Tarot Cards

Ten

"Amara! Thank God!" Delphine and Desire both ran up to hug me. "We thought the Shadows had dragged you off."

"They did...in a way." I said vaguely.

"Amara," a bald, statuesque woman dressed in a red suit spoke my name from the top of the grand staircase. "The Voodoo Queen has requested your presence immediately."

I nod and follow her through the great room, past the kitchen and into the conservatory. Anjelica is seated in a black wicker Peacock chair dressed in the deepest shade of red I've ever seen.

"Amara, thank the Gods you're okay." Anjelica jumps from her chair and hugs me.

"I was summoned by an old friend of yours...Alesmira DiLioncourt." I inform and her eyes flash wide in rage.

"You were taken by Alesmira!" Her voice is stone cold.

"Well, more like tricked. I thought I was safe with this guy I met at club Wick'd. Turns out he's her grandson."

"How did you escape?"

"She let me go. She did send me with a message though: she wants to meet. She's having a derby tea and she wants you to be in attendance." I relay.

Anjelica's eyes flash a deep crimson and I gasp in shock. She raises her palms to me and a green light flashes from them over me.

"What are you doing?" I gasp.

"Making sure they didn't hex you. Those white devils are worse than Anasi, the trickster God." She explains, then drops her hands notifying me that she didn't detect one.

"Who is this Alesmira to you?"

"She's a very old ShadowWalker. She roamed these streets when our ancestor, Marie, was alive. She was the original owner of this here plantation before we overthrew the Slave owner and took over the place."

"Whoa. Wait...if she's that old..." my voice trails off as I do the math in my head.

"From what Marie has written in her Book of the Earth, she's four thousand years old. Roughly. But she is said to have resided in the shadows way before that."

I shake my head, walking over to sit on the stool next to her chair. "Forgive me for all the questions, but what do you mean she resided in the shadows?"

"We don't exactly know. But from what is written, a ShadowWalker can jump between this world and the Nether. It's very dark juju. We don't mess with that energy." She says.

"So this Netherworld. Does it speak of how they get to it?"

Angelica's crimson eyes simmer back to their original amber color as she looks back at me. "Why?"

"I think if we know how they go to this Netherworld, maybe we can use that against them somehow." I shrug.

"The knowledge may be beneficial but redundant. Voodoo is about using the balances of nature with a vessel. Magic is energy transference. They don't align."

"Oh." I say simply.

"You must be exhausted." Angelica changes the subject quickly. "Go get some rest. We'll revisit all of this in the morning."

That night I dreamt of inky black ghosts floating on the water in the bayou. I stood on the boating dock watching wide eyed as they swayed towards me. I was frozen in place, paralyzed by fear. Suddenly a hand pulls me out of my shock, pulling me towards the direction of the house. When I look to see who it is, Zachary's blue eyes shock me.

"We have to get out of here! They'll get you!" He says in a panic.

I quickly snatch my hand from him. "You're one of them."