Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)

by Light

  “Like what?” Rome ventured.

  Kaleb smiled, remembering one time in particular. “We had a guest stay with us this once – a noble lady from another clan, coming to kiss up to my father or something. I—” He chuckled before he could finish the sentence. “I put a rat in her wardrobe.”

  “You didn’t,” he said, wide-eyed.

  “I did,” he grinned. “Anyways, I guess it must have found a nice little place to nest, because when she went to meet with my father and the council the next day, she just suddenly started shrieking. The thing was in her clothes, and apparently—and I swear I did not know this—she was deathly afraid of rodents.” Kaleb tucked his lips into his mouth, snickering as he tried to finish his story. “She started ripping off her dress in the middle of the hall!” he proclaimed joyously, dissolving into delighted laughter. He was laughing so hard he was in danger of crying.

  “Oh my god,” Rome wheezed.

  “The best part was watching my father’s adviser running around trying to catch the thing. And she—” Kaleb laughed harder, trying to catch his breath. “She crawled right up into my father’s lap in nothing but her underwear trying to get away from it! It was the best thing ever.”

  Rome had to close his eyes and put all his concentration and energy into just trying to breathe. “Did they know it was you?” he asked after a moment, grinning wildly.

  “If they didn’t, what would be the point? I’m notoriously known for such shenanigans. I make it a point to make my father aware of them, sooner or later. Of course, not all of them have comedic endings,” he said grimly. Rome was gazing at him intently and he decided to shift the focus off of himself. “What about you? If I have to share things, you need to tell me more than well-known facts. Everyone is aware you play the guitar by now.”

  Rome took a few thoughtful moments. The fact that Kaleb did those sorts of things to get attention hadn’t eluded him. “Speaking of facts,” he said, “I know a lot of random ones. I used to annoy my mother all the time with questions and things I’d learned or read about. And she was one of the most patient people you’d ever meet.” Kaleb gave him a face that clearly said he wanted him to elaborate. “Um, did you know that without saliva you couldn’t taste your food? Or that sound travels five times faster underwater than in air?”

  “Does that mean I wouldn’t be able to taste blood if I suddenly ran out of saliva? Would I just not be able to taste the flavor, or would I lose all those little complexities that I can feel pouring across my tongue? Could I still taste magic, or emotions, or arousal? Is it possible to stop salivating?”

  “I know random facts, not answers to random questions,” Rome smiled. “But, um, yeah. Perhaps,” he shrugged.

  “Now I’m worried I’m going to stop salivating.”

  “I think you’ll be fine,” he said with a chuckle. “So, how about you hit me with this theory of yours?”

  Kaleb looked over at the aged journal lying beside them.

  “I think the answer is simple, really. Destroy the wands.”

  Rome scoffed. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of that.

  “Could it really be that easy?”

  “Sure, if you think easy is acquiring something that’s either lost or locked away in a government-run facility. They’re not just going to hand them over. And I doubt it’s going to be as simple as tossing them in a fire.”

  “Maybe we could drop them into a volcano?” Rome suggested. “Too bad I lost my map to Mount Doom.” Kaleb looked confused. “Never mind,” he smiled. “I’ll figure something out.”

  Chapter 38

  Everyone in the cafeteria startled at the same time. Cellphones echoed around the room, chiming and buzzing in pockets and on tables. The sound was quickly followed by hushed whispering. Rome couldn’t help but wonder if this was another text like the one they’d gotten only a day or so before. He sat down next to Aria at their usual spot in the back.

  “What does it say?”

  “Oh my god,” she breathed. “This can’t be true, can it?”

  Rome spun the phone around on the table, reading the text.

  It was true, alright.

  Mr. Richmond is sexually abusing students.

  Come forward. None of you are alone.

