Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)

by Light

  “He’s here,” Rome shouted. “We need to get out, now!”

  Christian stood swiftly and his chair screeched back across the floor. He inhaled, gasping painfully. A solid figure was edging around the corner, ambling unhurriedly towards them. Thin, boney fingers and long nails scraped against the wall, leaving deep scratches in their wake. His body felt weighted down, limbs aching as he bolted away from the table. The others were at his back, feet pounding against the floor as the sound of frantic breathing occupied the space between them. An angry crash exploded at his back, shaking the floor and nearly knocking him off his feet. One of the shelves had collapsed, and he watched as another tipped, nearly crushing Aria as it fell. He raced back to her, grabbing her by the arms and hauling her towards the exit. Matt was kicking at the door as Jason guarded his back, hands shaking and knife drawn.

  “It’s stuck!” Matt yelled.

  “Move,” Rome said, racing towards them. He was almost out of the aisle when a flash of movement made him freeze. The eyes staring back at him from the gap above the books were a muddy brown, dulled by a thin film of white. “Shit,” he breathed, swallowing his heart back into his chest. The specter vanished before his eyes, and before Rome could force himself to move, the shelf began to creak, leaning up on its base and plunging forward. His arms shot out, but he wasn’t strong enough to stop the toppling tower of books and solid wood.

  “Rome!” Ariahna screamed, watching him disappear under the falling shelf. It slammed against the floor and she exhaled, shoulders shaking and lungs burning as she surrendered her ability to breathe.

  Christian ran over, curling his fingers under the edge. He might as well have been trying to lift a car. He didn’t know if Rome was alive, but he wasn’t just going to leave him there. He was so scared out of his mind he couldn’t even get his magic to surge out of his shaking fingers. “Come on,” he grunted, pulling so hard it felt like the muscles in his arms were going to rip.

  Rome groaned softly, wiggling his hands free enough to help Christian push the shelf off of him. He’d gotten lucky in that a few large books had kept his legs and his body from being completely crushed. That didn’t mean they were going to hold for long.

  “He’s coming back,” Jason breathed, pointing at the man with the sharp tip of his blade.

  “Give me the knife,” Ariahna said frantically. Jason was too terrified to hear her. She didn’t have time to hesitate – she didn’t have time to be afraid. Aria curled her fingers around the metal, sliding her palm quickly across the blade as it sliced into her skin. Thick blood dripped from her hand, staining the floor with drops of crimson. A sharp buzzing crackled above them as the last light flickered into darkness. The sun was gone, and the room was now blanketed in shadow. Soft flashes from a lone, struggling light illuminated the room for a few brief seconds at a time. And each time it flicked on, the Artisan had gotten closer. The temperature went through the floor and the world began moving languidly. When he materialized into a solid man before her, she bit back a scream. He was so close she could feel the ice cold energy twisting off his skin.

  “Mori magis mortem in sempiternum!” she shouted, thrusting her bleeding palm over his face. He shrieked shrilly and Ariahna shielded her eyes from a brilliant explosion of white light as his soul was scattered in a thousand different directions. The entire building shook, sending them all flying back in the blast. Not one, but two bodies were shielding her from the books and dangerous shards of glass shooting through the air.

  The windows had been blown out. Rome’s ears were ringing, but it was over. The Artisan was gone. “Did you kill him?” he asked, the light above them humming back to life. “Is he really gone?”

  “Oh my god.” Ariahna threw her arms around Rome’s neck. “I thought you were dead.” Fingers were brushing through her curls and when she realized they weren’t Rome’s, she shot Christian an uncertain glance.

  “You have glass in your hair,” he said.

  “What the fuck was that?” Jason exclaimed.

  Matt frowned.

  “That,” he proclaimed, “is what they don’t teach us in school.”

  “That didn’t destroy him,” she muttered. “His soul will be caught in a loop, forced to relive his death. But I don’t think it’s going to hold him. Not for long.”

  Jason sighed. This shit was ruining his high. “I can’t believe you just grabbed the end of my knife like that. I could have cut your hand off.”

