AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cassie’s heartbeat ratcheted up and then smoothed out to a steady rhythm. Novak’s attacks were fresh in his mind. That was the only reason he was asking. She felt her features soften. “I’ve been in a cemetery or two since then. I should be okay.”
Not that it would’ve mattered. Sabine Delacroix waited for no one.
Cassie and Jason barely slipped through the gate before it clanged shut behind them. Cassie’s body tensed, ready for the onslaught of spirits walking aimlessly through their final resting place, reaching out to the first person to acknowledge their presence.
But it never happened.
The graveyard was quieter than expected. Cassie could feel the spirits in the surrounding shadows, but none showed their faces. They lurked at the edges of her vision, pressing forward, only to shrink back. Sabine hadn’t been kidding about staying close to her side.
Sabine walked forward at a measured pace, her dress billowing out behind her, taking on the air of someone who assumed everyone else would fall in line. And they did. Both Delacroix women had an aura about them that demanded respect, and Cassie had no interest in behaving otherwise.
“Welcome to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. This will not be your average tour of one of New Orleans’ most haunted corners.” Sabine stopped and twirled to face them, forcing Cassie and Jason to pull up short. She spoke to them like they were just two people in an audience of observers. And maybe they were. “Not only do we have a local in our midst, but someone who, I assume, would rather see our city for what it really is.”
Jason looked to Cassie, whose cheeks colored. Cassie had no more doubts that Celeste had told Sabine about her. Cassie wasn’t sure what the women knew of her abilities, but she hoped Sabine would keep that knowledge to herself.
One major reveal of her past was enough for tonight.
“New Orleans wears a false mask of color and chaos. We’re known for food and festivities, and while murder is always on the menu, those who yearn to peek at our true face rarely like what they see.”
Cassie waited for Sabine to continue, but the silence of the graveyard was resounding. She knew the other woman was waiting for her to ask the question on the tip of her tongue. “What do they see?”
“Magic.” Sabine’s eyes lit up as though a fire burned behind them. “Ghosts. Demons. A darkness that stays with them, long after they’ve left New Orleans behind.”
Sabine turned, flourishing her dress, and moving deeper into the cemetery.
“St. Louis is New Orleans’ oldest extant graveyard.” The woman had discarded some of the effect in her voice, but it still sent chills down Cassie’s spine. “The Spanish established it at the end of the eighteenth century, and it is still used after two hundred years. One hundred thousand souls have been laid to rest on these grounds, and some have never left.”
Until this point, the pressing darkness of the graveyard had felt like a lover’s touch on Cassie’s cheek. Sabine’s declaration lifted the veil just enough for Cassie to see the true extent of the restless spirits around her. Most of them didn’t take notice of the trio in their midst, but a few stared at Cassie, as though trying to burn a hole right through her chest.
Sabine continued forward, while Cassie and Jason followed in her wake. The eerie silence stretched to every corner of the graveyard, despite the world raging outside the fence. It was like the cemetery acted as a portal through time. Broken cobblestones and chipped grave markers looked whole in the dark of the night. Here, the spirits reigned supreme, and they could warp your sense of time.
“There are dozens of famous men and women buried in this historic spot, though none of them attract as much attention as the Voodoo Queen herself, Marie Laveau. Born at the turn of the century in 1801, she had a Haitian mother and a white father. She was a hairdresser to the wealthy, but she gained fame for her herbal remedies. She saved many lives.”
“People believe she can help them from beyond the grave,” Jason added. “That’s why they still leave her trinkets, isn’t it?”
“Correct.” Sabine smiled and took a step closer to him. “How is your grandmother? Is she still well?”
Jason blinked. “She’s good, yeah. Healthy.”
“Please tell her my sister and I say hello. We’d love to have a cup of tea with her next week. She has my number.”
“Okay.” Jason glanced at Cassie and then turned back to Sabine. “I’ll let her know.”
Sabine wound her way through tight alleyways, turning at this gravestone and that crypt as easily as if she were following street signs. “They call this place the City of the Dead, but it’s more alive than you might think. It is a portal to another realm, and that veil is never thinner than it is right—” she took two steps, stopped, and turned around, holding her arms wide, “—here.”
A chill passed over Cassie, as though hands made of ice trailed their frozen fingertips down her spine. She kept her eyes on Sabine, but she could see the spirits closing in around her. Men and women of the past had seen the future come and go without them. This knowledge tortured them into a restless sleep. They sensed Cassie could help and inched closer, reaching out as if to touch her shoulder or stroke her face. Whatever Sabine had been doing to keep them back was fading.
“Who are you?” Cassie asked. Had this all been a ruse? She hadn’t realized how crowded the cemetery was until this point. Sabine had taken her to the deepest part of the ocean and snatched away her lifeboat. Now she was drowning. “What do you want?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw Jason stiffen at the tone of her voice. He took a step closer, looking between the two women. If he had any idea what transpired between the two of them, there was no indication on his face.
“You’re afraid, Cassie Quinn. You don’t know what you can really do.” Sabine kept her unblinking eyes trained on Cassie’s face. “Today, I will help you. And someday, you may pay me in kind.”
This is how deals with the devil are made, Cassie thought. But she couldn’t resist the promise of answers in Sabine’s voice. “How?”
“I’ve met many people like you. Some of them are afraid of what they can do. They push it down into the deepest part of themselves until they think it’s gone. And then something happens, it comes rushing back, like a nightmare long forgotten. Does that sound familiar?”
Cassie nodded. Swallowed. Found her voice again. “I almost died. I thought that was the reason I could see them.”
