Page 76 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“I thought your kind didn’t need to sleep.”
“I don’t, but your voice is tiring to listen to,” she replied, popping earbuds in and reclining the seat.
I crushed the urge to slap her. A sleeping Britannia was probably getting off easy. It would give me time to think. Nothing really fucking mattered now that Wald was dead. I wasn’t up to fighting death, after death had won. Or was I? Things had changed. I hadn’t given up on getting him back. I was hoping Victoria would rise to that challenge before Britannia double-crossed me in some way I hadn’t figured out yet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
After navigating through the weird illusions and taking the long road through the woods, we pulled up in front of the weird green Victorian house. I got out and rang the bell, half expecting it to sound either like a gong or a foghorn. Instead, it was more of a clock’s chime. A man destined to play basketball opened the door. He must have been six-eight or six-nine. Taller than Wald. His long, dour face was offset by bushy eyebrows and puffy lips. He stepped back and allowed me to walk past him. I still hated the smell of the place, wood and incense with the lingering animal musky thing, plus a whiff of old man’s cologne.
“Mason, Wald’s in the trunk, can you have him brought in please?” Britannia asked the door-greeter, pushing past me.
Victoria was already descending the stairs in a tight-skirted lilac suit that could have been made anywhere in the last fifty years. Classic. Her face was whiter than her pristine outfit.
“Victoria?” Britannia’s voice was brittle.
“Britannia, do you have the album?” Victoria asked, her shoulders locked tight as if a rod were holding her up.
Britannia flipped open the messenger bag and pulled out Agatha’s photo album.
Victoria had made it to the bottom of the stairs but didn’t approach Britannia. Instead, she looked at me, her perfectly outlined eyes glistening. “This way.” Victoria led us down a hallway with green paisley wallpaper to a part of the house I hadn’t seen. She swung open the third door on the left and motioned me to go in first.
My eyes adjusted to the pitch black room. It wasn’t black; it was mirrored on every surface. The room had a mirrored table in the center. The mirrors were in an ordered pattern of fragments. Like a giant broken mirror fitted back together. Victoria had returned to the threshold. I twirled, seeing the dim fractured reflections. The images of me held stringy hair, dried blood, and a vomit-crusted dress hem.
“Why are they all broken?” I asked. God, I could use a shower.
“The album?” she said to Britannia, who was still out in the hall. Britannia held out the album but moved toward me. Victoria blocked her from entering the room with her body.
“Just the album, you can wait out here. I’ll call you when we’re done.”
“But she…” Britannia’s voice trailed off as Victoria closed the door in her face and switched on a light.
The smug satisfaction I got from that was wrong, but it gave me a warm, golden feeling. The one light was a blindingly bright downlight over the mirrored table. I shielded my eyes.
Victoria set the album down on the tabletop. She was almost as tall as me, but slim and fine boned with an elegance that seemed to radiate from her. She turned to me with asmile that was all business. “Do you have the artifact I sent to Agatha?”
I nodded and pressed my hand to my cleavage.
“Don’t touch it yet. Things have to be in order. Am I correct that your blood has been used on this album before?”
“Yes,” I replied, my voice far less stable than I expected. How she knew that was creeping me out. I was terrified to look at the mirrors.
“Then you still have a connection to it, good.”
I was feeling a little like I was answering a doctor’s questions. “What are you going to do with it?” I nodded at the album.
“I am going to do nothing. You are going to ask Agatha for assistance.”
My stomach churned. “Hell no. The last time I talked to Agatha she almost killed me. And the time I connected with the album, the smoke thing almost pulled me into it. I want nothing to do with that thing.” I started to walk to the door.
“If you wish for Wald’s restoration, then you will have to make a different choice.” Victoria’s sharpness resounded in my head as if her words were my thoughts.
“Restoration? What does that mean?” I asked, turning and brushing hair away from my face.
“Wald can be returned from his passing. Britannia healed his human form, so he can be reconnected to it, but it has to be done from the other side.”
“And why would they do that for me? I’m nothing to them. They’re your family.”
“Because you have something of theirs to trade.”
