Eve of the Light

By Yolanda Burnette

Eve is as spicy as Louisiana crawfish, strong as the mighty live oak trees that sway in the south Louisiana wind, and magical as the heartbeat of Acadiana.
Readers will come along for the journey of a girl who grows into a mighty warrior queen, charged with safeguarding the light of hope for both the magical and human realms. The audience will fall in love with the story of Eve, who finds her father, finds love and, through the guidance and counsel of the women in her ancestral line, finds her inner warrior queen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781528990509

Yolanda Burnette

Yolanda Burnette was born on February 12, 1979 in a small south Louisiana town of Crowley. Devoted mother to four children, dutiful daughter and older sister to two siblings, and fervent educator for over twenty years; these are just a few details about the life of this amazing author. The superstitious and mystical climate of her beloved south Louisiana created a love for fantasy fiction. Louisiana is the backdrop for Eve of the Light; folklore and a Creole pedigree lead Yolanda’s readers on an amazing adventure into a mythical land.

Book preview

About the Author

Yolanda Burnette was born on February 12, 1979 in a small south Louisiana town of Crowley. Devoted mother to four children, dutiful daughter and older sister to two siblings, and fervent educator for over twenty years; these are just a few details about the life of this amazing author. The superstitious and mystical climate of her beloved south Louisiana created a love for fantasy fiction. Louisiana is the backdrop for Eve of the Light; folklore and a Creole pedigree lead Yolanda’s readers on an amazing adventure into a mythical land.

Dedication

To my children, Peyton, Rylee, Reagan, and Cruz; I love you with every fiber of my being. I will always protect each of you. This labor of love has been to show you all that dreams do come true.

Copyright Information ©

Yolanda Burnette 2022

The right of Yolanda Burnette to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398427792 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528990509 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

Thank you to my amazing parents for raising me to be strong-willed and God-fearing; thanks for your unconditional love and support.

Chapter 1

Well, it’s another typical Saturday morning in my dull life. Mama dropped Dawn and I off to open her salon and get things ready for the busy day, while she went to the beauty supply store to get a few things. This is our life. Dawn really is a bigger help to Mama than I am, even I’ll admit that. She runs the front desk better than any receptionist possibly could and she takes care of all the inventory for the products Mama sells. Dawn basically runs most of the business side of things so that Mama can focus on making her clients beautiful. Our little boring town is lucky to have such an amazingly talented hair stylist and make-up artist. I’m not biased because she also happens to be my mother; she has a natural gift for making things and people beautiful.

I always try to convince her that we should move to an exciting place like Hollywood or New York where her talents can really be appreciated and not to mention she could become rich and famous. She just shakes her head and calls me a silly girl. Mama and Dawn love living here in this one-horse town known as Crowley, LA. There’s nothing to do here and I wish we could move. Mama always says big cities mean big crime rates, big trouble for teenage girls, and lots of air pollution. I would gladly take all of that in place of the miles of rice fields filled with standing water that breeds mutant mosquitoes, snakes and nutria rats. There are also the many bayous and swamps filled with equally aggravating rodents like alligators, raccoons and armadillos. Aside from the rodents, I will admit that the scenery is beautiful here in our little town. We have wide open fields with lovely wild flowers growing and a main street that reminds you of much simpler times. Even the graveyard is interesting because the graves are above the ground instead of six feet under. This is because of the water in this area; you can’t dig too deep without it bubbling up. Even the many swamp and bayou areas are beautiful. So, I guess I can see Mama and Dawn’s sentiments for this place, but gosh, how long can the scenery hold you prisoner? The people here are nice but extremely superstitious. You can’t go one day without hearing about some sort of supernatural spirit or what someone can do to another with the correct deadly plant roots. It’s totally aggravating and utterly ridiculous to believe in any of that. Nevertheless, we have lived here all of our lives, and my mother has been here all of her life as well.

Here comes the first customer, Mrs. Dorothy Minix. Dawn greets her and gets her set up in the shampoo room for me.

Where’s your mama, sugar? Mrs. Dorothy asks Dawn looking weary like she hasn’t slept in days.

After Dawn tells her Mama will be here soon, she relaxes and waits for me to shampoo her hair. That’s what I do here in the shop; I shampoo hair and sweep; that’s about it. Unlike Dawn I’m not totally driven and outgoing. I act just like the 15-year-old girl that I am. I often wonder how Dawn and I can be identical twins and yet other than being physically similar we’re nothing alike. She’s my big sister because she was born three minutes before me and she’s the big sister in every sense of the word. I totally follow her direction about everything and I really admire her tenacity and take-no-prisoners attitude.

Eve, get in there and start shampooing Mrs. Dorothy before she starts complaining!

Dawn also fusses at me like she’s years older than me rather than mere minutes.

I’m going, Dawn, I had to finish my breakfast; you don’t want me fainting from starvation, do you?

Eve, we both know that’s not going to happen, now please hurry with that cereal so you can get started.

Dawn acts like she’s thirty instead of fifteen; I swear that girl has been on this earth before. I would much rather curl up on the sofa in the back of the shop than shampoo Ms. Dorothy’s hair. It’s Saturday morning, I wish for once I could sleep in.

Eve.

I winced as Dawn called my name. I better get a move on before she walks back here. As I sauntered into the shampoo room, I shook off my hesitant feeling and faked a big smile for my mama’s most regular client.

Hey, Ms. Dorothy, how are you doing this morning?

