Page 83 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“What is that stuff? What are the lines for?” I asked as her fingers drew a final symbol on Wald’s neck.
“It’s a charmed salve. I’m connecting you to him. You will have to do the rest,” she said, rising and wiping her fingers down my neck to my collarbone.
Shivers shuddered through me like electricity was running under my skin. I jumped back, pushing her hand away. “How do you think I can fix this? I have no idea what to do. Wald’s dead. Dead people get buried in my world. They’re gone for good. This is your weirdness. You know what to do. You do it.”
“In this case, you and Wald are connected. Agatha has chosen you, and now you are the only one who can help return him to this form.”
“No, I can’t,” I shouted. “Did you not hear me? I already tried, and he’s still dead. I’m not a wizard or whatever you people are.” I was close to hysterics. Now I could breathe and think, the weight of everything dropped like a twenty-pound bag of rice.
“You don’t understand, dear. Agatha has recognized you. It’s changed you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The cards stay with the family. She saw you for what you are and made you one of us,” she said, turning away and walking to the wall. A mirrored door opened.
I lunged at her. “Stop, you aren’t leaving me in here alone again. And you need to explain that. What did Agatha do?”
She sidestepped me. “It’s your quest, my dear. You must take it alone, and time is growing short. You mustn’t waste it.” The door slid closed behind her.
I punched a mirror fragment, and the whole wall rattled with the force. I beat the mirror with my fists, half surprised it wasn’t breaking. My fingers dug around the edges, looking for a way out. How the hell had she opened it? I couldn’t find a latch. I screamed with frustration and kicked the mirror. It didn’t even crack.
Nine hells. Agatha had said time was limited too. Goddamn it, they’d made me Wald’s only chance, and I had no idea how to fix any of this. I walked over to Wald and knelt down.
“You fricking bastard, come back so I can kill you.” My hand stopped short of pounding him on the chest. My skin was warm and glowing like it had been when the ring repaired. I stared at my hand, mesmerized, before getting up to get the tarot cards sitting on the album.
Why had Agatha given me these three cards specifically? I stood over Wald, looking from the pictures on the cards tothe symbols Victoria had painted on him, but not seeing the meaning. I rubbed my forehead. I was so damned tired. Trying to keep Wald alive and then failing. Dealing with Britannia. I needed a second to think straight. I closed my eyes and could see the swirls of Victoria’s designs in my head. I was connected somehow. I had to accept that. If there was a chance this could work, I had to take it.
I opened my eyes and surveyed the cards again. The Lovers, well, I wished for that, but I loved Wald, so that was fitting. Death was obvious. But the Wheel? It was also called the Wheel of Fortune, I certainly needed luck. The image on the card had circles and scrolls, not unlike what Victoria had painted on Wald’s chest and the carvings on the ring. I laid The Wheel card down over where a human heart might be, careful not to mess up Victoria’s painting.
Nothing happened.
What the hell had I thought was going to happen?
I dropped all three cards on him. They fluttered down as if made of feathers and settled on his chest, face up.
I held my breath.
Still nothing.
I screamed, covering my face with my hands. What did I think I was doing? I’d been reduced to a five-year-old armed with cards that only had the value the darkest depths of my imagination could pin to them.
My skin was hot again. I needed to get a grip. I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing, which did nothing.
I was a mess.
This was a mess.
“Agatha? What in the nine hells am I supposed to do?” I asked the empty room.
No answer. I was totally alone, staring at a dead manwith finger-painting on him. The cards stared back at me, mocking my ignorance. The Lovers, Death, Wheel. What did it mean?
Suddenly, like a light coming on in a pitch black closet, I knew what I needed to do. I just didn’t want to do it, but it was either that, or Wald stayed dead.
Sucking in a breath, I leaned over him. I nudged The Lovers over his heart, placed Death on the other breast and the Wheel of Fortune on his belly button.
I blew out the breath I held and sucked in a new one, thinking of what it would be like for him to sit up and look at me with golden eyes. I imagined his glorious silky tongue inside my mouth. The connection between us that quickened something in my gut and made me want to crawl inside his skin.
Straddling him, I laid both of my glowing hands over the cards on his chest, and I leaned over him and brushed my lips against his. The simple act took so much strength. Kissing a dead man was all new territory. I had no idea what I thought was going to happen. Maybe that he’d sit up and look at me in the way I’d dreamed. Maybe that he’d wake up and kiss me. But no. This was my life, the life of Harlan. Things never went as planned.
