Page 35 of Cursed Luck
“And yet here you are, about to stomp through ours?” Edward asked, annoyed at whatever his brother was about to say.
“Edward,” Mia said in warning.
One look at her had him shoving down whatever words had threatened to follow. “Okay, we’ll bite, little brother.”
“It’s clear you two have chemistry, and from the little I’ve been around you, Mia, I think you’d be perfect for Edward,” Vanessa said. “Now, what’s going on? When we walked up, it was clear there was heavy shit on this table.”
Edward didn’t know whether the conversation should be happening at all with them, let alone in the middle of a bistro. “I’m not sure this is a good place for this conversation.”
“He has a point,” Vanessa told Carter.
“I got it,” Mia said and shut her eyes. Her lips moved silently, and the air around them shimmered. “There, I made anything said at this table inaudible to passersby.”
Vanessa grinned. “You need to teach me that some other time!”
Mia nodded before pointing from Vanessa to Carter. “You two are bonded as mates?”
“We are,” Carter said as Vanessa nodded.
“How do you know what you feel is real and not a result of the magic?” Mia asked, and Edward could kiss her for starting the conversation.
They both opened their mouths, and Carter nodded toward Vanessa. “You go first.”
“I guess we really don’t know. WhatIknow is after meeting Carter, for the first time in my life everything seemed to fall in place. Like, Iknewwhere I belonged. Things feltright.” Vanessa pursed her lips and sighed. “I’m not sure if that makes any sense.”
Carter linked his hand with hers on top of the table. “When I met her, I legit couldn’t see another woman. It’s been tunnel vision ever since. The idea of her not being at my side? It’s fucking painful. So yeah, could it be the magic? Possibly. Or maybe the magic gave us the push we needed to find each other.”
“But that same magic destroyed Dad when Mom died,” Edward blurted, anger mixing with the pain that accompanied the memories.
Carter faced him. “Eddie, I was younger than you and don’t have the same memories of when they were both alive and together. Mom died because of a multigenerational curse, not because of the soul mate bond linking her and dad.”
“If they hadn’t met—”
Vanessa clucked her tongue. “Edward. Sweetheart, you cannot think of the million what-if scenarios. What if they found a way to break the curse? You’d have them both, but maybe Brandy wouldn’t have met Ryan, and Gia wouldn’t exist now. Or your mom could have survived the birth but died in a car accident, or by a lycan, or a were, or…” Vanessa shrugged. “The possibilities are endless. What happened to your family was tragic, but I bet if you asked your dad, he wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. I know if I lost Carter right now, I wouldn’t. My life is better because he has been a part of it.”
“Um… Curse? What else happened to your parents?” Mia asked.
Carter turned toward Edward, silently checking if he wanted to tell the story, but he shook his head. If thinking about the past hurt him, telling it would leave him raw like the young boy who had lost his mother.
He watched the people around them as Carter recalled the past. Lost in thought, Edward wished his own magical intuition would spring forth to tell him if he should accept Mia in or push her out. It was an odd circle of not knowing whether to trust the magic between them but trusting his own with his life.
Initially, he had questioned the gut feeling when he first recognized the tingling along his skin. Now in his thirties, he would not think to second-guess it. Too bad his magic had never worked in his own personal life.
Remembering Carter’s and Vanessa’s words, he considered a world in which Mia wasn’t a part of his daily thoughts or wasn’t even present. The sharp pain across his entire body that followed nearly made him weep.
Edward sucked in a deep breath and shut his eyes, hoping to tame the emotion. He wondered if he could risk it all and allow her in. His lids raised, and he fell into her gaze as she studied him.
Walking away was no longer an option where Mia was concerned.
He reached across the table and linked his fingers with hers. The familiar spark of energy ran up his arm and throughout his body.
“So, Ryan’s ancestor put the curse on your ancestor, and when he and Brandy bonded, it broke the curse?” she asked, her thumb grazing his skin.
“That’s our understanding,” Edward said.
“Damn, I never considered that part,” Vanessa said.
Chapter 16
