A wedding, a plantation, and the spirits of ancestors past. I had to claim my powers, and help them find peace. Would I find love as well?
Nia
When I agreed to be Isla's bridesmaid, I hadn't thought beyond wearing some awful dress and partying with old college friends. We'd been sorority sisters. And apparently, though I hadn't thought of us as particularly close, Isla did. Had I known then that I'd have to travel from Atlanta to Louisiana, I might have declined.
Somehow, I missed the part where she was having a destination wedding at a plantation. My family wasn't fond of them, and my grandmother, who sat around in her retirement home reading tarot rather than playing solitaire, had once warned me away from the state altogether. She would say our people were there. And my mother would roll her eyes.
When I showed up at the wedding, several things became clear. First, Isla's brother Ethan was seriously hot, until he started talking. Then he was mostly infuriating. Second, I wasn't going to get a minute of peace as long as I was on the ground because...third, something changed in me. The lack of peace came from the voices. And the voices came from the spirits of ancestors past. Mine. Others. All needing saving.
The loudest of all was Sallie. She whispered that I'd come into my power. I had no idea what that meant. All I had to do was claim it, and help them find peace. And if I failed, I'd be cursed forever by the same ancestors I let down. I mustered my courage and asked Isla who owned the plantation.
"Ethan," she proudly announced.
Great. I'd have to go through her brother to make it happen. Sallie spoke again. To heal the past, marry the present.
I was here for a wedding. I just hoped that was the only marrying that had to happen because Ethan was not the man for me.
Ethan
Six months ago, I bought a plantation for a steal. Turned out, that the joke was on me. The place was haunted. The guy who sold it to me was desperate to unload the place. I thought I was getting the upper hand. Instead, I was getting screwed.
I was in too deep financially to walk away, so I decided to do a complete teardown and put up a housing development. Even that wasn't working out for me. The equipment kept breaking down. The guys, big burly construction workers, were being scared off the site.
That's when I reached out to my mother. She did some research. Apparently, Belle's Morrow was one of the most violent plantations in Louisiana. And it was previously owned by our ancestors. There were tales of the horrors the slaves faced, and also the way it all ended: with a Haitian voodoo priestess named Sallie. When she was murdered by the plantation owner, she cursed him, his entire line, and the land.
So, I found a voodoo priestess. I thought she could burn some sage, clear the place, quiet the spirits, and save me from financial ruin. She couldn't. What she did was act as a liaison with Sallie. And what I was told unquieted me more than anything I'd heard before. We could only heal the past by marrying the present. That's where Isla came in. She was already engaged to her college boyfriend. She'd get married here. And the curse would be broken. Only that's not what happened at all.
Soon enough, I realized three things: first, Isla's marriage wasn't going to change a thing; second, Nia hated me; and finally, the marriage that would solve everything was the one between Nia and me. We had to find some common ground. And the only ground I had was the ground I was standing on. I hoped that would be enough because Nia was too much.
