Dream Dancer (Ghosts Beyond the Grove Book 2) (20 page)

     So what exactly did this mean?  Was death the manifestation she was referring to or was something else in store for me?  Ugh.  Every time I thought I knew what was coming, another surprise would pop out of the shadows at me.  At least the next card referring back to my past made perfect sense.

     “Soul Shrinker.  You’ve been saddled by negativity from an outside source.  It nearly drained you but you released your negativity toward it.  You combatted it with compassion, love, and understanding.”

     Zach.  Through all of those nights of sheer madness, I could have walked away hating him.  I could have washed my hands of him forever.  But I didn’t.  I looked past the surface and saw that he wasn’t in control of his own actions anymore.  Yes, this card I understood completely.  Of all the cards I’d drawn so far, some made sense while others only opened up more unanswered questions.  If there was any doubt in my mind about the accuracy of tarot readings, the next card I pulled shattered that completely.

     Unlike the others before it, this card bore no intricate design.  Instead, it was completely blank.  There was nothing but white space where I expected to see the odd little face of yet another fairy staring back at me.  This was the card I’d been waiting for—I could feel it.  Seeing her perpetually pursed lips curl back into a slight smile was confirmation enough for me.  Of all the cards in my reading, this was the one I needed to pay close attention to.  I leaned closer to the table eager to hear what she had to say.

     “You’ve received the Fairy Guide.  This card is blank because everyone’s guide looks different.  Someone is trying to tell you something.  There is a presence in your life that is desperately trying to get your attention.”

     After remaining fairly silent and disgruntled throughout the entire reading, I loudly burst out with my own southern phrase.

     “You ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie!”

     My enthusiasm wasn’t as well received as I hoped it would be so I decided to go back to being the stupid Yankee that I was and asked for further information about the Fairy Guide.

     “Fairies are nothing more than tiny little angels who are here to guide us on our journey. 
Your
guide could be anyone sent to look over you—an ancestor perhaps.  Your fairy guide’s identity isn’t what’s important.  What’s important is that you listen because they have vital information from the other side for you.  The appearance of the fairy guide in any reading is to denote change and empowerment.  Your guide is leading you to the exact point in time and space where you need to be.  Follow your fairy and you’ll never go wrong.”

     Of course, I already knew who my guide was—it was my mother.  And I’d been trying to follow her instructions all along but I was still confused.  Was I meant to die or was that Zach’s fate from the very start?  I needed to see the next card—fast.  The ugly face greeting me this time made me wish all of the cards were blank. 

     “The Pook.  I know he looks kind of scary but he stands for the idea of not judging a book by its cover.  He represents paradox.  The ability to see the good in the bad, the bad in the good.  You need to slow down and take your time.  See things as they truly are and not for the potential.  Don’t cling to what is bad simply for the small silver lining you see on the inside.  Conversely, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater either.  Just because something is flawed doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still hold real value.  Inspect things before deciding to keep them or cast them aside.”

     Paradox.  Paradox linked to patience.  If I had the power to wipe those two words and their meanings out of existence, I would.  I had the feeling that my final moment with Zach was going to be an explosive one—one definitely where only one of us would survive.  When the time came to sacrifice myself, was I going to weaken and allow him to slip away in an act of self-preservation?  Ugh.  That wasn’t a feeling I wanted to live with for the rest of my life.

     With the draw of the last four cards, I was still unsure of what my role in this situation was.  I only found more paradox in the past and present.  The Piper sent the warning that I couldn’t fight anyone else’s demons yet the Master Maker claimed that I could accomplish anything I set out to do.  And so it all came down to that final card.

     “You’ve received Sylvanius.  He signifies the need to get a fuller sense of who you are.  Gain strength.  Illuminate the positive.  Again, don’t churn the waters.  Work within the paradox and let things unfold the way they are meant to.  All in all, I see nothing negative in your future as long as you don’t drag the negativity into the situation yourself.”

