“I’m sorry.” Titus’s hands shake. “I have to keep my sisters safe. I told my papa I would do whatever it took.”
The noise of the bayou fades as a shot rings out. No more bleating frogs and buzzing cicadas. No more wind whipping through the sleepy trees. With wide eyes, I look down at my belly. A red stain blooms, darkening my dress. I grip my stomach, and crimson streams through my fingers, causing pressure as it starts to burn. The taste of betrayal coats my tongue as hot pain sears through me.
Sabine’s laugh rings in my ears.
“I’m sorry.” Titus sobs as I crumple on the sand. “Master’s been looking at my little sister like he used to look at your ma. Before my pa died, Ipromised I’d do anything I had to do to protect my sisters. Missus would sell me and leave my sisters alone with Master if I didn’t.” He weeps, eyes pleading for understanding, when all I want to give him is my pain. “I have to free them,” he says. “Change my family’s future. Make it bright for all of us.”
“And change will come,” Sabine says. A skeleton of a smile cracks her lips, and she puts her weapon down. “But you…” She towers over me. “You will be added to my collection.”
As I twitch and groan in agony, she dips her finger into my blood. A drop dangles from the tip of her black fingernail. She opens the pink cavern of her mouth and lets it fall on her tongue, then licks her finger clean before smiling down at me. “Real power is in the blood.”
Ravens collect in the trees above her.
I squirm, looking at the water, the black sand, Titus’s feet. My heart hurts as it struggles to beat under the weight of my grief, of his betrayal.
“A promise is a promise!” Sabine smiles, twirling in the light of the full moon. She extends her left arm. “Your bloodline will receive the gift, Titus. And the price.” Beneath her pale white skin, veins rise like black vines. She slices open her own forearm with her long fingernail. Inky blood leaks from her wrist. I shudder as a curling worm wiggles and drips from the nasty gash.
My eyes widen in terror. Mama was right. Sabine’s a Devil woman, a witch! The worm grows into a massive snake. Sabine’s eyes darken and morph from ice-blue orbs to pools of midnight.
Titus is shaking. “No!” he cries out. “I changed my mind. I changed my mind, I said.” The snake slithers toward him, hissing. “I don’t deserve freedom afterI— Geta doctor. Spare Venus. End this! I made a mistake.”
“End?” Sabine scoffs. “This is just the beginning.” Her eyes lock on Titus. Black blood flows down her arm and cascades from her fingertips. She slowly trails her palms down her tiny waist. Storm clouds thicken in the skies above. Bolts of magic crackle and disturb the murky stillness of the bayou. A blinding flash of lightning strikes the snake, severing it in an explosion of white. The creature splits into two massive serpents that slink in the sand by Sabine’s heels.
Sabine smooths her dress and glares at Titus. “Trust me. Power will look almost this amazing on your sisters, too.”
I try to breathe, but my lungs can’t hold air. My throat constricts. Everything seems thicker and bloodier. Like the sticky red pool growing around me. My vision is coal black at the edges, as dark as the sand I hemorrhage onto.
A raven calls out.
The serpents twist and grow, their dark scales igniting, outlined in flickering blue flame as they slither toward me and Titus. He cowers and inches back. I roll over, trying to slide onto my back, fighting to get on my feet. But my body has wilted under the gunshot. One snake loops around my torso, pressing its weight into my wound. It opens its pink mouth wide, and its razor-sharp fangs bite its own tail. I’m locked in place, stuck in its vise.
My vision turns hazier from the pain. I can’t figure out what’s happening. The other serpent curls and spins its flaming body around Titus’s leg. He flails and punches as it climbs him. He falls back, tripping over the branches that had concealed the boat. The snake circles his muscular chest, pinning him in place.
I’m too weak to fight the snake as it squeezes tighter. Sabine screams in French; my mind is too frantic to translate. The snakes begin to sink into us; their scales burn as they cut our flesh and bury themselves inside our bodies. The pain ruptures through me like the lightning cutting through the sky.
My chest tightens, my breath turning to gasps. I struggle to see Titus, only spotting the bloody hole the snake left behind in his shirt. Did she kill him? Is he dying too?
His fingers twitch. Titus’s body glows, a soft golden light emanating from the gashes on his flesh. I watch as his wounds grow less puffy, less red, and fuse together.
I look down as my skin illuminates. In shock, I watch the bullet lift out of my belly and roll into the sand. My injuries knit themselves back together, and I gasp.
Titus scrambles to his feet and crawls toward me. He tries to reach out, but I slap his hand away. I stand and prepare to run.
“Marvelous!” Sabine shouts. “It is done.”
A cold settles over me despite the muggy heat.
Sabine smiles. “I forgot to tell you about the tax, Titus. In this world, there’s always a price.” Her words echo like a prophecy. “The moon has the sun. Beginnings have ends. And everything in life has an opposite to match it. So the blessing I gave you comes with a curse.”
Blessing? Curse?
“The universe requires balance,” Sabine says. “Titus Baldwin, I’ve given you and your bloodline the power to travel and move freely. You can escape this time entirely, and you’ll have other gifts that shall appear with each descendant.”
“I can take my family? Get away from here?” Titus asks. “Leave all this hate and misery behind?”
Sabine smiles. “Yes.”
He turns to run.