  Rome couldn’t help but wonder if someone had overheard his conversation with Christian this morning. It would be too much of a coincidence if they hadn’t. Was Kaleb sending these? he wondered briefly. It made sense. He was lurking around the party that night, and he’d walked up on them this morning. Why else wouldn’t the text have come in until now? He and Kaleb had spent the entire morning out by the tree. In fact, to his knowledge, Kaleb was still out there. Looking at Ariahna now just made Rome feel guilty for what they’d been doing in the grass most of that time. She may have kissed Christian, but the circumstances were different. They were cursed. Kaleb and he were not. He tried to rationalize that in some ways they were drawn to each other, though.

  “You’re quiet,” she said. “Are you alright?” She was worried he knew about this morning, about the kiss. And more importantly, about what Christian had said to her. She was worried that he was upset.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” he said distractedly. “Can we talk?”

  “Um,” she stammered. “Sure?”

  Rome led her into the empty hall on the ground floor, finding a deserted classroom for privacy. He could tell she was feeling guilty. He wanted to quell those fears, but right now, breaking the curse was more important than their complicated love lives.

  “I need you to be completely honest with me,” he said. Her face twisted into a frown. “Does your family still have their wand?”

  “I—”

  “It’s important. We need it. Or rather, we need to destroy it.”

  “Destroy it? Why in the world would we need to do that?”

  “It makes sense. He cursed the wands, and then gave them to our families. Destroy the cursed object, destroy the curse.”

  “Rome, I’m not sure that’s even possible. Do you remember the crack in the Hayes wand? I told you that happened while they were fighting over it. What I didn’t tell you was that they were throwing around some heavy elemental magic. The wand was in the middle of that mess and it was barely touched.”

  “We’ll figure something out. There has to be a way.”

  She sighed softly, leaning against the edge of a desk. “Even if you’re right, we have to find it first. I don’t know where it is. I know my father keeps it at the house somewhere, but I haven’t seen it since I was a little girl.”

  “Okay… Well, the house can only be so big, right?” Ariahna gave him a sheepish look. “Come on, what do you live in, a mansion or something?”

  “Why don’t we just go look around,” she said evasively. “No one should be home now.”

  “Sure. Maybe we’ll catch a break.” He took Ariahna’s hand, feeling that spine-tingling sensation tugging at his body. It felt like they were flying over a greater distance than she’d ever taken them before, and when he blinked his eyes open, they were standing in the foyer of a large house. “Holy shit,” Rome breathed. “You do live in a mansion.”

  “It’s not a mansion,” she muttered. “It’s a manor.”

  “Is there a difference?”

  Ariahna tread quietly through an elegant sitting room and down a wide hall. The floors were done in a rich, dark wood, and decorated with fine rugs. Wood paneling done in that same dark-brown rose halfway up the walls to meet the dull, taupe paint. Artwork hung tastefully here and there helped fill the emptiness, but did nothing to make the space feel warm or inviting.

  “Where do you think it could be?” Rome asked.

  “Shhh,” she whispered.

  “I thought you said no one was home?”

  “Shhh!”

  He watched her tiptoe towards an open doorway, peering around the edge of the doorframe into the room. He leaned away from the wall to try and get a look at what she was seeing. A woman i
n her early forties sat on a padded bench in front of a large, arched window. Her legs were curled up beside her, head resting against the wall near the glass. Gentle light flowed into the room, illuminating her red hair and warming the features of her face. She was gazing out at the garden, admiring the flowers with a distant indifference in her eyes. She looked tired. Rome inhaled, feeling overwhelmed by her grief. It had literally wrapped around his heart and brought tears to his eyes. Ariahna snagged his hand and pulled him past, ducking into another room. She pressed her palm over his mouth as the floor creaked just outside the closed door.

  “…Are you crying?” she whispered.

  She slowly pulled her hand back and Rome swallowed the hard lump in his throat. “Was that your mother?” he asked, his voice fragile.

  “Yes. We don’t have to worry about her, but we should stay out of sight of her caregiver. She’d inform my father for sure.”

