Page 44 of Cursed Encounter
“Ask what you’re going to ask,” I say, voice flat.
I already know what it is. I knew the moment she said “people talk.” It’s all they ever talk about.
She wants to hear me say I killed my father. She wants proof that I’m the ruthless bastard they’ve deemed me to be.
“Do you think this curse is going to kill us?”
I’m stunned by her question.
She’s not… going to ask me about the shit she heard?
“Yes,” I answer without thinking.
“Then what does it matter? What does it matter what they told me? What does it matter what I know about you?”
She’s right.
I hate it.
“Yeah, I don’t think there’s a way out, too,” she says softly. “I met up with Sandra today. She works for my father, and she says she knew my mother. I don’t know if I trust her, but I also don’t think I have any other choice if I want to find answers.” Tears collect in her eyes as she looks down at her lap. “She didn’t put this curse on me, but she gave my father the tools to do it.”
There goes that rage again, building up inside me.
“He shouldn’t have done it.” She looks like she’s trying her hardest to hold it together as she talks. “Forget the fact that it’s just wrong, he didn’t know what he was doing. It was the only time he saw me when I was young, or so she said. He didn’t have anything to do with me or my mother after that. Well, until shedied and he shoved me in a cottage with three guardians and a magical lock on the door.”
“How did he do that?” I ask, unable to hold back.
I’ll kill whoever did it. I’ll kill them all.
“Sandra,” she replies in a broken voice. She wipes at her eyes. “It seems Sandra helps him a lot. I don’t understand why, and maybe I don’t want to.” She takes in a shaky breath. “Anyway. She said he must have done something wrong when he put the protection spell on me as a baby because the curse was only supposed to hurt those who…uh, um—”
“Fuck you,” I cut in with.
“Sleep with mewithout us being linked together by something called a Heart Bonding Ceremony.” She pauses, lips twisting to the side. “I’ve heard of the ceremony, but I’m not really familiar with it. She basically walked me through it, and it pretty much sounds like a wedding. You have to have a coven elder there to witness, and basically, you just say a few things and hold hands.”
“Why do you think you’re affected too?”
“I don’t know,” she says, and I can see the truth in her eyes. “It makes sense that it’s all wonky given the fact that my father performed a ceremony he had no right doing. He doesn’t understand magic! He doesn’t care.”
“Is there a way to undo it?” I ask, trying to keep my tone calm, even as I sense her anger rising.
“No. Well, Sandra said there isn’t a way tostopit once it starts. But she said maybe if we do the ceremony…”
“Fine. Let’s do it.” Even as I say it, my skin crawls with unease. It’s a binding contract, and the last thing I ever want to do is connect myself to another person in that way.
She sets the burger aside and gets to her feet.
“There’s one problem with that,” she tells me. “The feelings have to be real. It has to be pure.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Instant death,” she says, keeping her back to me.
Well, just when I thought this whole thing couldn’t get worse. I don’t have any kind of feelings for her, not truly and deeply, so this is not an option.
“What if we just… stay close for the rest of our lives?” I grit my teeth as I ask the question. I don’t like the idea. Yet… part of me doesn’thateit completely.
Dread fills me when she shakes her head. She still won’t look at me, and it’s driving me mad.
