The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two (Daughters of Dark Root Book 4) (28 page)

“It’s possible. Children are often born with talent that disappears later in life. That happened to me. My parents didn’t approve of me talking to the dead neighbors so I was sent to Catholic School, where I promptly forgot what I naturally knew. It wasn’t until the car wreck that it all came back.” She glanced again at Montana. “Lucky for this little guy, he’ll always feel loved and accepted.”

 
“Yes, no matter how much sleep he deprives me of.” I tickled his foot as he swung close. He giggled and pulled in his leg. “I’ll need lots of help. Lots and lots of help,” I reiterated.

“You’ll have it.”

A breeze rustled the leaves of the surrounding trees. Jillian’s eyes were faraway again, her expression unreadable. I couldn’t read minds, but I knew she was troubled.

Was she thinking of what was to come or what had been?

I knew more about her and Armand than ever, but I still didn’t know what any of it meant. I’d keep viewing the globes until I knew it all, or the curse was broken, or both. Still, the globe memories frightened me, especially the last few scenes. My father had descended down a dangerous road, with allusions to dark deals and demon summoning. All the while, Mother became more focused on her cause and the impending apocalypse.

As my mind replayed my father’s globe memories, I was startled by a voice on the wind. A low-pitched, masculine wail that swirled through the leaves. I sat up taller, intently listening.

“Magggggiieeee….”

“Shane!”

“Pardon?” Jillian asked.

I put my fingers to my lips and held still. Sure enough, the voice called to me again.

“It’s Shane! Can you hear him?”

Jillian sat stock still, her eyes darting around. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said, half rising to my feet in case I needed to chase the wind. “I’m sure. I’ve never been more sure!”

We remained quiet and still, but there was no more. “He’s gone,” I said, sagging back into my chair, fighting back tears. “Jillian, I think he’s haunting me.”

“Oh, Maggie, this has been hard, but––”

“He is!” I insisted. “Jillian, you can still talk to the dead, right? Tell him to stay with me!” I stood again, calling out to the trees. “Shane! If you hear me, haunt me! Stay with me! Don’t leave!”

“Maggie, you can’t say such things! It disrupts the natural order.”

“I don’t care!” My eyes stung and I blinked rapidly. “He’s here because he has unfinished business with me. He was supposed to come back and marry me!”

I called again. “Shane!” My knees shook, threatening to give out, and I saw the pitying look in Jillian’s eyes. I crumbled, drooping over the table.

“I know it’s wrong. But it hurts,” I whispered, embarrassed. “I wish I hadn’t buried the ring.” I choked, looking desperately into my friend’s eyes. “I’ve never hurt this bad. What can I do?”

She reached out and touched a strand of my hair. “Losing someone you love is the hardest thing we have to endure as humans,” she said, with a bittersweet smile. “But it’s the way it is, and the way it’s always been. And honey, your pain is greater than most, but you need to consider it a gift.”

“Really?” I dropped back into my seat. “How can this be a gift?”

“I have to tell you something. I had my suspicions earlier, but now I’m almost positive.”

“What is it?”

“Have you heard of soul mates?”

I nodded, hesitantly. “Yes. You think Shane and I are...”

“No.” She shook her head. “Soulmates are people from the same soul family who share many incarnations together. I think you and Shane are closer.”

“Closer than
soul mates? What does that mean? Be direct for once.”

“What I’m about to say, I don’t say lightly or often. In fact, I’ve never said this to anyone. But Maggie, I believe that you and Shane are Twin Souls.”

“Huh? I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” My voice was high and desperate. “What does that mean?”

“Our souls were created in pairs. Those pairs separated out, into masculine and feminine energies. They then went their separate ways in order to experience every aspect of the human condition, reincarnating again and again, but never together.”

“So, Shane and I... match?”

“If my guess is correct, yes. You are two halves of a whole, which is why the pain is so great. And that would be why you hear him, even though I can’t. It is said that Twins will reunite in the final days, to help usher in the Light.”

“How unfair, then. How unfair to give me the other half of my soul and then take it away!”

She took my hand. “The final days
are
upon us. You and Shane reunited for this reason. It’s pure love––a light that others can see. And now that your souls have found one another, neither of you can rest until the other lets go.”

My entire body shook. Twin Souls. It made sense. When we were together, it was like we were both listening to the same radio station. I told Jillian this.

“Your vibrational frequencies are aligned. It is the greatest gift the soul can receive on this plane.”

“And the worst.”

“Yes.” Her chest heaved. “That too.”

“Now you understand why I can’t let him go.”

“I do understand. And I keep trying to tune into Shane, but all I get is static. No peace. No restlessness. Just a void. But keep that channel open, okay? If he’s... gone... and you’re receiving messages from him, there is a reason. It might be that he’s trying to protect you, or it might even be a warning. But don’t be selfish about keeping him here, okay? Once you get that message, you’ll need to set him free. It’s the only way he’ll find peace.”

