Page 2 of Bewitched By the Voodoo King
“As you know from your studies,” One of his dark brows lifted on his forehead and I felt a blush creep up my neck. Not much got past my papa, the coven leader. “There are covens allover the world. There is a rather large coven in New Orleans.” I sat up a little straighter. There was a lot of magic in Louisiana, especially New Orleans because of how rich and deep their culture ran. They were very in tune with the area around them.
“They’re in trouble.”
I sat up straighter. Why was he talking to me about this? What about Maeve or Jessi my other sister? Surely their magic was powerful enough to help? What could I do? Bake them a loaf of bread? Wow,reallybeneficial.Truly inspiring. “Okay?”
“Their coven leader, Laurent Benoit has been reaching out to a few other covens these last few weeks. We are the biggest on the West Coast. Everyone else has turned him down.”
I frowned. “Why would they turn him down?”
“He only has one form of payment.”
My confusion only continued to rise. I didn’t understand. “What does that mean? In spices? Food? Something else only the people down there can acquire?”
My papa’s lips thinned out before he answered me. “I wish that were the case and if it was, I’m sure someone else would have accepted his plea for aid.”
“What does he need help with?”
His light blue eyes bounced around the room. “Your grandmother foresaw this many moons ago, but the outcome was always different. I knew the day would come that they would need us, I just didn’t think it would come so fast.”
“Mama’s mother has death magic.” None of this made any sense.
He closed his eyes. “My mother.”
A gasp escaped my lips. “Your mother?”
He nodded solemnly. “She foresaw this moment when you were barely eight years old though the outcome was always different. I didn’t want to tell you but she called me this morning. She had another dream about you last night and shesaid if I do not accept what is to come, the magic community will fall.”
“What do you need me to do, Papa?”
A single tear slid down his cheek. “Laurent has offered up his son as payment.”
I reared back and toppled over my chair backwards. My back hit the ground and knocked the air from my lungs. I coughed and gasped as I rolled from the chair onto all fours. Papa was helping me from the floor and rubbing my back within seconds. He cupped my face between his large rough hands. “I do not want to do this. I do not want to arrange a marriage for my precious daughter.”
I shooed his hands from me. I was fine. I would be fine. I sucked in lungfuls of breath and shook my head. “It can’t be too bad, I won’t have to give up everything I know.”
The frown on his face only grew more worn and tired.
“No.” I stumbled back. “Papa. No.” Tears blurred my vision as I shook my head. “You cannot be serious. They’re giving their son as payment butImust go tothem?”
“Sometimes we must do things we do not wish to do.” My papa, my sweet papa, seemed to age right before my eyes. His shoulders slumped forward and more tears rolled down his cheeks. “I do not want to do this my darling, Maple. I do not want to send you away, but I do not have a choice and neither do you.”
My father’swords played on repeat in my head as I packed away a few of my most prized possessions. The big trunk at the end of my bed full of my cookbooks, baking supplies, grimoires, and clothes would be shipped ahead of my arrival to New Orleans. I fought back the growing moisture in my eyes as I looked over the bedroom I’d despised for far too long. But I knew now that I would miss it. Maybe not the lack of hot water in the shower but the lumpy, cozy mattress with a gauzy light pink canopy that was slightly falling down on one side. I’d never fixed it because I thought it gave the room character. The worn rug underneath the bed needed a good cleaning and the windows were permanently frosted from the time I was ready for snowand thought I could take it into my own hands if I couldn’t control the weather with magic. Turns out, spray snow didn’t come off of glass like I thought it would. All it did was ruin the glass and get me grounded for a few weeks. At the time I thought it was worth it. Now all I could think about was how much I was going to miss it.
Before I started crying again, I hiked my purse up higher on my shoulder and swiped at my eyes. My mama was waiting for me in the hallway and I was sure my sisters were in the car.
Mama’s short blonde hair was tucked in a thick beanie and her sweater said “World’s Best Nana” across the chest. She wasn’t even a Nana yet. It was something I would have said to her before, but now I didn’t have it in me. She wrapped her arms around me and I took a deep breath of her woodsy scent. The tears I’d been so desperately fighting to hold in quickly overflowed. She wrapped her arms around me and I fell apart right there in her arms, in the hallway.
“It’s okay, baby,” She rubbed her hands up and down my back as she’d done countless times since I was a child. She’d sat with me at the top of the stairs and held me as I fell apart after my magic didn’t come. She was always there. Now I had to leave her and everything I loved behind.
“I don’t want to go,” I sobbed into her chest.
She ran her hands down the back of my hair. “I know but you’re going to do great things, Maple. You’re going to help that coven.”
“How?!” I jerked away from her. “They don’t even know that I’m a null. What happens when they find that out?”
“Shhhh, they aren’t going to be mad. We didn’t promise them a daughter with magic. We promised them aid and that’s what we will do.”
I swiped at my eyes and untangled myself from my mama’s arms. It was time to do what was needed, even if I didn’t want to.
