Page 29 of Blood Brother Cursed

One morning while eating breakfast, Astrid pulled out her phone and texted him.

Are you back in town? If so, would you like to meet up? I’ve been cooped up and could use a little human interaction. If you know somewhere safe, we could talk about the latest information I’ve found. Or I can make us dinner, and we could talk in the relative safety of my home.

At first, she hoped he would respond quickly, given it was early in the day. She tried to give him time so that they could text for a while before she started working. When she finished eating, Astrid knew he wasn’t going to answer. Not quite ready to settle into her work, she decided to try to water the dead grass outside her home. It had bothered her when it was mostly brown when she moved in back in May. Now, not even the weeds were green.

Astrid went outside and tried to turn on the sprinklers. The landlord had said back in May that the grass would probably come back once the rain started. Astrid looked at the brown yard and felt a sense of discomfort. She suspected that the reason the landlord told her not to worry about the grass was that he didn’t want to have to fix the broken sprinkler system. Looking up and down the street, Astrid was annoyed that her yard was the only one that wasn’t a lustrous green.

I’m not going to be that house on the street.

She bent down to look like she was fixing something in case anyone was watching. Placing her hand on the ground, shetapped into the water system. Seconds later, water was shooting across the yard. Astrid stood and folded her arms over her chest, watching the water moving in beautiful arcs that created small rainbows all across her yard. Satisfied that her yard would start coming back to life sooner, she headed inside. Once back indoors, she pulled out her phone to see if Phoenix had responded.

Nothing.

Knowing that his delayed response meant he probably wouldn’t respond for a while, she turned her attention to the work she was loathe to do. The smooth sailing had ended at the beginning of August, as managers started trying to get their way before the project ended, and that meant getting pulled into a plethora of pointless meetings where the managers would argue. Of course she was invited as the security expert, but they never listened to her during the meetings.

After three hours of hearing them bicker about what to do, the group decided to take a break. Grateful for a chance to escape, she stood up and stretched. Then, after deciding that she felt too stiff and restless to stay inside, Astrid decided to go for a jog to get some fresh air.

Such a waste of money,she thought. Pay for an expert, then ignore their recommendations.

Stretching her legs, she tried to get her head in a better space.

She shoved her earphones into her ears, still feeling a bit bothered by the managers and their quarrels. When she pulled out her phone, she saw a text from Phoenix. Everything else was forgotten as she read his reply.

I can’t meet up, but I did find something interesting. I’ll send it over later.

It wasn’t what she wanted to read, but she was even more disappointed than she had expected. Instead of responding, she turned up her music and headed outside. As she walked down the driveway, Astrid stopped the water spraying out of the broken sprinklers; then, she ran at a comfortable pace.

Just like that first day, she tried to think about what the place would have looked like to her brother. Every so often, she imagined Phoenix and Evander jogging together. It was one more thing she needed to ask him.

When she finally returned home, she returned to her desk. As the managers returned from the break and started arguing in the chat room, Astrid sighed and turned her attention to a more pressing problem.

She stared at Phoenix’s message, debating how to respond. It was clear he was going to try to keep his distance from her because he was afraid that his curse would kill her. The logical part of her wanted to dismiss it. Then again, the logical part of her was still having trouble accepting that dragons were real, so she knew that reality wasn’t nearly as cut and dry as logic made it seem.

Turning to the one place she always went when she wasn’t sure what to do, Astrid opened Tor and started researching curses. There was a lot of nonsense and claims that she easily dismissed.

Every once in a while, she had to interact with the managers as they sniped, bickered, and argued with each other. Since she knew they weren’t going to listen to her, Astrid was only partially aware of what they were asking. She had already sent her recommendations in an email to all of them and their superiors. Eventually, after the managers wasted enough time and money, they would undoubtedly end up doing as she suggested.

An hour and a half passed before she gave up on finding anything real about curses online. Most of the dark web covered the same kind of junk that could be found on the normal internet, except it tended to focus on how to curse others, not on how to break them. And none of the information seemed credible.

Lightly tapping on her keyboard, Astrid considered what to do. Finally, she started researching Elliott Sexton. They hadn’t talked since their dinner, but every once in a while, he would come up in the conversations with Phoenix. It was possible that he knew more about the curse or at least had an idea as to where to start looking for ways to break it.

Getting his information proved to be much harder than she expected. Eventually, she gave up trying to find him – he had no online footprint. She started researching other numbers for the family. When she came across a website that listed Sheriff Cooper Sexton, Astrid felt certain she had someone who might be able to help her.

Picking up the phone, she dialed the number.

“Sexton Sheriff’s Department. Cooper speaking.”

“Um, this is Astrid Lynnox. I don’t know if Elliott’s mentioned me, but I was wondering how to get in touch with him.”

There was a heavy sigh, and Cooper must have covered the mouthpiece. She heard him talking, but she couldn’t make out the words. When he returned to the phone, Cooper sounded less than friendly. “What do you want with him?”

“I ran into him and Phoenix Woodward in Ponderosa.”

There was concern in his voice as the sheriff responded, “Elliott’s spending time with Phoenix? That – I don’t – Alina hasn’t mentioned anything about this. Are they getting close?”

Astrid was astonished by the response. After the way Elliott had talked him up, she expected better of Cooper. Feelingoffended on Phoenix’s part, she replied, “They are working together because of something that happened in Canada. Elliottofferedhis help to Phoenix, who initially turned him down. So don’t blame Phoenix for your brother’s choices.”

There was silence. “Do you have any idea how he affected my family?”

---