Page 3 of Blood Brother Cursed

“Blech!” Astrid’s expression was a combination of grossed out and horrified. “I don’t want to get married.”

He laughed. “Not right now. But maybe someday. And if you don’t want to get married, that’s fine, too. But I would really love for you to be happy, whatever you choose.”

“I just want to live with you and Dad. He said we could stay with him as long as we want.”

“Yes, he did.” Evander looked toward their house, even though it was nearly half a mile from where they were. “Let’s not talk serious right now. This is supposed to be our time for having fun.”

“Evander!”

Astrid looked at her brother as he stood up. “Coming, Dad!” He looked down at her, a sadness in his eyes. “Sorry, kitten, looks like we’ll have to do this when I come back.”

She wanted to argue, to force him to stay. The water in the pond began to ripple as her emotions grew.

Evander got back on her level. “None of that now. Dad needs us, and tomorrow, he’s going to need you even more, ok?”

She stuck out her lower lip but gave a curt nod. The last thing she wanted to do was to make her big brother unhappy or, worse, to disappoint him.

“That’s my favorite girl.” He patted her shoulder. “I knew I could count on you. And I promise, when I come back, I’ll make more time to teach you all of the important lessons Dad taught me.”

Fighting the tears, Astrid’s mouth twisted to the side, and she rubbed her nose. Not trusting herself to say anything, she let him take her hand. They hadn’t gone too far when he silently picked her up and put her on his shoulders. Like magic, he was able to get her laughing just a few minutes later. By the time they reached home, she had almost forgotten that he was leaving the next day.

It's the only promise you ever failed to uphold.

Her eyes were just as fierce nearly 20 years later, but her spirit was not the same. Looking out of the water, she held the rock in her hand, letting the weight settle for a second. Then, just as she had seen him do so many times before, she tossed the rock carefully in her hand. The rhythmic movement was somehow relaxing. It had been years since she had mastered skipping rocks, but she had learned on her own. Evander had been right about one thing though – she had learned a lot of important lessons long before she had become as adept at skipping rocks as her brother had been. A lot of those lessons she learned while trying to skip the rock, like patience, planning, and assessing.

The hardest lesson she learned was that life was unpredictable in more ways than she had considered. It had happened less than half a year after he had left. Evander had come home in a box, and she couldn’t quite understand why her father was letting them put her brother in the ground. Astrid started screaming and ran toward the casket as it was lowered. Her father stood by, his eyes glazed over as if he couldn’t hear or see anything.

After a minute of Astrid trying to stop the process, a distant relative in attendance had dragged her away from the funeral. Her younger self had screamed and shouted, her emotions going wild. Despite Astrid having only met the woman a couple of times, the distant relative was comfortable slapping the poor kid to silence her. It was the first time that an adult had dared to put their hands on Astrid, and the woman still wasn’t done.

Even 20 years later, Astrid remembered looking up into those cold blue eyes as the woman shouted at her, berating the poor girl for not understanding the situation and for ruining her brother’s peace. The water fountain behind her had reached toward the sky.

That’s when Astrid’s confusion turned to rage. Her brother would never have treated her like that – he would have taken her aside and explained things to her. But he wasn’t there, even though he was.

As sprinklers started springing up around the cemetery, jets of water furiously soaking everyone around them, including the funeralgoers, Astrid twisted the water in the fountain. A lasso appeared, then it slid over the woman’s head. The young girl tightened it, watching as the woman’s angry eyes turned fearful. The redness in her face started to turn blue as Astrid changed the lasso to a hand. The woman’s mouth was opening and closing as her feet were lifted off the ground.

“Astrid!”

The young girl lost her focus, her face whipping around to see her father wobbling on the wet grass and leaning on his cane. The shock and fear in his eyes still haunted her. The water splashed all over the ground, dropping the woman hard on her knees. It was as if the world had gone silent as she and her father simply looked at each other. His mouth was moving as he was holding out a hand to her, waving his finger to indicate she should come to him.

Afraid of what he would say and how much trouble she would be in, Astrid did the one thing she had promised her brother she would never do. She shifted in public.

Then she ran back to the pond where she had last seen her brother.

Astrid felt the coolness of the rock in her hand as she thought back over that day. The woman had no idea what had happened, and since no one had seen it, everyone thought some random stranger had tried to kill her at the funeral. The sprinklers were explained as a problem that had long needed to be fixed.

When her father had found her crying at the pond, he had sat down next to her on a rock. Awkwardly patting her back, he had told her that no one saw what she had done, so things might be ok. Or as ok as they could be without Evander sending money to them. Her father’s disability checks weren’t enough to cover more than the bare minimum.

And now even her father was dead. Cancer had finally finished the process that it had started nearly 25 years earlier.

Astrid closed her eyes. There was no reason to stay in the small southern town anymore. She had never fit in, anyway, especially since all of the friends she had when she was a teen and through her two years in college were now marriedand having children. That had never been something she had considered.

Her mind had always been focused on her brother. First, she tried to understand his death. When she was older, Astrid began to look into what had happened to him. The more she learned, the more sure she was that his death wasn’t an accident.

And now that nothing was holding her to the little town, Astrid was going to find answers.

With a smile, she finally wound up and skipped the rock across the water. Once she heard thethunkof rock against rock, she motioned it back toward herself. The rock came skipping back to her, this time the water rippling out before the rock hit it, creating a path for it to return to the shore. She walked forward and picked it up once it reached the shore. While she could move the water, the rock was too heavy to launch in the air the way her brother had. He had controlled the rock – she controlled the water.

In her mind, Astrid heard her brother saying that she was cheating.

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