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it over.
    “See here,” she continued, seemingly unaware of my growing doubt. “This here card’s your future.”
    I looked at the card she was pointing at. Where the other cards had been almost alive with color, the final card was a study in darkness. A hooded figure, its skeletal hands grasping a jagged-edged scythe, stood over the body of a very young woman. The only color on the card was the deep scarlet of the blood running from her throat. Behind them, a dark river flowed.
    “I’m going to die?” I asked, thinking of the Dream. I could practically feel the dark, fetid water rushing over me, pulling me down, and my chest felt suddenly tight, like I’d never be able to breathe again.
    Mama Legba made an impatient-sounding snort that jolted me back into the room. “You smarter than that, girl. You looking at things too literally. You got to look soul -deep. Death don’t mean no end. This card show a powerful energy, because it mean that something’s gonna change. You don’t believe that when we die we just end, do you?”
    I thought about it for a moment. “No. I suppose I don’t.”
    “You believe we go on? That what this card be showing us. Death ain’t nothing more or nothing less than a change. Something was. Something new gonna be. This here card tell us something big gonna happen in the future for you. A door will close. Another will open. Something big coming for you, Lucy-girl.” She pinned me with her eyes. “Something gonna change in you as you continue your journey.”
    “Should I be worried?”
    I shouldn’t have asked. The Lucy in Chicago wouldn’t have asked, but the Lucy here? I’d already had enough change. More than I could handle, to tell the truth. The Dream was back, and now I’d pulled the Death card. I needed to know what was coming next.
    Mama Legba smiled as though she knew I was hooked. “Well now, that depends, don’t it?”
    “You tell me,” I said trying to keep my voice flat. Trying to hide the sudden urgency I felt.
    “You a hard one, Lucy-girl, but I think you gonna do just fine, honey.” She smiled. “What I see here is that you in for big changes, child. Scary at times, transformative always, but you be all right in the end.”
    “Mama Legba’s always right, Lucy,” Chloe said in hushed, reverent tones. “She’s got the gift.”
    I looked between the two women, trying to keep my face from broadcasting my doubts.
    “You don’t need to believe me. What is, is, honey.” Mama Legba smiled warmly, as though confirming she had read my thoughts clearly. “You too full of doubt for someone so young.”
    “Yeah, well … ” Of course I was full of doubt. Didn’t my dad always teach me to look for the evidence that proves what’s true? How could I possibly look for evidence that proved magic and make-believe?
    “Lucy-girl, not all magic is make-believe,” Mama Legba said, cutting into my thoughts with an unsettling accuracy. “Love is a powerful magic, and it’s as real as anything you can touch.”
    “You know that’s the honest truth,” Chloe exclaimed, buzzing with delight. “Didn’t I tell you she was the real thing? Read me, Mama, please?”
    Mama Legba shook her head. “You ain’t ready yet, Chloe-girl. You got some more work to do before I read your cards.”
    I didn’t understand why I had been ready when Chloe wasn’t, and I could tell Chloe felt the same way. Disappointment, and maybe also a hint of anger, crashed trough her expression, but she masked it quickly. “Then if you won’t read me, can we have our lesson?”
    “You were awful late, Chloe-girl. There ain’t much time left.”
    “Please, Mama.”
    Mama Legba huffed out a sigh that was both irritated and good-natured. “Fine. Fine. Let’s see,” she mumbled to herself, looking closely at me. “What you know about Voodoo, Lucy?”
    That it was a hoax, a sham. Nothing more.
    I couldn’t say that, not with one hopeful and one perceptive set of eyes on me. “It’s, like