  “What?” Rome said. He reached for her hands, pulling them both out in front of him. She’d cut herself so deep the blood was nearly black, and pooling in her palm. “Ariahna, why would you…?”

  She winced as Rome touched her hand tenderly. “It’s part of the spell. You need the blood of a witch to trap a spirit.” She frowned as he lifted her hand to his lips. What he did next made everyone else in the room cry out in mutual disgust. Ariahna whimpered softly, feeling his saliva tingling against her skin as he licked at her wound.

  “Dude, I am so out of here,” Jason said, snagging Matt and dragging him out the door. “Jesse is giving us our money back. This was the worst bag of weed I’ve ever fucking smoked. I mean, since when does it cause hallucinations?”

  “You don’t have to clean me up,” Ariahna whispered.

  “Guh,” Christian breathed. “That’s so fucking gross.”

  “Just wait until you wake up next to a dead dear,” Rome frowned. “Because it will happen. Besides, it’s not as repulsive as it seems.” He didn’t know exactly why he’d done it – his wolf had just told him to. He’d learned early on to trust those instincts. Rome watched in amazement as her cut closed up before his eyes, leaving the three of them stunned. Her palm was still tinged red, but as he swept his thumb across the skin, he saw that it was completely smooth. There wasn’t even a scar.

  “You shouldn’t be able to do that,” Ariahna breathed.

  “Any more than you should be able to banish Casper the Bloodthirsty Ghost?” he retorted with a smile.

  “I shouldn’t know how to do that,” she corrected. “But you… you shouldn’t be able to do what you just did. Not even an al—” She looked at Christian, pressing her lips together firmly.

  Rome leaned down to whisper in her ear. “He knows,” he said.

  “I know about you, too,” Christian added, shooting her a smile.

  “Let’s just get out of here, before someone finds us at the epicenter of all this destruction,” Rome decided. “We’re grabbing that journal, and then we’re going out to the yew tree.”

  Chapter 34

  Wind blew gently through the dead branches of the giant yew as they stood beneath it. Christian wondered if this was what an ant felt like when it saw a human, because this tree was more skyscraper than plant. He was seeing it, but he still didn’t believe it.

  “Is this really The Grove? How did you two even find this place?” he said, looking straight up through the branches. He could see the moon shining brightly through the treetop.

  “Can’t you sense it?” Rome asked. “The subtle flicker of life. It gives off an energy, similar to feeling emotions.”

  “No, not really,” he said. “Speaking of, my joints are aching something fierce. Is that normal?”

  Rome shot a glance at Aria before answering him. “It’s because tomorrow is the full moon. I can feel it too.”

  “Is it going to hurt?” he said, wincing at his own words.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, the first time is the worst, and after that, it doesn’t get much better.”

  “Wait, are you saying…?” Aria asked.

  “He’s a werewolf.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I saw his eyes, and Kaleb confirmed it. Which, by the way, unless you want that kind of attention, you should probably steer clear of him after tomorrow. He’s a little… handsy,” Rome admitted.

  “Does that mean you want that kind of attention?” Christian grinned. “Because I don’t see you staying away fro
m him.”

  “You know, everything you do and say makes me glad I didn’t grow up with you. Something tells me I would have gotten blamed for everything.”

  “If I could have gotten away with it, probably, yeah,” he laughed.

  Rome smiled and shook his head. At least he’d admitted to it.

  “I want you to meet me here tomorrow night.” He turned his eyes to Ariahna thoughtfully. “Are you forced to shift? The only reason I ask is because I think you should stay away from us. I don’t know what could happen. I don’t have control on the full moon, and for all I know, I could get vicious, or territorial. Also,” he breathed, “we may end up fighting.”

  “Fighting?” Christian said. “Dude, I’m not going to fight you again. You win, or whatever.”

  “It doesn’t work that way. Our wolves are going to fight for dominance whether we like it or not.”

  “I thought we were both alphas?”

