Page 115 of The Curse of Redwood
“I’m trying!” Callum countered. “The possession is too strong. Carter, I know you can hear me. You need to fight his hold on you. Step out of the dark and take back the light.”
“Carter’s happier now. He’s sleeping, in a way,” I said, smiling as Zeke’s face crumpled. “You broke his heart, you know. Just as you did mine. You were going to leave him.” I clicked my tongue and waved a finger at him. “Why must you always hurt those you claim to love?”
Zeke’s eyes glistened. “I never meant to hurt you, Philip.”
“Then why did you let me die?” I yelled. A strong gust of wind moved around us, knocking over boxes sitting on the table. A pastry fell out from one of them.
Pastries. William.Zeke and I had brought him and the other kids sweets from the bakery. But why? I couldn’t recall. The thought stirred me from the numbness, if only for a moment.
“Because I was a coward,” Zeke responded, slowly walking toward me. “I thought my father would let you go if I played along, but I was wrong. When you died, a part of me went with you. I hated myself. I believed death would spare me from the pain, from the regret, yet all it did was trap me in this prison. It forced me to see everyone around me suffer as the curse claimed them.”
A smile stretched my lips. “It’s what you deserve, Ezekiel. To suffer.” I strode forward and closed the distance between us. Zeke’s chin quivered as he peered down at me. “How painful it must be for you to see his face and know he’s gone forever. This is the perfect punishment for your sins.”
With a shaking hand, Zeke touched my jaw. “I know you’re still in there, little dove. Please come back to me.”
I slapped his hand aside and growled. “I despise you with every fiber of my being, Ezekiel James Warren. Fitting for you to become the monster you loved to read about in your stories. You’re weak! Pathetic.Vile.”
Callum began to speak again, repeating three phrases over and over. The flame on the candles burned brighter.
And then… something stirred in my heart. Seeing Zeke’s anguished expression woke me from the dark place that had earlier given me peace.
“Zeke,” I said, reaching for him.
“Carter?” Relief broke across his handsome face.
A pain pierced my temple, and I grabbed my head with both hands as I cried out. Philip fought me even harder, and I was shoved down again as he took control. But his hold on me was slipping. I felt him weakening. Callum’s summoning spell was doing something to him.
“No!” I yelled in that deep voice again. “I will not surrender control. He is mine.”
I took off running toward Callum, growling deep in my throat. But before I reached him, I hit an invisible wall and was thrown backward, skidding across the floor. I jumped to my feet and tried again, only to hit the same barrier.
Philip was getting desperate.
A flash of silver caught my eye, and I dove for the bag Callum had brought. I pulled out a dagger and turned to Zeke. I stepped toward him, my gait slow.
“Do it,” Zeke said, squaring his jaw. “Plunge that dagger into my heart if you must. Take out all your rage on me.I cannot die again, but if it will grant you even a semblance of peace, then stab me as many times as you wish.”
“Stabyou?” I pointed the blade at him then shook my head. “No. I think not.” I placed it at my own throat.
“No!” Zeke’s eyes went wide and he flung out an arm toward me. “Don’t do it.”
“They intend to banish me, and I assure you, I will not go quietly,” I growled, applying more pressure to the blade. It dug into my flesh, sending a small trickle of blood down my neck. “If I cannot have him, neither will you.”
An anguished cry tore from Zeke’s throat. “I beg you! Put down the dagger. Don’t hurt him.”
“Because you love him?” I taunted.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Tell him how much you love him.” The blade dug deeper. “Move me to tears, Ezekiel. I yearn to hear the grief in your voice as you speak your last words to the man you love.”
Zeke looked so broken as he stared at me. “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you in that god awful green hat. Even then you were a glutton, eating everything off the snack buffet. And when we first kissed,” a tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his cheek, “it was like waking from a long sleep. Love isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel for you, little dove. You gave me new life. So, I beg you to fight him, Carter. I know you can.”
The numbness faded once more as I was pulled from the depths of my mind where Philip had tried to lock me away. But I still wasn’t strong enough to take control.
“Poetic, is it not?” I said, tilting my head up to expose more of my neck. “Now you’ll get to watch another lover die. And in the same spot too.”
“Carter!” Zeke dove toward me.
