“I love you,” I plead. “This is our chance.”
Sabine’s laugh echoes from the trees. I tremble from the bones out.
The hair on my arms spikes to attention. My knees quake as sweat stings my eyes. I feel the cold metal of her rifle at the back of my head.
“Good job, boy,” Sabine says. “Now pull the trigger.”
“I can’t,” he replies.
“Don’t you want freedom for your sisters? Your entire bloodline?” She sets her gun on my shoulder, pointing straight at him.
“Yes. But—”
“No buts. Freedom comes at a cost.”
I grit my teeth. “Let us go, Missus. We don’t want no trouble. Please. You don’t need me.”
Sabine clucks her tongue. “Why should you get to leave Grand Belle Island?” Sabine moves in front of me. Rifle held high. She curls her lips into a smile.
“Let us go. We’re in love,” I say.
She laughs. “You think love exists? You think there’s any possibility for love in this place, this time?”
My stomach tightens. Words lodge in my throat. The image of freedom slowly disintegrates in my mind, replaced by the ever-present reality of iron chains.
“We’re more alike than you might think. I didn’t get a choice either, you know? I was sold here.” She gazes around at the bayou. “Right from under my mother’s nose to a rich planter ten years my senior. Forced to carry and bury ten children.” She sweeps a curl from my forehead. “And now, here you are… the only thing of my husband’s that’s survived besides me.” Her eyes gaze off in the distance, toward where a garden of crypts sit, full of her dead unborn children.
“That—that’s not my fault. I—” I stammer.
“I suppose not. I suppose this is what life has dealt. This is the game to be played.” She smiles so wide I can almost count all of her rotten teeth. “But I will win. The old gods of the Haguenau wood blessed me with great power long before I arrived here.” She jams the rifle deeper into my chest, then looks at Titus. “Now, boy, a wise one casts away their doubts when they have nothing to lose.”
I stare at Titus, desperate to meet his gaze.
She steadies her gun. “Kill her, and I’ll give you and every person who shares your blood the divine gift I promised you. True freedom from Grand Belle Island, from time itself. There are versions of this world to come thatwill be beyond what you can dream of… where there are no chains, no plantations for either of us.”
Sweat pours down his face. I search his eyes for the boy I love, the boy I thought I knew.
“Titus, what is this?” I swallow down angry tears.
“Shut up, girl,” Sabine warns with another shove of her rifle. “Dark gifts require the ultimate sacrifice, Titus.”
“Let Venus go.” His voice shakes.
“Come on now.” Sabine laughs. “She’s sick. She’ll be dead soon enough anyway.”
“Don’t listen to her, Titus!” I cry out, the worry, the anger, the sadness breaking loose. “I love you. Please!” I stammer through clattering teeth. “She’s lying! I’m fine.”
“I saw you coughing blood last night,” Titus says, the warmth in his voice gone. He sounds like a stranger.
“You love me. We’re supposed to be together.” Hot tears pour down my cheeks. I can’t die now. Seventeen years isn’t enough. “Please.”
Titus spits, cursing, and lowers his gun a little. “You’ve been tired.”
“Everybody’s tired here!” I shout. “The work never stops. You know that. How can you trust her?” I point at him. “Shoot her! For what she’s done to all of us!”
He shakes his head. “You think my sisters would live if I did that?”
“You promised we’d be free. Be married!”