  “Is she okay?”

  Aria turned away from him. She wasn’t sure how to answer.

  “We need to be quick and quiet,” she said. “Can you save your questions for later?” Rome nodded, following as she led them through a small door and up a cramped set of stairs.

  “Why are there just stairs coming up from that room?”

  “It’s a servant’s stairwell,” she said.

  “You have servants?”

  “No. Sometimes,” she admitted.

  Rome sighed behind her. He was feeling inadequate to say the least. Aria stopped on the stairs, and he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he almost ran right into her.

  “Please stop thinking what you’re thinking,” she begged. “I’ve had to deal with people treating me differently my whole life because of my family or their money. I don’t want to get that from you too. I don’t want you to see me any differently.”

  “I don’t. And I get it, I really do. Put the words ‘lack of money’ in that sentence, and they literally could have come straight from my mouth. I’m not judging you, believe me. I just… I’m adjusting, okay? You weren’t exactly forthcoming with your lifestyle. I mean, I know most people who go to Vardel have some money, but… I don’t know. Seeing it is just different.”

  Ariahna smiled. “And my family has a little more than most,” she admitted. “I just don’t feel like your economic status should define you. Someone can have very little monetary value to their name, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t rich in other ways. Material possessions don’t comprise a person’s worth.”

  Rome kissed her then, and it was so sudden, it made her giggle.

  “The princess falling in love with the peasant,” he grinned. “We really have some fairytale style romance, don’t we?”

  “Beauty and the Beast,” she said.

  “Cursed roses, poison apples, and now wands,” Rome muttered. “You think by now we’d have learned and stopped accepting gifts from strangers.” He pressed their foreheads together, brushing his nose gently against hers. “You know one other thing all those stories have in common? They all have happy endings.”

  She pulled away after a few stolen moments making out on the stairs. “We should go,” she said. “We can’t forget why we’re here.”

  “Why are we here again?” he teased.

  She smiled and hurried up the steps, hearing him chasing playfully after her. She squealed softly when he caught her at the top of the stairs, shushing them both when she remembered they had to be quiet. “The only place I can think he’d feel safe keeping it would be in his study,” she said, guiding him through the upper floor.

  A large archway led them into a small, simply decorated room. A pair of heavy wooden double doors sat at the back, and two impressive statues in the form of lions sat on either side of the doorway. Rome drifted towards them, running his fingers over the white stone in awe.

  “Rome,” Aria said worriedly.

  “These are incredible. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were real.” The lion farthest from him moved so fluidly Rome’s heart nearly exploded, lifting its head and letting out a lazy yawn. The other was quickly coming to life beneath his fingers, gazing back at him with the stunning indifference only a predator could manage. You’re insignificant, that look said. The stone beast stared back at him as if it could eat him or watch him run away, but it just hadn’t decided which it would like more. Rome startled backwards with a frightened growl, spreading his arms wide and standing protectively in front of Ariahna.

  “It’s a guardian spell,” she whispered.

  “You couldn’t have told me that before I pet it?” he breathed. “I’m lucky I still have my hand!”

  “It won’t attack. Not yet.”

  “That does not sound encouraging,” he mumbled.

  The two cats rose from their pedestals, stretching and then slinking down onto the floor. The sound of their claws clacking against the hardwood had Rome’s stomach clenching in fear. He watched them circle the two of them before they stilled on either side. And when the statue he’d touched opened its mouth to speak, Rome nearly shouted in surprise.

  “What fear you more,” it rumbled, “a lion, or a sheep?”

  “Well I know the obvious answer,” he squeaked. A hand clamped over his mouth and he glanced back at Aria. “Is this supposed to happen?” he asked, his voice muffled beneath her fingers.

  She nodded silently.

  Ariahna slipped away from Rome, walking over to the lion who had prompted them for an answer. She sunk down to her knees in front of it as he made a sound of protest behind her. Staring unblinkingly back into its intelligent eyes, she said, “‘I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.’”