     I’d never felt the need to push, pull, or drag negativity into any aspect of my life—it existed purely in its own right.  Now what?  I didn’t come all the way to New Orleans to learn nothing new.  After explaining my situation to her as best as I could, she responded with the same rhetoric.  Stay positive.  Stay patient.  Time wasn’t nearly as important as I thought it was.

     Rachel had waited patiently in the wings throughout my reading but had grown restless.  As she wandered closer to the table and overheard the advice to not be in a hurry to do anything, she semi-blew a gasket.

     “Time is something we can’t waste any more.  I can’t lose my twin brother—not like this and not without a fight.”

     Queen Elva’s demeanor changed immediately.  “Twin?  Why didn’t anyone tell me Zach had a twin?  Which one of you is older?”

     “Me and kind of by a whole day.  I was born before midnight and Zach after so we each have own birthday.  Does that make a difference?”

     “Honey, that makes all the difference in the world.  We need to figure out this curse as fast as possible.  Before it’s too late.”

     You could have heard a pin drop in that shop after that ominous warning.  Insert dramatic music…here.

36.  Poker Face

     Tsusai.  Dakaledati igohidv asginadisdi. Ulvnotisgi adonvdo.  Oyohusa ulisgita.  Die.  Tsusai.  Dakaledati igohidv asginadisdi. Ulvnotisgi adonvdo.  Oyohusa ulisgita.  Die.  Tsusai.  Dakaledati igohidv asginadisdi. Ulvnotisgi adonvdo.  Oyohusa ulisgita.  Die. Tsusai.  Dakaledati igohidv asginadisdi. Ulvnotisgi adonvdo.  Oyohusa ulisgita.  Die.   

     The words meant nothing to me but it felt like they were being etched into my skull with a white hot iron fresh from the coals.  I wanted to scream.  I wanted to cry.  I wanted to stick a sharp instrument into my ear and scramble my own brains to make it go away but physically, I couldn’t do a damn thing.  All I could do was lay there and endure the endless torture like nothing was wrong.  Why wasn’t I allowed to die?

37.  Swamped

     “I’m the only one who can save him, aren’t I?” cried Rachel, wiping the first of many tears from her eyes.  “You’re going to have to sacrifice me in some voodoo ritual aren’t you?  Don’t you need virgins for that sort of thing?  If so, you’re a couple years too late for that.”

     Queen Elva was momentarily taken aback by Rachel’s brutal honesty.  I could see the harsh words of southern judgement pass through her eyes as she searched for a witty comeback.  By the end, she kept her biting words of wisdom to herself and answered her question bluntly and without reference to Rachel’s outburst of TMI.

     “No.  No one is getting sacrificed.  And no, it really has nothing to do with you whatsoever, child.  The power lies within Zach himself.  In my religion, twins are considered to be sacred gifts in general.  But the younger of the two is laden with powers—they are born with the shine.  It isn’t always visible in childhood but by your age, those gifts are obvious.  Supernatural gifts often come with a price tag heftier than anything you might find in Eduardo’s shop.  Zach is ultrasensitive to spiritual attacks of any sort.  Curses that would take decades to bring down a normal man may cripple him in a matter of a mere few months.”

     That was so much information to process.  I was longing for the cringe-worthy peep into Rachel’s personal life that felt so uncomfortable only moments earlier.  Anything to take me back a few steps so that I could let it all seep in.  There were two crucial points in Queen Elva’s explanation that I needed time to think about.

     First, there was fact that I wasn’t the only reason Zach had paranormal issues.  I’d always blamed myself for unleashing the demons upon him but apparently that wasn’t the case.  He was doomed from the very start to have the same kind of complicated life that I myself had.  You’d think that would have been a huge burden lifted from my heart.  But it wasn’t thanks to the other important fact I’d learned.