“The thought of living my life without him is too horrible.” I pressed my face into my hands. “God, Jillian. I wasn’t always nice to him. I fought with him. I called him a dork.” I almost choked on the last word, but it came out as a laugh. “I was jealous and argumentative and silly––to the one man I should have cherished.”

“He loved you, Maggie. Unconditionally.” She massaged my hand and I felt her warm energy slide through me, offering comfort. It numbed the pain a little.

“I’ll listen for his message,” I said.

“Perhaps if Shane sees you moving forward with your life––and if we break this curse––he can be free.”

“I understand,” I said.

But I didn’t. Jillian had tried to make me feel better by telling me the truth, but it had only succeeded in making the loss even more crushing.

TWENTY-ONE

Do You Want to Know a Secret

EVE TALKED ME into working Miss Sasha’s Magick Shoppe with her that evening. “New inventory,” she said, driving Montana and I in Merry’s sedan. “I think I’ve wiped out all traces of Michael from our store. A few more smudgings and this town will forget he ever existed.”

“Not unless you can smudge him out of Dark Root,” I said.

Montana hooted from the backseat as if he understood.

“See,” Eve continued as we turned onto Main Street. “Even Opie wants him gone.”

“Don’t call him that, Eve. He’ll get a complex.”

“Every name carries a stigma, Maggie. When I was in Jr. High, I had a crush on a boy but couldn’t ask him to the dance because of his name.”

“Which was?”

She pursed her lips as she pulled into the lot behind Mother’s shop, a deliberate move so I didn’t have to look at Dip Stix. “Adam.”

“Ha!” I slapped my knee. “Adam and Eve! Oh, you should have gone, if for no other reason than it would have made me deliriously happy.”

“Which is why I didn’t.”

“Some sister you are,” I teased.

She parked the car, pulling the keys from the ignition. “Tell me, Maggie Mae, have you been to any Rod Stewart concerts lately?”

“Tell me Eve, have you tempted any men out of the garden lately?”

“Only the lucky ones.”

“Fine, you win.”

I unbuckled Montana from his car seat and we entered Mother’s shop through the back door. I surveyed the supply room as we stepped inside, where we sold homemade potions and read Tarot cards for special customers. In Mother’s day, this room was a mess, but Eve had it in tip-top shape. Nothing dared to move from its place, lest it face my sister’s wrath.

“Speak of the devil,” I said, pointing. In the center of the supply room stood a life-sized, faux-marble statue of biblical Adam, purchased by Michael months earlier. The statue’s alabaster skin beckoned to be touched, though his fig leaf, placed strategically in front of his not-so-impressive man parts, was a bit of a deterrent.

Eve grunted as she took in the statue, slinging her purse over Adam’s stump of an arm. “At least he’s useful, unlike his purchaser.”

Just inside the main shop, there were several dozen unopened boxes stacked three and four deep. I pushed one out of my way with my foot. “Where did all these come from?”

“Amazon.”

I sat Montana down in his car carrier, positioned so he could look at the various knick knacks and oddities that made our store famous. A cymbal-playing monkey bounded out from his clock as two ghost children danced upon a spinning pedestal beside it. Above them both, a raven perched atop a haunted birdhouse. It opened its beak and squawked,
Nevermore,
every few minutes. I had learned to drown out all of these noises long ago, but they were new to Montana and he gasped and giggled at each discovery.

“Do we own stock in Amazon now, or are they just leasing space from us?” I asked, cutting through the tape of a large box with an old steak knife. A dozen nicely packaged signs reading “Witches Drive a Stick” stared up at me.

“My plan is to flood this store with all new merchandise and get rid of the stodgy old energy.” Eve opened a small box and removed a silver tube, the size of my thumb. “Bet you didn’t know there’s something called Mood Lipstick?” She applied the cosmetic, leaving a bluish stain on her lips. “How does it look?” she asked, puckering.

“Like you’ve been eating baby Smurfs.”

She quickly wiped her mouth. The blue stubbornly refused to leave, and was now smudged past the edges of her lips. “Better?”

“If you want to look like a watercolor painting.”

Eve marched to the restroom in the back. When she returned, not only was the blue gone, but a fresh coat of pink was lacquered across her mouth.

“You amaze me,” I said.

“How so?”

“Anyone who can transform from the Cookie Monster to Miss Piggy in less than a minute is completely worthy of my awe.”

Eve narrowed her eyes, not finding my compliment complimentary. She tossed the Mood Lipsticks into a bin marked Bargains, then ripped open another box. “The shop missed you,” she said, quietly.

I sighed. “I missed it, too.”

“If you have to leave, I’ll understand,” she said, not looking up from her work.

“I’ll stick it out a while. I needed a break from Aunt Dora and Jillian, anyway. They’ve been fussing over Montana so much, I’m afraid they’ll spoil him.”

She sighed dramatically. “Maggie, that’s not what I mean. Our dead grandmother went into your son’s nursery, and even though I think I can keep her spirit out of the house, that doesn’t mean you won’t get assaulted by a dozen other ghosts in this town. And... if you left Dark Root, maybe you’d leave the curse behind, too.”