  “Alexander the Great?” Rome laughed. “Really?” The second lion approached him with a stern expression, stopping beside his feet.

  “With a storm at your back, do you take to land or sea?”

  “…Depends what’s in front of you?” he shrugged. He saw Aria standing slowly out of the corner of his eye.

  “There’s only supposed to be one question,” she said, staring at the lion in a mixture of bemusement and fear.

  “One answer, one entry,” it replied. “He too must earn passage.”

  Rome squinted at the lion as it seemed to smile at him cleverly. “Passage,” he mumbled. Was it giving him a clue? He tried to wrack his brain for the answer to its riddle, mulling over quotes he thought her father might have used. Aria’s face lit up with recognition.

  “A ship is safe—”

  The lion roared fiercely at her, its voice so loud it shook the floor.

  “The question is not yours to answer,” it said. “Speak again, and your lives are forfeit.”

  Rome took a shaky breath. He knew this. It was on the tip of his tongue. He closed his eyes, trying to summon the rest of the words. “A ship is safe in harbor…” he said, pausing uncertainly.

  “Is that your answer?” the lion boomed.

  “No.”

  “Your time is limited.”

  “Okay,” he sighed. As if he wasn’t under enough pressure. Rome glanced down at his ring as a glint of light caught his eye. The metal shone a sparkling blue, and the words suddenly sprung past his lips like they’d been there all along, waiting to be set free.

  “‘A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.’” He frowned down at the assessing look on the stone cat’s face. “Is that right? I think that’s right.” Neither lion answered as they prowled back over to their perches, lowering themselves onto their bellies as their eyes turned unseeing once more. The doors to the study creaked inward just as the sound of footsteps erupted from down the hall.

  “Hurry,” Aria whispered, shoving him into the room and turning the metal lock behind them. She pressed her ear to the door, palms shaking against the wood as she held her breath. The clack of heels stopped on the other side, and she could hear her mother’s caregiver searching the room with her eyes. The seconds started to feel like
hours, and then she finally heard the telltale signs of her stalking away. “We can’t stay long,” she said, turning to look at Rome. His eyes were comedically large.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice. Has your home always been this dangerous?” he asked. He slipped into a mocking voice, muttering, “Aria, don’t play near daddy’s office, you might get eaten.” He threw his hands out emphatically, staring back at her with incredulous eyes.

  “Seriously, what the fuck?” he said.

  Aria smiled at him patiently, skipping over his question. “How did you figure out the answer? Not many people I know would be able to pull out a quote by William G.T. Shedd.”

  Rome gave her a half shrug. “I read a lot.”

  “Who knew a book could save someone’s life?” she smiled.

  “Would they have seriously eaten us?” he asked.

  The look on Rome’s face told her it would be better if she didn’t answer. Aria walked over to her father’s desk, opening a drawer and looking through his things. She doubted he’d keep the wand in his desk, but maybe there would be some kind of clue or a key tucked away in there.

  Rome glanced at the fireplace behind the desk, following the chimney up to the second floor of the spacious office. There seemed to be a library up above, reachable by two curved, metal staircases on either side. “Why go to all the trouble to password protect your office if the only thing in it is a bunch of books? I expected something more… I don’t know, forbidden?”

  Aria glanced up at him with a smirk. “A lot of these books are on forbidden subjects. Many of them are banned, in fact. And I think he has some even darker tomes hidden somewhere in here. I’ve seen him coming and going with books that are not on these shelves.”

  “Like books on nahuals?”

  “Books on nahuals are a dime a dozen, but they’re all speculation,” she said. “None of the ones you can find in the library or at a local book store would have anything useful in them.”

  “You would know.” He watched her pause in her search, going silent. “I just want you to tell me,” he said. “I already know, but I want to hear it from you. I want you to trust me.”