“I think that’s a good idea. Why don’t I give him a call? I have to talk to him about Jenna’s new teacher for her Potions class, anyway. She’s having trouble and the teacher isn’t doing much to help.” She pulled out her phone.
While she was talking to him, I got a call from Jordan.
“Hey, Jordan.” I waited. It had to be one of two things: either Trey had died, or he had found the answer as to what was wrong with me. I hoped for the latter.
“Maddy? I’ve got news and it’s important that you listen to me and follow my instructions exactly. I managed to analyze that sample of black powder, and I also found out what’s wrong with you. Are you listening?” He sounded so worried that my stomach dropped.
“Yeah, I’m listening. Spell it out for me.”
“First, the powder is a very powerful Hex-Builder. In other words, it’s a powerful cursing powder. When it spilled, it cursed your house and everybody connected to it. Anybody staying in the home for any length of time runs the risk of being cursed. Trey took it full strength, it sounds like, and you said you inhaled it?”
I nodded, suddenly terrified. “Am I going to end up like Trey?”
“I don’t think so, but Maddy, you’ve developed an allergy to magic. Literally, if you use magic, or are near it when it’s used, it could kill you.”
I groaned, dropping to sit on an ottoman. “What the hell? I’m a witch!”
“I’m sorry, but yes, you’ve developed an allergy to magic. I’m not joking. For now, until we figure out how to break this curse, you don’t dare use any more magic, or be near it when it’s used. You’ll run the risk of going into anaphylaxis.” He sounded so deadly serious that there was no doubt in my mind he meant business.
“How do we break the curse?”
“That’s the thing. I need to know what kind of a curse it is, and the origin of the magic. It’s old and it’s powerful. In fact, I’m coming by to gather as much of that powder as possible. I may need it to build a hex-breaking potion.”
“When you say magic, do you mean any magic?”
“Yeah. And Maddy, I hate to tell you this, but as you know, sex and magic are entwined—they both work through the kundalini. You should lay off the hot stuff for now until we figure out if you’ll be safe. I don’t think Aegis is going to want you to go into anaphylactic shock during orgasm. And no, before you ask, I’m not joking.” He paused, then added, “I have to go. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”
As I stared at my phone, unable to think of anything to say, Sandy called me back over to the sofa. She smiled.
“I talked to Leroy. He and Professor Weatherhaul, who teaches history and archaeology, will come by tomorrow around two p.m. They’re interested in seeing the secret room. Who called?”
I shook my head. “That’s great, Sandy. Jordan said the house is under a curse, and I’ve apparently developed an allergy to magic. I can’t use it, can’t be around it, and I can’t even have sex right now because the kundalini force is too close to the magical energy.” I shook my head. “This is so not what I expected to hear. The curse? Yeah, that makes sense, but allergic to magic? If it wasn’t so serious, I’d be laughing out my ass right now.”
Sandy stared at me. “Did I actually hear you right? You’re—”
“Allergic to magic. It can kill me.” I grumbled under my breath. “I might as well be a werewolf. Only magic won’t kill them, they just don’t like it.”
Just then, Aegis and Max strode in, Aegis looking pissed.
“I can’t find him anywhere, and I can’t find Franny either. What’s wrong? You look like you just ate a frog or something.”
“I might as well have.” I ran down what Jordan had told me. “This fucking sucks.”
Aegis sat beside me and wrapped his arms around me. “Sweetheart, we’ll get through this.” He kissed me and, of course, because I couldn’t, the only thing I wanted to do was yank him down on the sofa and fuck him. Hard, hot, and heavy. He was so hard and…
“Stop!” I tried to shake off my thoughts.
“Stop what?” he asked.
