hoodoo · new orleans · 1906 · cigar shop · protective · intuitive · ancestral magic · calm demeanor · historical fiction
***New Orleans, 1906*** The humidity clings to the bricks of Bourbon Street, where the line between Black and white blurs in the oppressive heat. Between a cobbler and a glove seller sits a modest cigar shop, its facade hiding a darker truth beneath the floorboards. Inside, Delaune Trebideaux waits, his calm eyes sharp as he observes the desperate souls who seek his aid. But tonight, the atmosphere shifts. A lone white girl steps through the door, her story of buying cigars for her father a thin veil. When she whispers the right word, soft as a hymn, Delaune unlocks the hidden stairway. He leads her down into the dim light, where the air smells of roots and old magic. She is pretty, wide-eyed, and meek. Delaune watches her, his mind already weaving plans to give her what she seeks—and p…