1: 1
Twenty years ago, because my mother's birth chart was said to bring luck to a husband, the Dickersons gambled everything and brought her into the family.
Seven years later, once Max Dickerson had cemented his place as the richest man alive, the first thing he did was force my mother into a divorce.
The truth was, the woman he'd always loved was Carissa Henson. Now that he was free of his troubles, he could finally marry Carissa and bring her home.
My mother took me and left in tears. Max Dickerson arranged a car crash.
In his eyes I was never his daughter. I was a threat to the family fortune.
Gravely injured, my mother fled back to her hometown with me, and died there in agony on a sickbed.
Twenty years later, I became the foremost geomancer alive.
The man across from me knotted his brows. "Master Pruitt, lately the Dickerson family has been plagued by illness and disaster, and our business is going badly. We're on the verge of losing everything."
"Please, think of something. Save us."
"My father is the richest man alive. Don't worry about the cost. Whatever the price, we can pay it."
I looked at that face, so like Max Dickerson's, and said flatly, "This is karma. I won't interfere."
……
The man across from me froze.
He leaned his ear closer and asked, deliberately, "What did you say? I didn't catch it."
"This matter," I said evenly, "I won't interfere."
The man smiled. "Master Pruitt, have you gotten something confused? I'm Antony Dickerson. My father is Max Dickerson. My family is the richest in the world."
"Are you sure you want to turn us down? You'd better think about the consequences."
I looked at Antony Dickerson's face, and disgust rose in me.
The year my mother and I were driven out, Antony was only seven, but he already had the temper of a little tyrant.
He spat in my face. He threw rocks at me.
He chased after me, hurling insults, crowing at me. "My dad and my mom are the real couple. I was born before your mother ever came into the house."
"My mom told me everything. My dad only married your mother to borrow her luck and make money."
"He's got the money now, so your mother's no use anymore. Get lost, both of you."
Max Dickerson had been standing right beside him then, and said nothing to stop it.
Maybe every word out of Antony's mouth was exactly what Max Dickerson was thinking.
Seeing that I didn't answer, Antony smugly crossed his legs and propped his foot up on my table. "Master Pruitt, quit playing hard to get. You just want more money, don't you? I've seen plenty of people like you. Name your price."
I said coldly, "It isn't about money. I told you, I won't interfere in this. Leave."
Antony flew into a rage.
He jumped up and slammed the table. "What kind of game are you playing? Last year the Harringtons were already in bankruptcy proceedings. You relocated one grave for them, and just like that they came back from the dead."
"The Dickersons are in far better shape than the Harringtons ever were."
"You could save the Harringtons, but you're telling me you can't save the Dickersons?"
I looked him in the eye. "Did you not understand me? It's not that I can't save you. I don't want to."
Antony stiffened, and then something cruel surfaced on that arrogant face.
He lowered his voice and threatened me. "I'm respecting you when I call you Master Pruitt. If I chose not to, you'd be nothing but some backwoods fortune-teller in a mountain hollow."
"You dare cross the Dickersons? I'll make it so you die without ever knowing how."
It was true that all these years I'd lived in a mountain village.
But it wasn't that I couldn't leave. As the foremost geomancer alive, buying a mansion in the city would have been nothing to me.
I stayed here because I wanted to be near my mother.
After she died, she was buried here.
I pointed at the door. "You're not welcome here. Go."
Antony gave a cold laugh, then said, "I hear your family's grave is in this very village."
"A geomancer would pick herself a good burial plot, wouldn't she? That land, I want it."
He put on his sunglasses, full of confidence. "I'll give you three hours to move the grave. Otherwise, when I come do it myself, it won't be pretty."
Antony left.
I watched him go and laughed coldly. "Antony Dickerson, you think I'm still the child you got to bully back then?"
I took out my phone and sent a mass text.
For the rest of the day, I did what I always did. I read, I practiced.
At dinner, a call came in from a number I didn't know.
The voice on the other end was familiar. Antony's.
He said, all sneering singsong, "Master Pruitt, how's the grave relocation coming along? Your time's almost up."
I didn't bother answering him. I hung up, blocked the number, and went back to eating.
Five minutes later, the village chief came storming into my house.
Before I could get a word out, he kicked over my dinner table.
He pointed at me and shouted, "Gail Pruitt, the whole village has decided. Get out, now. And never come back."
"You jinx. We've put up with you long enough."
