Page 1 of Spit

Prologue

Lexi Boudaire and her twin sister Rose were the daughters of a witch and a wastrel.

Her mother, a witch in both demeanor and profession, liked to call their father ‘a weak being who couldn’t face up to his responsibilities.’ Brave words, but Lexi remembered the nights when the phone rang unanswered, and their mother would bar the door with salt. Lexi couldn’t imagine why such a weak and absent man frightened her mother if what she had said was true.

Her mother had refused to talk to the twins about their paternal lineage, save for telling the girls not to look for answers where there were none to be found.

The subject changed, and the conversation swiftly moved on.

They were raised in Beaux Bridge, a beautiful Louisiana community with a strong coven at their back.

Each generation of Boudaire’s had been birthed in the Antebellum house at the end of the way, with the supreme of the coven sopping the brow of the birthing mother.

Alexis and Rose’s arrival into the world was no different than the ten generations before them.

As the supreme held up the first child, Alexis, and looked into the babe’s round blue eyes, she’d said, “This one is going to be a heartbreaker, I can tell.”

A moment later, when Rose entered the world, the Supreme declared her “absolutely perfect in every way.”

In a roundabout way, the Supremes’ words had been right on the nose.

Everyone had expected big things from the Boudaire twins. They had seen the signs in the bones, the entrails, and the blood. Great power had come to the coven—shared between the twin girls.

No one knew what that meant until Lexi, at five years old, reached out to her mother at school one morning, grabbing her hand without a second thought.

Lexi’s mother, Anne-Marie, had screamed until her voice turned hoarse from a single touch.

Her magic had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Her daughter was a null—sucking up magic like a sponge with any sort of skin contact.

Anne-Marie Boudaire’s magic returned a day later, but she never touched her daughter again.

When Lexi discovered she was a null, she was shunted into the cottage on the edge of the property.

The main house sat in full view through the trees—unreachable and unattainable.

Sometimes Lexi saw her twin Rose on the front lawn, playing with the other children of the coven. Lexi would play games with her nanny, a French-Creole woman named Adelaide, while she listened to the roaring laughter of her twin. She was never allowed to join her peers for fear that Lexi would drain their magic if she got too close.

Adelaide, her nanny, would chastise Lexi and tell her to focus on her own things instead of what the others were doing. Still, sometimes, when Adelaide thought Lexi wasn’t listening, the nanny would mutter to herself and call Lexi’s mamatête dur.Lexi didn’t know what it meant, but even in Adelaide’s affectionate creole accent, with herchersanddawlin’s, Lexi could tell that whatevertête durmeant wasn’t pleasant.

School was beginning soon. Instead of being taught with the other children, learning about magic and monsters, Lexi joined kindergarten at the local school. She painted pictures of her family, concerning enough to warrant calls to the house.

Rose had their mama and the coven.

Lexi had Adelaide.

Rosie, her twin, went to summer solstice festivities, drank Mayberry wine, and praised the old gods.

Lexi was locked in the cottage, playing cards with Adelaide.

Lexi used to dream of waking up and finding her null gifts gone, the same way her mother used to wake and find herself scared and powerless—but it never happened.

When Lexi was ten years old, she stole a candy bar from the local store, even though Adelaide would have bought it for her if she had asked.

Lexi was too ashamed to tell her nanny, so she climbed into the attic and stared at the chocolate bar for a while—trying to decide if she would eat it or not.

That was where she met a demon for the first time. Lexi could not remember if she summoned him willingly or if he was just there.

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