     Second, I caught a glimpse into my own future—assuming Zach and I both made it through this thing alive.  He was ultrasensitive to ghosts, curses—anything designed to drive the normal man slightly crazy was going to cause Zach to go absolutely bat-shit.  Zach himself was a paradox.  While he looked perfectly normal on the outside, inside he was a ticking time bomb and probably would continue to be that for the rest of his life.  The happy ending I was looking for here was nowhere in sight.

      “Okay then.  What kind of curse is this and what do we need to do to save him?”

     Queen Elva rose from her chair and began pacing the room with her arms folded across her chest.  She was in thinking mode and I sat anxiously waiting to hear what unspeakable death was waiting in the wings for either Zach or me.  After some consideration, she explained the different types of curses and how they would affect the outcome.

     “There are three basic types of curses.  The first one—negative self-cursing—I am going to discount because it seems like the unlikeliest option.  That’s what happens when you bring about bad luck and hardship simply by concentrating on the negatives.  Zach doesn’t seem the type to wallow in self-pity for no good reason so it has to be one of the other two choices here.”

     I had to agree with her there.  While his behavior lately may seem to the contrary, Zach was a positive person by nature.  He took every weird twist and turn in our relationship without giving up hope for the future.  There was nothing to suggest that he’d changed his entire personality seemingly overnight.

     “The second type of curse I’m also inclined to leave uninvestigated.  Spoken curses can be powerful but you would have to be one very talented witch or what have you to bring about such a rapid decline.  And Zach would have had to cross this person in a most heinous way to incur the kind of wrath he is suffering right now.”

     My mind drifted back to the same place it always did—Misty.  She did everything she could to undermine my relationship with Zach but was she really willing to sell her soul to the devil—assuming she even had one to begin with—and destroy him along with her?  I was about to at least offer the suggestion when Shelly cut me off at that familiar pass.

     “I know what you’re thinking, Ruby, but you’re wrong.  Misty changed after the accident.  She’s been in and out of surgery ever since.  Frankly, I don’t think the girl would have the time or energy necessary to throw a curse that powerful.  I see you starting to roll your eyes at me.  You can stop that right now because I’m right on this one.”

     I wasn’t going to give up without a fight though.  “There was this girl who tried to break us up.  She was even willing to pay my dead boyfriend’s twin brother to come between us.  Isn’t there even the slightest possibility that she took things to the next level?”

     Queen Elva pondered the thought for a moment before shooting me down.  “No teenage girl would have that kind of power.  Addie can only throw positive curses and she comes from a very long line of sorcery.”

     Whoa.  What?  Addie had powers like that and never told me?  And what in the world was a positive curse anyway?

     “Okay, fine.  It isn’t Misty then.  But ‘positive curse’ is one hell of an oxymoron.  If curses can be positive, I want proof.”

     When I saw that my doubt and subsequent challenge lit a visible spark in her eye, I should have run for cover.  But I’d played with fire enough times that my hands were calloused to the flames.  I could take the heat one more time.

     With a wicked smile, Queen Elva approached me and whispered into my ear.  “I get the feeling that there’s something you don’t want even though it would be good for you.  Whatever that something is, I wish it upon you.  Times two.”

     Her quote was cryptic and so freakishly vague that it could have applied to anything.  Yet one possibility came immediately to mind and I hurriedly shuffled it back down into the recesses of my brain.  I didn’t really buy into all of her hocus pocus but just in case, I wasn’t going to tempt Fate again.

     Acting like I was unfazed by her attempt at a positive curse, I made direct eye contact and asked what the third option was.  Of course I was only pretending to be brave.  Inside, I was secretly trying to block what she had just wished upon me.

     “Cursed objects are the usual culprits in situations like this one.  Objects can be cursed even by people with no special powers.  All that is needed is intense emotion—usually occurring right before death.  It could be positive or negative—love, anger, revenge.  It all depends on the individual event causing it.  My theory is that Zach brought back some sort of trinket from California.  You need to find whatever he has in his possession so that we can try to diffuse its power.”