Page 33 of Blade
Sage whined as she grabbed my arms. “No. I want to stay with you.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” I told Sage. “She’s right.”
“Best be hurrying,” Adelaide urged as she climbed up into an old truck.
Reluctantly, Sage got inside the cab, and I closed the door. Sage stared at me with fear in her beautiful eyes. The truck rumbled as the woman started it up and I jumped on my bike. We pulled out and I didn’t stop looking back until we were entering the swamps.
We went deep into the bayou—beyond where I would’ve felt safe going on my own. There were countless forks that we took. So many that I’d never find my way back out without help. The sunlight barely broke through the trees that were woven together, dripping Spanish moss from above. The web-like tendrils swayed slightly as if a ghostly hand had teased them. There certainly wasn’t a breeze.
Finally, we rounded a bend, and it was like the road simply dropped into the murky waters. I skidded to a stop behind the truck that had sputtered and gone silent. Dust from the dirt road rose in clouds around me, adding to the eerie feeling that was heavy in the air.
“You just gonna stand there looking like you’ve seen a ghost, or are you gonna help me with this boat?” Adelaide asked, briefly jolting me out of my nervousness. I noticed Sage was already in the small boat, the backpack clutched tight to her chest. It waspractically bursting at the seam as it held everything we had on us. A change of clothes for each of us, some toiletries I had taken from the little motel, and all the cash I had to my name.
“Get up front and untie us once I get the motor started,” she instructed.
I nodded.
The quiet little trolling motor came to life, and I unwrapped the weathered rope from the mooring on the short rickety dock. Then I tossed it to the bottom of the boat and settled in for the ride.
My gaze darted back and forth from the swamp with its soft, mysterious noises and the woman manning the boat. She seemed calm and relaxed now that we were cutting through the muddy water.
Every so often I caught movement and saw the slide of a gator as it slipped off the bank and under the surface. The clear blue sky appeared between the branches periodically.
As if she had conjured it from thin air, a small cabin seemed to spout up out of the swamp itself. The front porch stairs disappeared into the water and the rusting metal roof had a short brick chimney that poked up into the pale sky. The roof to the porch was covered in leaves and Spanish moss that must’ve been blown from nearby trees.
Off to the left, I imagined there must’ve been land at one time, because there was a shed that had seen better days. Coupled with the stairs going down into the water, it spoke of different and long-lost days.
We circled around the right side of the wooden shack where I was surprised to see a dock that led to solid ground. Land stretched from the back corner and around the backside of the building where it met up with the shed I thought was underwater. It was actually on a little rise.
“Tie it up, boy,” Adelaide murmured as if to speak too loudly would wake something terrible.
I quickly did as she said, then I climbed up onto the dock that was sturdier than it had initially appeared. I reached down to help Sage out of the boat. Once she was steady at my side, I turned to do the same for the mysterious woman.
The second her fingers landed on mine there was a zap—like I’d grabbed a live wire. Her eyes went wide, and I knew she’d experienced it too. Her breath came in harder and faster intervals as she searched my face.
The moment she was safely on the dock she jerked her hand free. She was muttering something under her breath that I couldn’t understand.
“Come,” she snapped as she hurried toward the shack.
Sage and I glanced at each other, and her brows lifted as she mouthed, “What the heck?”
All I could do was shrug. As we followed the woman toward the house, I was sure I heard her softly muttering to herself again. When we reached the door on the side porch, she motioned Sage inside, but when I tried to follow, her hand slammed to my chest. Again, her eyes flared.
“No. You wait here for a moment.”
“I’m not letting Sage go in there with you alone. We don’t know you at all.”
“And yet, I saved you from certain capture and brought you to my home—my sanctuary,” she shot back as one brow winged up. “Give me a moment. I must do something, then I will come for you.”
Frustrated, I huffed and ran a hand through my hair. Sage looked at me through the old screen door. “I think it’s okay,” she assured me. I wished I had her faith.
Through the screen, I watched as Adelaide wandered around the cabin lighting candles and incense as she seemed to chantunder her breath. She whipped the curtains wide to allow the most light into the cabin.
She disappeared behind a beaded curtain but quickly returned to where I waited. She pushed a small bottle into my hands. “You drink.”
“Look, I appreciate your help, but I’m not drinking some weird concoction that you hand me. I don’t know you. For all I know, you’re trying to kill me so you can take her.”
The last I said so only the older woman could hear.