Page 87 of Xavier

Étienne smiled, dug into his pocket and pulled out an antique pocket watch. “This was my grandfather’s.” Then he dug in his other pocket and pulled out a coin and a rabbit’s foot. “And this is my lucky penny I’ve had since I was a boy and my rabbit’s foot I’ve had with me now for a decade.”

“Perfect.” She took the watch, the coin and the rabbit’s foot and turned completely around. “We’ll need space to conduct the work.” She walked toward the center of the room, stopping in front of Étienne’s throne.

What better place to perform a show than in the center of the room? Her one-man audience needed to be impressed to swallow the bullshit she was about to feed him. “This will do.”

A man brought the bowl, candles, matches and crystal salt and pepper shakers. The candles were large, black and round. They’d burn long enough to impress the paranoid mafia boss.

The man who’d been sent out into the storm returned with a cup of bayou dirt that looked more like silt, as wet as it was, and another with water.

She arranged the candles in a circle around her and lit them one by one, murmuring a chant of nonsensical words to set the tone for a magical event.

She prayed Étienne didn’t know enough about Voodoo to know she was out of her depth and making it up on the fly.

She set the bowl in the middle and arranged the salt and pepper shakers, the cup of mud and the one of water there as well.

Lissette raised her glance to Benoit, who eagerly watched her prepare.

“It is time,” she said in what she hoped sounded like a mysterious tone, like the palm reader who’d read her fortune in front of the Saint Louis Cathedral when she’d been a teen. “Please, you may take your seat.”

The mafia boss approached the throne-like chair, reached behind it and brought out an elaborate box with paintings of saints across the sides and top. All the corners and feet were gilded in shiny gold. He set the box in front of the circle of candles and then backed to the chair and sat. “I’m ready.”

Lissette shot a glance toward her grandmother, hating that her wrists were bound and she was gagged. She wished she’d paid more attention during the Voodoo training sessions. Not that it mattered. She didn’t have the full array of ingredients, notions and spells her grandmother kept in her pantry. She just had to be convincing enough for Benoit to believe she’d done it right. Then she had to believe he’d let her and her grandmother walk away.

With the weight of her grandmother’s life hanging in the balance, Lissette lifted her chin, schooled her face and met Benoit’s gaze. “We begin.”

Now came the hard part...reciting a believable spell out loud.

One by one, she lifted the ingredients, making up the spell as she went.

* * *

By dirt of this bayou

Where cypress trees stand,

Let the walls of this house,

Stay strong in the land.

* * *

Like water that rose

And water that fell,

Stay safe through the ages

Blessed by words of this spell.

* * *

Through wind of the storm

That bends the tall pines,

Let those who would hunt them

Lose the scent of the line.