Page 59 of Cold Foot Curse

A little growl escaped her, and it surprised her. The animal was awake. That rarely happened anymore.

She had dressed in cut-off shorts, a black tank top, a flannel and a pair of low-top sneakers that were a half-size too big because they had belonged to Raynah. Messy bun it was today, and then she was ready to face whatever this was.

Tawk was pouring creamer in a coffee and offered it to her.

“No thanks. I’m not up for being drugged first thing in the morning,” she grumbled, and passed him by to make her own cup of coffee.

“Suit yourself. Drugging isn’t my gig though.”

“Oh yeah? Just burning me alive and eating my ashes if I piss you off?”

“More like it,” he agreed.

She hated being in small spaces with Tawk. Even when he wasn’t worked up, his dragon felt too big and heavy and it made it hard to breathe.

“Kade will kill you if you hurt me.”

“Why do you keep thinking everyone is out to hurt you?” Tawk asked, sinking down onto the couch.

And she thought about it as she waited for the coffee to begin pouring into her little mug. “It’s what most people I know have done.”

“Mmm, you’re talking about Misty? And Samuel?”

“Yeah, Tawk, and about a billion other people I’ve trusted over my lifetime. Misty told you guys about the locket and the curse. Samuel killed Tanner and let my Promise take the fall for him. And this whole time? This entire time? Samuel and Misty played it out like they were innocent, and I was crazy for still thinking kindly of Kade, and meanwhile, I was in the house with the real traitors to Sister’s Edge all along. And not to trauma dump on you, but this,” she said, holding up the locket that was now secured around her neck. “Has made trusting people a little difficult.”

“You trust Kade. I don’t think he would betray you.”

“Yeah, but the curse. The one person I can trust will be betrayed by me. That’s the fate of a Heichman Witch, right?”

“Do you know why you were cursed?”

“No. My alcoholic mother must’ve let that little family secret slip through the cracks while she was spending all our grocery money on her next bottle of numbness. She just told me I can never fall in love a bunch of times, and then didn’t even fight CPS when they took me, and then never followed up, never looked for me, never even fucking tried to help me through a single day of my life.” Sarcasm was thick in her tone right now but fuck it. She had all these feelings boiling over, and Tawk was asking annoying questions first thing in the freaking morning. It was barely dawn outside.

“I think she probably loved you in her own way.”

She huffed a laugh and shook her head. “Oh yeah? Did you know her?”

“My mom did.”

Well, that drew her up short. “What?”

“My family has known about your family’s curse for generations. Open the locket, Jess.”

She already knew what she would find in there—black and white pictures on each side of a man and a woman she didn’t recognize. She’d studied those pictures a hundred times.

He was waiting, his expression unreadable.

“Fine,” she muttered, prying open the glowing, pulsing locket. The light blue glow looked a little darker this morning, she swore. Inside were the same two pictures that had always been there. The woman had dark hair, pulled back into a low bun. She wore a dark dress with white piping along the high neckline. She wore a slight smile, but her eyes were dark and empty. The man on the other side had much lighter hair and a suit on, complete with a bowtie. He had his chin raised high into the air and was glaring at the camera with icy eyes.

“Favella Heichman was your great, great, great, great grandmother, and was the last in your line to be allowed love. She ruined it for all of you by falling in love with that man.”

“Who is he?” she asked, staring at the picture of him.

“Well, technically, he’s your great, great, great, great grandfather, but he wasn’t supposed to be. Back then, the covens were powerful, and he belonged to someone else.”

“He cheated with Favella?” she asked softly.

“They were both to blame,” Tawk said with a shrug. “They both knew better. His wife was head of all the covens back then. She was it. She was the one everyone went to, she knew the most, she held the most power, she was the most revered. She was also the most jealous, and brutal, and unforgiving. Favella and Edmund hid their affair for a long time, until Favella began showing. She wouldn’t say who the father was, and that kind of secrecy wasn’t allowed in the covens back then. When it came out that Edmund was the father, they weren’t killed in the traditional way. Helena wanted their betrayal to echo through the generations. She wanted to set an example, so that no one would ever dare to betray her again. She gathered all of the covens, and she did a blood curse on the Heichman’s, of which Edmund would be the first victim. He died in Favella’s arms.”

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