Realizing I had just spoken aloud, I let out a long sigh. “Nothing. I was talking to myself. I can’t have sex. I can’t work magic. I can handle this for a while, but my mood’s going south. Also, if I don’t use my magic, after a while it can back up and harm me that way. I’ll have to see if Jordan can drain it off me, kind of like giving blood if you have too much iron.” I fell back against the sofa in an exaggerated sigh. “At least Leroy’s bringing someone out here to look at the room tomorrow. And Jordan’s coming by to gather as much of that powder as he can. I hate letting him go up there, though.”
“I’ll get it for him. I’ll go up there now. I can’t breathe it in, and I doubt if it’s going to affect me.” Aegis jumped up and headed for the kitchen.
I started to call him back but Max shook his head. “Let him do this. He’s angry that you’re in danger, he’s angry he can’t do anything or find the shadow person, and now I’ll give you odds he’s freaked that you’re hurt and again, he’s helpless. Let him do what he can.”
I nodded. “I get it. And it’s probably safer for him to do this than let Jordan go up there. I don’t want him getting hit by this.” As I tried to sit back and be patient, a loud thump echoed down from upstairs. I jumped up. “Aegis!”
But as I started to run for the stairs, Franny appeared, looking frantic.
“Help me!” she screamed. “Henry—something’s happened to Henry!”
Chapter 7
HYSTERICAL, FRANNY WAS wringing her hands. Max headed for the stairs and I followed, feeling like everything was caving in around me. Sandy was right behind me, and by the time we reached Henry’s room, Max was already examining the prone man. Henry was struggling to speak.
“Henry, can you hear me?” I knelt beside Max, then motioned to Sandy. “Call the paramedics.”
She nodded, pulling out her phone. Meanwhile, I was trying to get Franny to move. While she wasn’t physically interfering, her hysterics weren’t helping the situation.
“Franny, back off. Go over there and wait so we can help Henry.” I shooed her out of the way. She gave me a tearful sniff and moved.
Max was taking Henry’s pulse. “He’s alive, but his pulse feels erratic. Get me a blanket.”
I grabbed a blanket and a pillow off Henry’s bed. I handed the pillow to Max, then arranged the blanket over him. At that moment, Aegis peeked through the door.
“What are you guys—” He stopped, staring at Henry. “What’s wrong with Henry?”
“I don’t know. Sandy’s called an ambulance. Franny said he just keeled over. He probably had a heart attack or a stroke or something like that.”
Franny let out a loud sob from the corner. “He said he felt odd, then stood up and fainted.”
Sandy headed for the door. “I’ll go downstairs and wait for the paramedics.”
Henry moaned, but he didn’t open his eyes. I gently removed his glasses, which were still hooked over his ears, and set them on the dresser. “Franny, I know you’re upset, but what happened? We need to know so we can tell the paramedics. The more information they have, the better they’ll be able to treat him.”
She blushed. “We were talking. He was telling me about his life back in the Civil War, and what Althea did to him. I finally told him that I loved him,” she said, her voice a whisper. “And he told me he can’t love me, because of the curse. I got upset… I accused him of trifling with my emotions. We argued…he stood up and fainted.”
I let out a slow breath. “So Henry didn’t know how you felt? I thought for sure he did.”
Franny stared at the floor. “I think he knew, but he never said anything. I guess I built the whole romance up in my head. He said he was fond of me, Maddy. Fond. He insisted that he never told me he loved me. I didn’t want to hear it, but he’s right. I deluded myself into thinking he was courting me, but he wasn’t.” She p
aused, then raised her head, a stricken look on her face. “Did I cause this?”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say, but then I shook my head. “No, Franny, this isn’t your fault. Henry probably hasn’t been feeling well for a while. You know how men are, they don’t like to talk about their problems.”
Here I had been thinking that Henry had been toying with Franny’s affections. But fond didn’t mean love. Franny had led me to believe they were having a romance, but now I could see that it was all built up in her mind. Henry cared about her, but what he had told her was true. He was under a spell that prevented him from ever having a real relationship. In fact, fond was probably as close to love as he could ever get.
