The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two (Daughters of Dark Root Book 4) by April Aasheim Read Free Book Online Page A

know?”
    “Her name?”
    The tightness of her expression dissolved and the corners of her mouth turned up in a secret smile. “Violet. Her name was Violet.” Ruth Anne contemplated the line of the trees ahead of us, her body present but her mind somewhere else. “She was beautiful. Dark skin. Dark eyes. Black and silver hair that looked like nighttime in the desert.”
    “How did you meet her?”
    She leaned against a tree, setting her pack by her feet. “My car broke down somewhere outside of Jackson, Mississippi. I was cursing and kicking my tire when a beautiful woman in a beat-up pickup offers me a ride, and takes me to her town.” Ruth Anne let out a hearty laugh as she reminisced. “The 'town' turned out to be a village in the swamplands, a mostly black community where everybody seemed to be related to everyone else. They had the strangest dialects, and they shared everything: Food, shelter, men.
    “I was fascinated by this place, maybe because I missed home. By this time, my dad had died and I was on my own. So I stayed the night, and then the next. A couple of days turned into weeks and then months. I was there nearly a year. They didn't have calendars––they didn't have much of anything, honestly. But they had each other.”
    Ruth Anne paused, taking a moment to find the next arrow. I pointed to one partially covered with brush. She grabbed her backpack and followed it, with me tagging along behind. The hike left me unusually winded and light headed, but I was determined to keep up.
    “They were witches,” she continued. “But different from Sasha and the Council. They practiced ritual magick for health and luck, and there were rumors of conjuring and summoning, too.” She shook her head. “Violet's mother was the leader and Violet was studying to replace her. Because she made trips to town for supplies and could read, she'd learned a few things. Healing mostly. Before Violet introduced them to Band-Aids and antibiotics, they'd relied solely on herbs, chicken bones, and leeches for their cures. But Violet convinced her mother there was a place for the present as well as the past in their community. My girl was a maverick and everyone loved her.”
    “I wish I had met her.”
    “Me too. In many ways, it all seemed very familiar to me. Different witches, different geography, same story. For a long time, I told myself that was the reason I stayed. And then one day, I realized I loved her.”
    “Did she love you back?”
    “I think so. She said it once. And I felt it…” She pounded her chest with her closed fist. “Here.”
    We reached a spot in the woods, where the trees circled a large old house, now covered in lichen and vines. The windows were missing, boarded up, or broken. A wide porch on the front of the house showcased where grand double doors once stood. Decaying pillars held up the remains of a decaying balcony. The home seemed straight out of the Antebellum South, only smaller.
    “So, what happened?”
    Ruth Anne studied the house as her fingers jingled the car keys in her pocket. “Violet died in a fire, trying to save a child from possession. The exorcism took, but not without cost.” She bit her lip, not making eye contact. “The house was a lot like this one, actually. Violet was trapped upstairs when the entity took hold of her, keeping her there while the place burned down around her. The child got out at least.”
    “Oh, Ruth Anne! I can't imagine!”
    She shook her head. “I should have gone with her, but I didn't. We were arguing. I wanted to bring her to Dark Root and she wanted to stay in her village.” She picked up a rock and threw it at one of the trees, knocking a chunk of bark from the trunk. “My last words to her were not kind. I regret it every day.”
    I felt my sister's pain, and the horror of what she suffered. And the grief and guilt that came with not being able to say a proper goodbye.
    “I understand,” I said, touching her shoulder.
    She sucked in a