Page 55 of Hexes and Exes

Odie, Ambrose, and I rode over together. After Ambrose interrupted me and Ava in the hallway, we went back to the library to discuss Piper‘s findings. There was a whole lot about potion ingredients and specific planetary alignment requirements that Piper needs to work through, but she felt optimistic about a plan. I don’t believe anything will come of this. Why should anything change now? I’ve been living with my curse for eighteen years. I watched my mother die from her curse. That’s the future I have to look forward to. The Crone isn’t about to bless me with a miracle like Roman and Josephine. That’s a foolish hope that will amount to nothing but pain.

I search the crowd for my brother. Candles littering the top of the altar provide most of the lighting in the clearing. A few illuminated cell phone screens pepper the dark clearing, but it’s difficult to find Roman amongst all of these people. Odie tugs on my sleeve and points. Somehow, she found Stellan towering over the others around him. We head in their direction, but I can’t help but catch snippets of conversation as we move through the crowd.

“I heard she got rid of her curse, but it rebounded onto her entire family,” a woman’s familiar voice hisses.

“No, not the youngest one. At least not yet. I guess she’s only twelve or thirteen, though. We’ll see what happens when she turns sixteen.” Another voice I recognize replies smugly.

“Roman’s curse didn’t rebound.”

“Because we weren’t foolish enough to do the ritual in his place.”

I slow my steps. I’m not one to normally eavesdrop on other people's conversations–mainly because I just don’t give a shit–but they’re talking about my brother and I’m pretty sure Josephine and her family. Besides Roman, she is the only other person I’ve ever known to get rid of their curse before it passed onto the next generation.

Excluding my mother, it seems. How have I never made that connection before? Sometimes something can be right in front of your face, and yet, you still miss it.

“I heard that they had Camille do the ritual instead of Josephine and it backfired.”

I pinpoint the person speaking, and my jaw grinds when I spot Anastasia Lexington talking with my parents. This is the bitch who burned my house down, kidnapped and attempted to sexually assault my brother, and my parents are chatting with her like they’re best friends.

I’m close enough to see Roman’s mother rubbing Anastasia’s arm. “We don’t know for sure. The Delvaux family is being very closed lipped about all of this. You’d think they’d be considerate enough to share something so important, but no. Typical puritanical Lumen coven members. Think they’re better than everyone.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Diana, I think the Tenebris families are far more smug. Don’t undersell yourself.”

My stepmother jumps at the sound of my voice. That’s how self-absorbed they are. They’re standing in a field with hundreds of other coven members. If you want to talk about something private, this is not the place to do it.

Ambrose waves. “Hi there, Mr. and Mrs. Blackthorn. What a lovely brisk evening for plotting, isn’t it? Scheduling any mutinies? Or are you just crumbling the infrastructure from within. That’s very clandestine of you.”

“Ambrose.” My father drags out my friend's name. “Must you always stir up trouble?”

“No stirring necessary. More like walked right into it.”

“Quite the company you keep, Father.” I bring the focus back on the real issue here. It’s too dark for me to make out anyone’s faces but there’s no missing the way Vincent Blackthorn’s body stiffens.

“Ms. Lexington is from one of the finest families in Mystic Hollows. Her parents are very influential and important. Her father is now part of our coven council. You would do well to keep that in mind.”

“So important that there are no consequences for her disgusting actions.” Disdain drips from my words.

Anastasia shrieks and lurches toward me, but my father holds her back. She points to her chest, where my brother magicked the word “predator” across her chest. “This isn’t nothing. I’ve been mutilated.” Seething hatred and anger bubble out of her and my curse feeds on the dark emotions.

“Maybe don’t be a rapist and you wouldn’t have that issue.”

She breaks free from my father, but before she reaches me, Odie is there. Her fist slams into Anastasia’s face, and the despicable woman crumbles into a heap on the ground. People around us gasp. My parents shout in alarm, but Odie just shakes out her hand and points toward Stellan.

“You’re right. It smells like shit over here. Let’s go find a better spot.”

I shove through the crowd, the darkness swelling inside me. Fuck my father and his fucking wife. How dare they associate with the woman who hurt their sons. Why would they even talk to her? What the hell did they mean about Josephine doing a ritual?

Roman is standing with his arms wrapped around Josephine as if he’s keeping her warm, even though they’re both bundled up for the weather. I can’t fault him. Before Josephine, my brother hadn’t felt another person’s touch in nearly two decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if they never took their hands off each other. Next to them is Josephine's little sister Penelope, who’s talking animatedly with Stellan. The two of them do a complicated handshake and then giggle like one of them isn’t a grown ass adult.

Even through the darkness, I feel Ava’s eyes when they land on me. She steps in close enough that her arm brushes mine. Some of the darkness lifts, and I can breathe again.

Ava murmurs low enough that no one around us can hear. “Who pissed you off?”

“Why did I think you were going to murmur sweet nothings in my ear?”

She pats my chest with her floppy knitted mitten, the one she almost died to rescue. “Because you’re delusional?”

Already the swirling darkness of my curse is abating, just because she always surprises me.

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