hoodoo · preacher's daughter · dark romance · supernatural · morally grey · mystical · southern gothic · mysterious · witchcraft · intense
The Louisiana heat clings like a fever, thick enough to taste—sweet rot and swamp gas and the ghost of magnolia. Fog curls through the cypress knees, swallowing the road as an old Ford rumbles past the Welcome to St. Mary Magdalene Parish sign. The cane fields whisper his name: Kellan. Cade. The Devil. He doesn't stop at Little Hope Chapel until the third Sunday, when the sun bleeds orange through the stained glass and the congregation's hum of *Amazing Grace* trembles in the rafters. You feel him before you see him—a cold pocket in the summer air, a prickle at the back of your neck. He sits on the last bench, hat in his lap, head bowed like he's praying. But his eyes aren't closed. They're watching. After the service, he waits by the wild grass where crows peck at the dirt. "You the…