Cursed (#1, Voodoo Nights)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Madame Estelle’s was divided into four rooms behind a shallow front counter. Each of the girls on staff had their own room that consisted of heavy black curtains covering all four walls and a table in the middle with two chairs. The two psychics had decorated their rooms in gypsy-like, jewel-toned colors with colorful rugs, fringe on everything, and candles.

Adrienne St. Croix was too new to have decorated her room yet, though she made another mental note to bring in something to fill the empty space. Sometimes she felt lonely, even knowing the spirits of her family and ancestors were crowded around her.

She studied the six cards on the table before her that had been drawn by the girl seated in the chair across the table from her. Reading tarot cards required a combination of understanding the symbols, interpreting the feel of the cards, and for her – translating the messages the spirits gave her. She combined all three to give the cards life and tell a story. Born of a long line of voodoo priestesses, she inherited the ability to communicate with the spirits from her mother.

But every once in a while, the spirits could be difficult. The story the cards were currently trying to tell her was more disjointed than usual. Four of them went together and presented cheerful predictions of a happy event.

Two sat to the side, their feel much darker to the point of being disturbing. The distance between the four and two was one of the subtle signs the spirits gave her. These two cards were away from the happy ones. They just didn’t fit the story the others were trying to tell her.

She chewed her lip.

“You look like you’re my age,” her client said. The girl had given her name as Tara, and she was well-dressed and gorgeous.

I wish you’d go back to texting, Adrienne responded silently.

The client was ignoring her request for silence yet again. She needed to concentrate, but understood repeat customers were always needed in a small shop like this, which meant she had to make small talk.

“I’m seventeen,” Adrienne said.

“Me, too!” Tara smiled. “Do you start school tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Adrienne clenched her hands under the table, nervous about the new school. She glanced around her room, wishing she’d thought to bring in her small altar to Papa Legba or something to hang on the wall. 

“What do they say?” Tara prodded, her excited gaze on the cards.

Adrienne picked up one – Death – and Tara gasped.

“Omigod! What does it mean?”

“Transition. Death is the ultimate transition to a new state,” Adrienne said, gazing at it. “It means major change is coming.” She looked over the rest of the cards. She set the card down and tapped the one next to it. “Did you bring someone with you today?”

Tara nodded.

“This card ain’t yours,” Adrienne said. She placed the Death card aside. “This one ain’t neither.” She moved the Devil card over. “Sometimes, someone else’s energy sticks to you when you come in.”

“So you can read my brother’s cards, too?” Tara asked.

“Not fully.” Adrienne couldn’t take her eyes off the cards for a moment. They felt … wrong. Not bad, more like the spirits thought she needed to see them. On instinct, she drew another and set it beside the first two.