Page 69 of Cursed Sight
Ethan pressed a kiss to her hair, and she sighed. “Yes? No?” She turned so she could face the others and laid against Ethan’s chest, soaking up his comfort and love. “I’m happy to be alive, but I’m never going to get over my hand in Aja’s passing.”
“Life is sacred,” Ryan stated.
Serena nodded. “Aja may have lost her way, but dying was never to be a punishment. I’ve known her literally all my life. Our mothers were friends, and so were we.”
“Why did it all change?” Brandy asked.
Sadness filled Serena. “Jealousy has a way of ruining things it touches. From a young age, my powers had been stronger than those of my peers. Instead of being happy for me, Aja believed her birthright weighed more than the powers given by the goddess. It ruined our friendship, and well, the rest is history.”
Serena looked around the room for the first time as silence filled it. The windowsill was covered in vases. A small table to her side held a few crystals, a small snake plant, and a jug filled with what looked to be water.
“The others came by.”
Ethan chuckled under her. “Yeah, you should have seen the nurses’ faces when they spritzed sage water around the room.”
“Oh no!” She laughed.
“Oh yes!” Brandy said, amused. “The second night here was probably the worst for those poor nurses. Everyone decided to perform a blessing in the hope it would help you recover faster. Cable may have snapped at a nurse, and the flame of the candles extended like a foot. They were all kicked out after that. We had to use a cloaking spell to return each day for the first week. Carter spoke to a doctor he knows here, and we were approved to come in after that.”
Serena’s brows pinched together. “I’m surprised he waited that long.” The air in the room grew uncomfortable, and no one would meet her eyes. “What?”
Ethan sighed. “Sweetheart, after he healed you and got you here to get blood, he’d collapsed. He’d never used his powers like that and—”
“And he surged trying to save me.”
Chapter 35
Ethan had aged twenty years with the events of the past two to three weeks. He had almost lost the love of his life, and his brother had had a hard time coming out of his own surge. He would never forget Carter’s part in saving Serena.
When they had made it into the room and found Serena covered in blood, Ethan had nearly collapsed too. Their telepathic connection had been waning, but getting there gave him the strength to keep his shit together.
Aja’s still form had not even been a concern. Sure, part of him—a miniscule part—felt bad the witch had died. Mostly, he believed she got what she deserved.
During one of the many long nights he had spent in the hospital by Serena’s side, he reached out to the ancestors. He wanted their assurance that she would come back to him. Of course, nothing ever went like he planned when dealing with the ancestors.
“Dad?” he asked, shocked to see the large man he didn’t recognize but loved and missed so much.
Easton Broderick grinned. “Hello, son. How may I help?”
Ethan looked at Serena’s sleeping form. “Will she come out of this? I can’t lose her, Dad!”
Easton moved to Serena’s side. “If the goddess wishes her to be at your side, at your side she will be.”
“Seriously?”
Before Ethan could say more his father’s image began to disappear.
“I must go, but someone else would like a moment of your time,” Easton said, and the remaining bits of him faded.
Ethan swallowed his gasp of surprise and glared at his visitor. “What are you doing here?”
Aja moved from the end of the bed to Serena’s side. Her transparent hand reached out, and Ethan lurched forward. Logically, he knew he could not stop the spirit, but his heart couldn’t allow it to happen.
“I asked what you’re doing here.”
Aja’s eyes met his, and he noted there was no remorse or glee in them, only peace. “She was my sister, and I let my hunger for power ruin us. Please do not allow her to grieve for her part in my demise. She did me a great service through the goddess’s wishes, and, Ethan? Forgive me for my deceptions.”
Ethan watched in stunned silence as the figure pressed a kiss to Serena’s head and faded into the veil. Part of him wanted to yell at her to come back so he could tell her off. The other part heeded her words.