What in the world? Ms Dorothy looks like she’s been awake for a week. She is a really pretty and extremely classy older woman. Thanks to Mama her short red hair always looks nice and Mama has also taught her how to apply her make-up flawlessly. Ms. Dorothy is usually so vibrant, energetic and full of life; but today she looks drained and weary. She already had her head leaned back into the shampoo bowl and she was just looking at the ceiling. She slowly sat up and glared at me with something mysterious behind her light brown eyes.

I’m fine… Eve.

Her face was guarded and somewhat hesitant, I froze in place. Why did she look like this? My mind went in a hundred different directions. Was she ill? Had something horrible happened to her? Mama hadn’t mentioned anything to me; I wondered if Dawn knew what was going on.

I’ll be right back, Ms. Dorothy, just give me a second to grab another bottle of your favorite shampoo.

She looked at me with those same mysterious, questioning eyes and said, Take all the time you need, Eve, I’m not in a rush.

Not in a rush, now I knew something was wrong! Ms. Dorothy has been coming to this shop every Saturday morning since I was a baby and she always tells Mama to get done with her because she has something or another to go do. Usually, she would be glaring at me to hurry by now, okay, something isn’t right.

I almost ran to the front of the shop where Dawn was busy doing something at the front desk. She jerked her head up.

Eve, why aren’t you shampooing Ms. Dorothy yet, you know how she gets?

I studied Dawn’s beautiful face; she looked mean with it all twisted up into a grimace like that.

Dawn, what is wrong with Ms. Dorothy? She looks sick or something and she said she wasn’t in a rush; you know she’s not herself if she said that. Did you see her when she came in?

Dawn glared at me for a moment and I saw something strange in her eyes for a brief second; it wasn’t the glare she usually gave me when I got on her nerves.

Eve, there is nothing wrong with Ms. Dorothy, now stop messing around and get started on her hair.

I was so confused, there was obviously something wrong with Ms. Dorothy and I’m positive Dawn had to have noticed that because she was far more observant than I was. Now I’m wondering what is going on with Dawn? Whatever, I’m just going to go shampoo Ms. Dorothy’s hair. It’s too early and I don’t need any worries on my mind today, I’ll ask Mama about it when she gets here.

When I got back into the shampoo room, I grabbed a shampoo cape and a towel for Ms. Dorothy. I looked at her and silently wondered about her health, I knew she had a heart condition a few years back so maybe she was getting sick again. Oh well I’m sure there was nothing I could do about it.

Are you ready, Ms. Dorothy?

She nodded silently and sat up for me to place the towel and cape around her neck. The next thing that happened caught me completely off guard. As I touched her neck, she seemed as if I had electrocuted her. She jumped at my touch and looked a bit dazed, and then she turned very quickly and just stared at me. Then she began speaking very slowly,

Eve, you are going to be powerful and extremely important to so many people. You must be careful of those around you; everyone is not what they seem, especially in the near future.

Her eyes looked… well crazed. I stood motionless not knowing what to say. Before I could respond Dawn was at my side and she looked at Ms. Dorothy with a lot of suspicion.

Dawn said, All right, Ms. Dorothy, you know all of that superstitious foretelling stuff makes her nervous, so don’t start with that today.

Ms. Dorothy turned her weary eyes on Dawn and then she just sat back without a word. Dawn looked at me and shrugged her shoulders, and then she went back in the front of the salon. I began shampooing Ms. Dorothy’s hair and she just sat very still with her eyes closed the entire time. By the time I finished, Mama was back and waiting on her.

That was one of the major issues I had with Crowley, all superstitious mumbo jumbo. The residents of this place all believe in voodoo stuff like evil spirits and protecting oneself from evil people. They’re always acting like there are spirits of some sort in everything; from the trees, to the surrounding waters, to the clouds in the sky. Mostly I feel like these folks are crazy, a lot of nonsense; but today Ms. Dorothy really caught me off guard. These people do things like place tiny bags around their homes even outside, they call the little bags gris-gris and they contain things that they feel will protect their homes against evil spirits and people. They use salt to make circles around their homes in the middle of the night to keep others from throwing bad gris-gris into their yards. I mean the folks around here can come up with some crazy stuff, entertaining at times but crazy nevertheless. Mama and Dawn just laugh it off and tell me don’t worry about it when people tell me off the wall things like they can see my future or into my very soul. That’s why I need to get away from this place; I can’t take much more of their superstitions.

After I finished with Ms. Dorothy I quickly ran into the salon’s back room where there’s a couch so I could try to sneak a nap in before things got too crazy this morning. But before I could get too comfortable Mama came in to talk to me. Obviously, Dawn had told her about the episode with Ms. Dorothy so she wanted to make sure I was all right. My mama is the most beautiful creature in the world. She’s average height and her height is the only thing average about her. Her tan sun-kissed skin was unblemished and soft as a baby, her thick, straight black hair stopping right below her shoulders. She’s very curvaceous and she has the most beautiful green eyes I have ever seen. Her full lips turned up into a beautiful smile revealing her perfect white teeth.

Eve, what’s wrong, honey, did Ms. Dorothy scare you this morning?

I stared at her serene face and I lied, No, Mama, I could care less about that superstitious crap that she was talking about.

I didn’t want Mama to worry about me, besides it wasn’t totally a lie because I wasn’t scared, only a little shaken. Mama eyed me very carefully and then began walking toward the couch to sit next to me. She rubbed my face; everyone always said that Dawn and I looked just like Mama. We loved to hear that because Dawn and I have always thought that our mother was so beautiful. We had her eyes and skin tone, we weren’t quite as shapely as she was but we were only 15 so I’m sure that was coming soon enough. Our hair was longer than Mama’s, we wore ours down to our waists.

"Eve,