At that moment, we could hear Sandy on the stairs. She was talking to someone, and when she entered the room, two paramedics followed her. I recognize them as Summer Fae from the fire department. We all moved back, giving them room to work.
“What happened?” asked one of the paramedics as he knelt beside Henry.
“We’re not entirely sure, but Franny was with him when he fainted. They got in a debate over something, and Henry stood up and fainted dead away.” Technically, debates and arguments could be filed under the same category, at least in my mind.
They took his blood pressure, checked his heart, and his eyes.
“He’s human, right?”
“Yes, but he’s under a curse. He was born in 1840, and a witch cursed him to a long life. So he’s not exactly your typical human.” I didn’t like giving away Henry’s secret, but this was a medical necessity.
The medic looked up at me, then back at Henry. If he was startled, he didn’t show it.
“I’m not certain, but I think he’s had a stroke. We’ll take him into the hospital. Do you have the name of his next of kin? Or are they all dead?”
I hadn’t even thought of that. Anybody in Henry’s immediate family—his parents, his siblings—all had to be long dead. Whether he had any distant cousins, I didn’t know.
“I suppose we’re about the closest thing to family that he’s got right now. I’ll do what I can to find out if there are next of kin.” I glanced over at Sandy. “Do you mind going with Henry to the hospital? I’ll go through his room and see if I can find anything pointing to any relatives.” I didn’t want to say out loud that I wanted to have a talk with Franny, because I didn’t want to embarrass her. But Sandy seemed to sense where I was going with this.
“Of course. I’ll get my coat. Max, why don’t you stay here? I’ll be fine. You don’t mind if I take your car, do you?”
“Of course not,” the weretiger said. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Take care of yourself, and call me if you need anything.”
As they headed out the door to take Henry downstairs into the ambulance, I looked around the room. Henry kept it neat as a pin. I turned back to Aegis.
“I’m going to have a look through Henry’s things. I’ll see if he’s got an address book. I don’t know if I can get into his phone. He might have it password-protected, but I’ll check where I can.”
Aegis nodded. “I’ll go finish gathering that powder for Jordan.”
At that moment, the doorbell rang. It was probably Jordan.
“Max, can you go answer the door?” As Aegis and Max headed out for their respective tasks, I started looking through Henry’s drawers. I didn’t like snooping, but this was an emergency.
Franny had remained in the room. For a while, she didn’t say a word, just watched me as I searched through Henry’s things. Finally, she let out a choked sob.
“How could I have been so stupid? I truly thought he meant he loved me. When I was a girl, when a man told you he was fond of you, it usually meant he was in love.”
I glanced at her. She was sitting on the bed—or rather, partially through the bed—and she looked so distraught that I wished I could give her a hug. I stopped my search and walked over to sit down next to her. The temperature of the air distinctly cooled as I approached.
“Franny, please don’t feel bad. It’s easy to misunderstand people, especially when you’re from different worlds.”
“No, don’t you see? Henry and I grew up in the same time. Or close to it. He knows what it’s like to live back when I did. I may have been born fifty years before he was, but he understands it.”
“Franny, I’m older than both of you. I lived through that time period too. So did Aegis, and Sandy, and Max. We’re all older than you are. What made Henry seem so special?”
She shrugged, staring at the floor. “Maybe he just enjoyed talking about the past more.” She paused, then pressed on. “Maybe it was that he really seemed interested in what I had to say. He treated me like I was special. He treated me like I mattered.”
Right then, I realized that I had made a horrible mistake. I had been treating Franny like a wayward pet, not like a spirit who had needs and feelings. Oh, we chatted now and then, and I had done my best to make her happy with the computer. But I had never really taken a lot of time to get to know her, and we usually treated her like a wayward child. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to figure out how to make things better.
“Franny, I want to apologize. You don’t have any choice about where you live. You’re stuck here, and sometimes I forget that. You’re part of our household, and even though I’m still looking for a way to break the curse that holds you here, I think maybe we need to talk more. Hang out a bit more.”
