Page 94 of Too Cursed To Kiss
Then the lights went out, plunging us into total darkness.
“Britannia?” I called.
There was no answer. Did the timer start now? I had no idea. I should have asked if the room was pitch black when Wald killed his sister. Funny, seeing in the dark hadn’t occurred to me. The ring was still on my finger, but it wasn’t glowing. Did that mean the clock was already ticking?
Holding my hands out in front of me, I stumbled in the general direction of the door, but tripped on the carpet and smacked into the wall. My heart raced as I edged along it, looking for the door. Adrenaline ripped through me as my fingers met the cold metal of the door handle. I wrapped thebracelet over the metal knob. As it left my wrist, the handle twisted. Blood rushed to my ears.
Wald was already here.
I wedged my foot in front of the door and prayed to gods I didn’t believe in. Then the lights went on, blinding me for a precious second.
Two girls were on the bed. One looked like the poster on the wall: Caledonia.
“Holy crap, it worked!” I whooped.
“What worked? Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in here?” Britannia asked, picking up a lamp and walking toward me threateningly.
Britannia stared at me like I was a Grigores. Her pink satin tracksuit shimmered like lip gloss.
Pink.
I looked down at the ring she was staring at. Mother of hell, I’d forgotten about time. Hang on, this wasn’t right. The time should be fixed now. I glanced at the beaded bracelet on my wrist then at the door. Crap. I raced to the door handle, tugging the bracelet off, but the door swung open.
Wald towered in full, otherworldly form. His eyes weren’t yellow, they were amber-brown and blazing from thick lashes. He brandished a wickedly sharp knife about as long as my forearm that would make the ancient Vikings proud. The hilt had serpents entwining on it. That was no knife. It was a short sword.
I stumbled back in a combination of awe and fear, then thought better of it. This was the only chance. I lunged at Wald, pushing him into the hall. He growled a predatory warning as my hand connected with his chest.
His sword slid into my skin, piercing my side. Shock was followed by burning pain as the hall went dark.
Pain that transcended description burned my world as something hard slid out of me, and a gush from my side turned my fingers slick.
Blood.
I was bleeding. Maybe fucking dying. This wasn’t part of the plan. One, two, three, I counted, but it was nine seconds before the lights went on again. The mind-numbing searing pain and my scream as I crumpled into a pool of blood were the last things I remembered.
CHAPTER FORTY
Iawoke in a room I’d never seen before, pain aching in my side. I probed the tenderness. Someone had bandaged me, and my fingers traveled over the bumps of stitches. But whatever had happened, I was not healed yet. I groaned and shifted and groaned again, attempting to sit up.
“Don’t get up yet,” Victoria said, swishing across the room in a wave of black satin. The bathrobe brushed the floor, showing flashes of a red nightgown underneath. Thinking about tiny things was like climbing up a ladder of lucidity.
“What happened?” I croaked, my side stinging from the movement.
“Shhh, you need more rest,” Victoria said, offering me a glass.
My throat was desert-dry. I gulped the water.
“There now, rest more, and then you can tell us who you are.”
That I was in an alternate past made sense in my head, but in reality, it made no sense at all to be talking to someonewho should know who I was and no longer did. That knifed into me, tearing open the lucidity. But I had to give it a shot. “You’re Victoria, Wald’s mother. I’m Harlan,the Harlan. The one with Agatha in me?” I suddenly knew that was a lie. Agatha’s power was gone.
“Agatha?” Victoria’s eyes widened. “I think perhaps the herbs I’ve given you have made you dream. Sleep now, and we will talk about it again when you awaken.”
“No! Don’t leave me. I know you, and Britannia, and Agatha, and Wald, and Maverick, and even Mason. I’ve even met your son Devlyn and his lover Sert and Elizabeth, even though we haven’t actually been introduced, and Soda, and even Caledonia, although I didn’t get to talk to her.” I was rambling. The room was glassy.
Victoria froze, and then her face shifted through wide-eyed shock to pursed lips of pensiveness. “Something odd has passed. We will investigate. Rest now. My son is visiting from Norway. I will see if he will visit you.” Her hand was warm on my arm and tingled. It wasn’t unlike the sensation of being licked by Wald. Would he know me? I drifted off in the memory of his body warming my skin. The room grew fuzzy edges and then disappeared.
When I woke up again, I was alone, and the bedroom wasn’t hazy. I inhaled lavender vanilla as I pushed away the lilac purple coverlet, attempting to pull myself up on the pillows. Pain from my side circled my ribs, and I smothered a yelp but got into a more upright position.