  “Not in a pack. There is still a hierarchy, and there will still be a beta. Alpha is really just a witch term to differentiate type.”

  “How do you even know all of this?”

  “I’ve learned to listen to my wolf. It’s the same way I healed her hand. I had no clue why I was being told to do it; I just trusted its judgment. Honestly, it’s never led me astray.”

  “If you know you’re going to fight, then why don’t you stay away from each other? Doesn’t that seem like the safest option?” Aria said.

  “All we’d be doing is putting off the inevitable. Besides, when it’s over with, I think we’re going to be closer because of it. More like the kin we were meant to be.”

  Christian took a deep breath. Every bone in his body was aching down to the core. He was not ready for this, no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise. “What do you say we focus on the other curse for a bit?”

  “This isn’t a curse,” Rome said. Christian shrugged. “Fine, you’re right. We don’t have a lot of time.” He slowly uncurled the leather strap tied around the journal. Honestly, he was just waiting for something bad to happen. He cracked it open carefully and a spark jolted through his fingers, making him drop the book. It landed on the ground, flipping itself open. The pages fluttered about wildly before stopping somewhere near the middle.

  “Okay,” Rome said, “did anyone else just see that?”

  “Well that didn’t last for long,” Christian breathed.

  “I don’t think that was him. When he comes back, he’s going to do a lot more than turn a few pages. He’s going to be even angrier than before,” Aria said. “That was someone, or something, different.”

  Rome took a deep breath and grabbed the book, taking a seat at the base of the tree as he began to read. “12th of June, 1628. No more do I await the summer’s day, no more do I crave the delights that sit upon my table. Edric VayRenn shall be the first to pay, the first to feel loss like that which I have suffered. What he wants, he shall receive, and it shall do nothing but take. For it is an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. So shall I make his wand, and so shall it be cursed until the day the heart is returned.”

  Rome ran his finger over the old cursive, staring blankly out at the lake. The answer was literally right under his nose.

  “…What are you thinking?” Aria whispered.

  “I don’t know just yet,” he replied. He looked up at the massive tree, pushing off the ground and stepping a few paces away. “Why do I feel like I’ve seen this tree in bloom?”

  “Maybe because you’re crazy?” Christian commented.

  “No, he’s not.” Aria stood to join Rome at his side, curling her fingers between his. “I’ve seen it too.”

  Rome blinked up at the tree as images flashed through his mind. “Did we… did we share the same dream last night?”

  Ariahna nodded.

  “I think so. I didn’t remember it until now,” she said.

  “It was breathtaking, and it felt almost… real,” they said in unison. “Until the day the heart is returned,” Rome mumbled. “Didn’t he call the yew tree the heart?”

  “Yes, he did,” she said softly. “He said that with the heart gone, The Grove couldn’t live.”

  “Are you guys telling me we have to figure out how to revive this freaking tree? You’ve got to be kidding me! The thing’s been dead for like a bazillion years. How in the hell are we supposed to manage that?” Christian bellowed.

  “I don’t know,” Rome muttered. “I really don’t know.”

  “…Maybe we should rest here again,” she suggested. “This place, this tree, it’s trying to tell us what we need to know. Because it’s not dead,” she whispered, “it’s just sleeping.”

  ***

  Ariahna awoke to the comforting warmth of a solid body. “Rome,” she murmured with a smile, cuddling close to him. When she opened her eyes to find Christian’s sleeping face inches from her own, she felt dazed. Aria slipped away from him carefully, scanning the forest for Rome. She finally spotted him by the lake, just outside the cover of the tree. She ducked under the low hanging branches, taking a seat by his side.

  “Good morning,” he smiled.

  “Morning…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ariahna shrugged.

  “Christian?” he guessed.

  She hadn’t planned on bringing it up, but—

  “Why did you let him sleep next to me?”

  “I couldn’t sleep, and he was the only thing keeping you warm. And I was wrong before, when I said he’d fooled me into thinking he cared for you. He fooled me when he said that he didn’t.”