She slowly raised her gaze, giving me a hopeful look. “I’d like that. I admit, I get lonely. I do love to read, and I thank you very much for all you’ve done for me. But it gets lonely in my world. And you and Aegis and Bubba, you all have your lives. You’re all alive. I live in what feels like limbo. I guess Henry paying attention to me just made me feel alive again.”
“Can I ask you what the argument was about? I know you argued about feelings, but it might help for me to know when he gets back.”
She blushed again. “You’re going to think I’m horrible.”
“We’ve all done things that are horrible at some point in our lives. Tell me.”
“I don’t know what got into me. I would never think to say this to anybody, so I don’t know why I said it to him.” She was beginning to get frantic again.
Puzzled, I cocked my head. “What did you say?”
“Please believe me, I really don’t know what came over me.”
“All right. I believe you. Tell me what you said.”
She blushed a horrible crimson. “Before the argument, I got impatient. I suggested that since he was in love with me, if he were to…kill himself… We could be together.” She looked up, a fearful expression in her eyes.
“I wish I could take it back. I wish I’d never said it. That’s when he told me that he didn’t love me, and he said it was a horrible thing to suggest to anybody. When he said he didn’t love me, I accused him of trifling with my emotions. He insisted that he had never said the word love, and he’s right. And then it got nasty. It’s like a dark shadow filled the room and we were yelling at each other. And then he fainted.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Franny had actually suggested that Henry kill himself to be with her? That didn’t sound anything like Franny. In fact, that was the last thing I’d ever expect to hear come out of her mouth.
“You say a dark shadow filled the room?”
She nodded. “And I’m talking an actual shadow. It felt like we weren’t alone. And it seemed to grow as our argument grew. It felt like it was feeding on the anger, Maddy.”
I nodded, listening. “I wonder if it’s part of the curse that’s come over this house. Keep an eye out, if you would. If you notice any strange presences, come tell us.”
“Do you want me to stand guard?” She sounded almost proud to offer her services.
While I didn’t think we needed to go that far, I realized it would give Franny something to do that would make her feel needed. And who kne
w, it might actually come in handy.
“That’s a good idea. If you get tired, take a break, but why don’t you make the rounds? I’d stay away from the attic area, obviously, but just keep an eye out.”
She flashed me a faint smile, the first I’d seen since Henry had fainted, and saluted me.
“Yes, ma’am! I’m on the job.” As she vanished into the wall, I shook my head. I had had some strange roommates over the years, but Franny had to be one of the oddest.
I resumed my search through Henry’s things, finally coming up with a Rolodex. As I thumbed through it, I saw that it was all libraries and universities, as well as a few names. I didn’t recognize any of them, and none of them had Henry’s last name. They were all out of the area, and I had my doubts that any of them were related to him.
Heading downstairs, I heard Jordan talking to Max in the living room.
“Jordan, has Aegis gotten the powder down for you?” I swung into the room.
Jordan shook his head. He was seated on the sofa, one knee crossed over the other.
“No, but that’s all right. I don’t mind the wait. Max was telling me that Henry took ill?”
“Yeah, the paramedics took him off to the hospital. Sandy went with him. We’re expecting a call when she finds out what’s wrong. The paramedics suspect a stroke.”
“Damn. Everything seems to be happening here lately.”
“It’s that goddamn room. The powder, whatever was released when that urn broke… You were right when you said there is a curse on the house. I need to call Garret, and see if he can think of anything. Tomorrow, a professor from Neverfall is coming out to take a look at the glyphs and see what he can figure out. We need to take care of this soon.” I sat down beside Jordan, and let out a long breath. “So, this allergy I’ve got. Do you think it’s permanent?”
“I don’t think we can know yet. Chances are it was brought on by the curse. Which means, if the curse can be broken, there is a good chance it will lift.” He stared at me, giving me a sorrowful smile. “I’m sorry I don’t have better news. I know this has got to be difficult.”
Casting Curses Page 10