The 13th Sign
Page 18
“Good. De old gal need it.”
The dusty store fell silent for a moment. “What you gonna do with de stone, girl?” Madame asked.
I blinked. I hadn’t said a word about Ophiuchus’s stone. I patted it now protectively. Ellie had given me her messenger bag, and I kept the stone with me at all times. I didn’t trust it to be anywhere away from me. But honestly, I didn’t trust it with me, either. My fingers flew to my lock of hair, dyed purple now, and started twisting.
My voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you want to see it?”
Madame Beausoleil almost slipped off her stool, she shook her head so violently. “No. Nuh-uh. I dint wan see it when her daddy brung it in here, and I don wan see it now.”
I looked at the dirty floor of her shop and smiled. “Nina brought him here for the book, didn’t she? When I was sick. Before.”
Madame Beausoleil nodded. “I wouldn’t give dat book to jest anyone. Your daddy, he begged. He returned it, too, jest before he—” Her words dropped off. She was unsure of what to say around me.
“Died,” I finished. I swallowed, but nodded. “But how come no one told me about this? How come Nina never told me?”
Madame Beausoleil’s cloudy eyes softened. “You tink your Nina wan you to live wit da guilt of knowing your daddy give his life for yours? Dat’s not something you tell a child.”
It wasn’t something you tell a child. But I knew it now.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with the stone,” I admitted at last. I had so many questions: Why did I have this thing? Did Ophiuchus think I needed it? Was Ophiuchus planning to return? Did she want me to heal Nina? “I’m kind of scared I might do something stupid with it.”
Madame Beausoleil chuckled, and it sounded like she had gravel in her lungs. “Nah, girl, you a Sagittarius. Dey think before making dey choices. Dat’s always good, right?” She spun on her stool, waddled off of it, and shuffled behind the curtains into the back.
I grinned. Because, well—not always. Sometimes thinking too much could make you miss something really great. Come to think of it, I don’t know that there is such a thing as a good trait or a bad trait. Every aspect of our personalities can be good or bad; it just depends on the situation. Sometimes a help, sometimes a hindrance. No absolutes.
Take my dad, for instance. He was stubborn. And naive. And obsessive. But he had to be those things to defeat all twelve Keepers. He was also curious and patient and loyal and faithful. Faithful, I think, most of all. Daddy needed all those traits to win. No absolutes.
I smiled. It felt good, remembering him without the stabbing pain. Remembering the joy and happiness and love instead. It would be how I would remember Nina, too. With dignity.
The sounds of New Orleans drifted in through the front door: a delivery truck splashing through a puddle, a tourist asking for directions, the sizzle-pop-psst of a street vendor frying up something spicy on a street corner. And underneath and over it all, a line of jazz, with its deep-blue blurts and snappy-red blasts and twists and turns and twirls. Life moving forward. No absolutes.
I caught myself twining my fingers in the purple streak in my hair. The salt-and-pepper snake in the glass box on the counter looked at me, then. It cocked its tiny diamond head and winked.
And I winked back.
Traditional 12-Sign Zodiac
Aries: March 21–April 19
Taurus: April 20–May 20
Gemini: May 21–June 20
Cancer: June 21–July 22
Leo: July 23–August 22
Virgo: August 23–September 22
Libra: September 23–October 22
Scorpio: October 23–November 21
Sagittarius: November 22–December 21
Capricorn: December 22–January 19
Aquarius: January 20–February 18
Pisces: February 19–March 20
The 13-Sign Zodiac
Aries: April 19–May 13
Taurus: May 14–June 19
Gemini: June 20–July 20
Cancer: July 21–August 9
Leo: August 10–September 15
Virgo: September 16–October 30
Libra: October 31–November 22
Scorpio: November 23–November 29
Ophiuchus: November 30–December 17
Sagittarius: December 18–January 18
Capricorn: January 19–February 15
Aquarius: February 16–March 11
Pisces: March 12–April 18
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An Imprint of Macmillan
THE 13TH SIGN. Copyright © 2013 by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. All rights reserved. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tubb, Kristin O’Donnell.
The 13th sign / Kristin O’Donnell Tubb.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: On her thirteenth birthday, Jalen unwittingly brings the twelve signs of the zodiac to life through a mysterious old book, and soon she, her friend Ellie, and Ellie’s brother, Brennan, are battling in the streets of New Orleans to defeat the twelve and their little-known companion before time runs out.
ISBN: 978-1-250-03766-4
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Zodiac—Fiction. 3. Astrology—Fiction. 4. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 5. Books and reading—Fiction. 6. New Orleans (La.)—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Thirteenth sign.
PZ7.T796Aah 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2012034058
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