end of the bed, her hands and arms barely visible beneath the fire that enveloped her. Her eyes rolled back in her head as the magic took over, her hair blowing wild behind her. The fire roared, but Magdalena’s laughter was deafening.
“Maia!”
My scream was torn away by the hot wind that ripped through the house, it fanned the flames that engulfed the bed and licked at the ruined ceiling. It would all come crashing down in minutes. I had to get her out of here. I reached for Maia, but before I could touch her, Magdalena was standing in front of me.
“No longer alone. Ophelia, stay here with me.” Her wizened hand rubbed against my cheek and I felt something shift inside me as she pulled my magic towards her.
“No!” I struck out, pushing her away from me and the room tilted.
“Shit! What the hell was that about!”
I blinked and sat up. I was on a smelly Greyhound bus, and the sun was already coming up over the edge of Jackson Square. The Mississippi rolled by, sparkling in the early morning light.
Oh, fuck.
The bus driver glowered down at me. “Last stop.”
I felt my cheeks redden as I scrambled out of my seat. “Sorry,” I muttered, grabbing my bag.
“No problem, it ain’t every day I get yelled at before six am,” he grumbled.
It probably wasn’t worth mentioning that he was lucky that I hadn’t set the whole bus on fire. If the handprints I’d melted into the armrests weren’t enough of an indication, it was a good thing he’d woken me up.
This was the first time I’d been on a bus for longer than twenty minutes, it’s not my fault that I fell asleep, it’s a boring way to travel.
I stepped off the bus and took a deep breath. I was only a few hours behind Maia and Lacey, but that was enoug
h time for them to get into a shitload of trouble. I shifted my backpack and closed my eyes, concentrating on Maia. She should be easy to find. I’d done it before, and I could do it again. I held an image of her in my mind. Her dark red hair, the annoying way she crinkled her nose when she was being stubborn.
There.
The witchmark on the back of my thigh tingled and then burned, and something in the base of my spine pushed me forward just a little. That way. I smiled just a little and opened my eyes. If I was lucky, I’d find them before they could cause any damage, and before Bishop found out that Lacey had left New York. I’d deal with Maia later, this was about getting Lacey safely back to my apartment. It grated on me that I was bowing to the Laudan’s rules, but this was more serious than my bruised pride. This was about Lacey… I hadn’t been ready to let her go on the night she’d been turned, and I’d be damned if I was going to let some vamp who didn’t even know her decide her fate.
I followed the subtle cues of my magic into the French Quarter. The streets were just starting to fill with tourists and people opening their shops and restaurants for the day. The smell of flowers and baking filled the air and I tried to concentrate on the pull of my magic and not the growling in my stomach. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday before I’d left Haven.
Haven.
Shit.
Maia and I should have been dealing with our first coffee rush of the day by now.
On cue, my phone vibrated in my jacket pocket.
David.
Hoo boy. I could hear him talking before the phone reached my ear. “… I’ve been texting you all morning, where the hell are you?”
“I’m in New Orleans.” There was no sense lying to him.
“Where’s Maia?”
“She’s here too.”
There was silence for a moment as he percolated on that information. Calculating how far away they were and how long he would have to be in the shop.
“What the hell, Ophelia? You’re my manager! You’re supposed to be in charge, I should be able to just close my eyes and forget all about Haven knowing that it’s being run by a competent, reliable person—“
Oh, goddess. Make it stop.
“Look, David,” I interrupted him. “I should have called you, I’m sorry, but Maia and I had a fight and she took off last night. I had to come and get her.” Simple, straightforward.
A crowd of people pushed past me and I thought I saw Maia’s red hair in the crush of bodies. I whirled around, but it was just a girl with a red scarf in her hair. Not Maia. My witchmark tingled and then itched. I was close. I was so close. But David was still talking.
“Hey,” I interrupted him again. “I don’t need this job, David. If you want to fire me, fire me, but you won’t be able to do shit without me.” I paused for a moment, letting that sink in. I took a deep breath. “So, here are your choices. Fire me, lose my number and never call me again. Or, you can close the shop until I get back, and when I get home, I’ll buy it from you.” There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Good talk. I’ll call you when I get home.” I punched my finger into the screen and ended the call.
The screen was full of text message notifications. All from David in varying stages of panic. I felt like saving them and printing them out so I could post them all over his office.
I dialed Maia’s number again. It rang once and went to voicemail. Bitch button.
The sun was up, that meant Lacey would be sleeping. Maia wouldn’t be able to go far. My witchmark tingled again and I marched towards a side street full of bakeries and café’s. The twitch in my spine pulled me forward, through the crowds of tourists pointing up at buildings and exclaiming over overpriced souvenirs. An alleyway to my left made me pause. The twitch in my spine turned painful, as though it was trying to leap through my skin. I turned, following the sensation until I was standing in front of a painted wooden door.
Everything in my body tingled as I stared at the indigo door and my magic rushed through my veins. My witchmark burned painfully and I slapped at my leg, trying to make it go away.
I stared up at the sign over the door.