  “Christian’s here because he’s afraid, because he doesn’t want to die,” she breathed. “Not because he cares about me.”

  “Hmm,” Rome said, flipping the journal closed. “You know you’re cursed to fall in love with each other too, right? You can lie to me, and you can lie to each other, but you can’t lie to yourselves. You don’t want to care about him, but you do. And that’s okay. Besides, you’re right about one thing. He is scared, but I have a feeling it’s not of what you think. If my mother had given me up at birth instead of him, the roles could very easily have been reversed. I haven’t known unconditional love in a long time, but I don’t think he’s ever had it, and he’s dealing with more than you know. All I’m trying to say is that, if he earns it, if he works to redeem himself, don’t push him away. He’s trying, he’s just got a lot to learn.”

  “Are you saying you don’t want to be with me?” she said softly.

  “No, it’s not that. I think I just know what’s coming.” A calm silence surrounded them until the gentle sounds of the water and the birds were the only things left filling the morning air.

  “Do you have feelings for someone else?” Aria asked weakly, hugging her knees to her chest. Rome took a deep breath.

  “You mean do I have feelings for Kaleb?” he corrected. “I care about him, but I don’t know if it’s more than that. He keeps doing things I don’t want, and confusing me into thinking I want them.”

  “That doesn’t sound much like a friend,” she commented jealously. “That sounds like sexual harassment.”

  “Isn’t not like that,” he sighed.

  “Then what is it like?” Ariahna replied. Rome didn’t seem to have an answer for her. “…Have you been reading that all night?”

  He nodded. “I made a few notes in the back. I think I know what some of the other curses are now.”

  “Really?”

  “That’s the easy part. The Artisan cursed all of us strategically. I think he did it because he had a strong sense of justice though, not because he was just blatantly evil. Some of these aren’t even payback or revenge for some personal wrong. It sounds like some of these people deserved it. It just sucks that we have to deal with this because of the crap our ancestors pulled,” he grumbled. “The guy had a reason behind all the madness though, and the forms of retribution generally fit the crimes. After reading through some of this, I get it. I don’t a
gree with what he did, but I get it.”

  “So what did you find out?”

  “Okay,” Rome said, pointing at his scribbled notes. “The Artisan was in love with Vivian Graham, and she left him for my ancestor. The thing he failed to mention at the museum is that our curses are not one in the same. My dying, that’s your curse, not mine. Each wand came with its own fun package, so to speak. You get to watch me die, and I get to suffer until you do. My curse is actually a generalized form of misfortune.”

  “Really?” Christian groaned from under the tree. “Bad fucking luck? That’s our curse?” he shouted.

  “Essentially,” Rome said, watching him emerge from the branches.

  “Did anyone even dream anything?” he asked. “Or did I just sleep on the hard, dirty ass ground for nothing? It feels like there’s bugs in my hair.”

  Christian frowned, itching at his head.

  Rome laughed. “It could be fleas.”

  “What?” Christian shrieked. “Are you serious? No, we can’t get fleas, right?” He was itching even more frantically before Rome started busting up laughing again. “It’s not funny.”

  “The cold water would kill them,” Rome grinned. “You could always jump into the lake.”

  “Stop it,” Ariahna said, trying desperately not to giggle. “Christian, you don’t have fleas. Rome’s messing with you.”

  That didn’t stop his paranoid itching any.

  “There’s always Frontline,” Rome murmured. Aria elbowed him in the side, giving him a stern look. “What? Let’s call it payback for meowing at me the entire ride back yesterday, and for overall being a little shit,” he smirked.

  “…Wait,” she said, finally cutting them off as they bickered and teased one another. “How is any one person’s death equal to what my ancestor did to The Grove? Is he collecting the souls as restitution?”

  Rome turned to her with a worried smile.

  “I wondered that too. I think it’s not so much about the death, as it is the loss. He lost what he loved most, and that’s what your family’s curse is really all about. But if I find out he has my mother’s soul I’m going to rip him to pieces with my teeth.”