Page 33 of The Curse

Me. Nicholas Bailey.

With a renewed determination, I walked over to the window, jerked the curtains off the rods, and looked out the window. Corbin had been correct in his assessment that I would break my neck if I tried to jump. We were three stories off the ground. No trees were nearby so I couldn’t borrow a limb and climb safely to the ground. I checked the side of the house for overhangs or anything I could grip with my fingers, but there was no escape route available.

I glanced at the trees again and thought about how Corbin had snapped a huge limb with his magic and then flown away on it the night Nicodemus had broken his heart. He’d made it look so damned easy. I concentrated on one of the large limbs, imagining it breaking off and flying toward me, but nothing happened.

Love, focus on love.

Maybe my mother was right. Maybe love did it for me and my magic, instead of anger. I had certainly been angry at Morgan when I burst through her barrier to get in the house, but I had also been consumed with love for Corbin. I focused on my mother and my father, on the loss and pain they’d surely felt when they’d realized the curse was going to end their lives. Alastair’s smiling face popped into my mind, reminding me that it was more than my life and destiny at stake. Finally, my heart warmed as I thought about Corbin, the love of my long, long life as Nicodemus. His magic had given me another chance at life…another chance to be with him. I thought of the words of an old John Denver song. “Dreams I can't remember now, hopes that I'veforgotten. Faded memories. Still I love to see the sun go down. And the world goes around and around and around.” To me, whenever I listened to that song and felt depressed about not having a family or anybody to love me, to losing so much, I remembered that there was still beauty in the world. And life kept going—just kept on giving you more chances to find that beauty.

My hatred for Morgan tried to squeak into my mind, but I shoved it out and focused only on love. My entire life had been lonely and without much life. The moment I’d stepped foot into Marblehead, that had changed. Now, my soul was consumed with love.

I stumbled backward in complete shock when the limb I’d been concentrating on broke away from the tree, flew in my direction, and then hovered outside the closed window. I stood there, mouth gaping wide open, thinking this was like a fucking movie. Maybe a horror-comedy mix.

Fifteen minutes later, my face was burning with humiliation and I hoped to hell there weren’t video cameras planted anywhere near Corbin’s sanctuary. Yeah, Corbin had made mounting the limb and riding it look easy, but I had first-hand knowledge of how untrue that was. I’d nearly fallen out of the window as I’d tried to climb aboard, and then I’d nearly fallen off the limb at least ten times as I’d tried to steady my ass on the wood. I could hear every witch to ever walk the earth laughing hysterically at my clumsy attempts to do what they did on that old TV show,Bewitched, and still make it look sexy.

I did not look sexy.

Nor did I look like I was capable of ending a century-old curse.

I teetered and then steadied the limb. Not only that, I didn’t know how to drive this makeshift broom.Well, fuck.

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