Blessed Be Gifts: Tarot and Palm Reading
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
As I stood in front of the door, the sign in the window flipped to read OPEN and I heard the click of the deadbolt as the door swung open. The smell of incense wafted through the opening, and I felt a sense of welcoming calm settle over me.
My witchmark burned as the twist in my spine pushed me forward into the shop.
The soft tinkling of bells announced my presence although I hadn’t brushed against any. The shop was full of items that made me cringe. Happy fairies, crystal spheres. A bunch of new age hoo-ha that didn’t mean shit. Some things were useful... dried sage for smudging, nuggets of incense, but nothing that really mattered. This was the stuff that Lacey had collected before...
“Before what?”
The question came from a woman who was almost as tall as I was. Her long red hair fell in multiple braids over her shoulders and looped around the crown of her head. Flowers were woven into the strands of hair and her neck was draped with multitudes of chains and charms of varying degrees of tackiness. I tried my best not to make a face.
“Before what, cher? You were thinking about someone... someone close to you. I can’t see her face, but I can feel her presence.” The woman crooked a finger at a cup of tea that was on the counter beside her. The crystal topped spoon that leaned against the side of the cup began to move in slow circles, and my eyes widened.
“What... what are you doing?” I stammered. More people entered the shop behind me, the women giggling and pointing at items, trying on necklaces and pulling rings onto their fingers. I felt a wave of panic rise up inside me. They would see. “You have to stop!” I whispered, reaching towards the tea cup to stop the spoon from tracing its lazy circles through the tea.
“Hush now,” the woman said, raising a finger to her smiling lips.
“Do you see, ohhh my god look at the spoon!” one of the women cried out as they approached the counter. “What a crazy little shop, I’m so glad we came in!” The group moved through the shop, talking and laughing, and I moved closer to the counter.
“See now, cher? Nothing to be worried about,” the woman said. A page of the book in front of her turned without her having to touch it, a candle sputtered to life beside me and I suppressed a gasp. I’d never used magic in front of... anyone before.
Not frivolously like this.
The woman could see the confusion and discomfort in my face, and her smile told me that she was enjoying it. She was a performer.
“If you don’t want to answer my question, maybe I can answer some of yours.” She lifted a deck of oversized cards from the counter and set them into the palm of her hand. “Shall I read your cards, ma belle?
A green mist floated up from the woman’s palm to cover the cards, and one pulled itself from the deck and drifted upwards, turning in the air between us.
“Ah, the Star.”
I stared at the card, remembering the last time I’d sat through a tarot reading. Lacey’s true nature had been buried in those cards, the identity of the goddess hiding within her, the obsession of the deity’s warped vision was revealed... but I hadn’t seen it until it was too late for her.
“The Star tells me much about you. Oh, yes. You are on the threshold of transformation, cher.”
I felt myself being pulled into the card. The water that flowed over the maiden’s hand seemed to ripple, and her long hair moved in the wind.
“I sense that there is something holding you back, bad memories... bad dreams, yes. Definitely bad dreams. This Star is the call of destiny, Ophelia Turner.”
What the fuuuuck...
“Ohhhh oh my god, is she getting her cards read?” A cry from the back of the shop broke my focus on the card and I shook my head. The woman with red hair, Vivienne Surette, smiled as the card she had
chosen for me floated back down into her palm.
“I want to get my cards read, I promised myself that I would not leave New Orleans without getting my palm or my cards read, you guysss!” The young woman rushed towards the counter and I took a step back.
“Come back in one hour, Ophelia Turner. We will speak then.”
I didn’t wait to ask questions, and as the group of giggling women approached, I turned tail and ran.
I didn’t come back an hour later, but I did come back. Vivienne was waiting for me, and this time when the tinkling bells announced my arrival, I saw that she had set out another tea cup complete with a crystal topped spoon.
I sure as shit wasn’t going to be drinking any kind of strange tea. I might not know very witches, but my past interactions with other Daughters hadn’t been especially lovely. I knew better than to trust anyone. Only idiots did that.
“I know you won’t accept anything I offer you,” the woman behind the counter said with the hint of a smile. “But it seemed impolite not to prepare.”
I lifted the bottle of iced tea I’d bought. “Nope, I’m all set.”
The witch folded her hands on the wooden counter and stared at me. “Why are you here? What do you want from me?”
I set the bottle of iced tea down and folded my arms across my chest. Down to business, good. I had already wasted enough time. “I don’t want anything from you. Except maybe your help. I’m looking for someone. A teenager. Her name is Maia.” I paused, weighing whether or not I should say what was on the tip of my tongue. The other woman didn’t move or blink, as though she knew what was coming. “She’s like us.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Like us? And what are we, cher?”
“Look, I don’t have time for games and I’m really good at the whole coy cat and mouse thing. Maia came here to find you.”
Vivienne Surette sat back in her chair and looked at me carefully. “Is that why she was scrying for me? Did you teach her that?” The tone of her voice was not congratulatory and I felt a little bit of defensive anger rearing up inside me.
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