by Jones, AE
“What about both of you?” she asked.
“The same.”
“Okay, that must be where the energy convergence is. I think when the time comes, we should go stand in the meadow to cast the spell.”
She stood and McHenry grabbed her elbow. “Are you okay to be on your feet?”
“I’m fine.”
After a few minutes, they walked to the meadow and stood in a small circle facing each other. Darcinda held out her hand with the bag of herbs for the spell resting in her palm. McHenry and Roderick did the same before they each closed their hand around their bag.
Soon after, the earth trembled slightly.
“It’s showtime,” Darcinda said. She recited a spell while the ground shook under their feet.
Light flashed across the sky like summer lightning. Power surged up McHenry’s body, and he was lifted off the earth along with Roderick and Darcinda. They dangled above the ground like marionettes before dropping down with a resounding thud, hard enough to rattle his teeth. The ground stopped shaking.
The three of them stared at each other.
McHenry cursed.
We’re trapped in a faerie tale.
Chapter 27
Why didn’t the spell work? That same question kept running through Darcinda’s mind while she watched the two demons pace in front of her, back and forth across the meadow.
Something had blocked them. And they needed to figure out what, or she feared they would never escape.
“Now what?” Roderick said. “I need to get back to Selina.”
“In a half hour they’ll try the spell again. So we have some time to figure things out.”
McHenry barked out a harsh laugh. “A half hour? We’ve been surrounded by this curse for our entire lives, and we haven’t been able to escape it. What difference will thirty minutes make?”
“If it doesn’t work, they’ll try again thirty minutes after that.”
McHenry didn’t answer. Instead he increased his manic pacing, his arms swinging. He flinched as his hand seemed to hit something and sparks flew outward.
“What was that?” Darcinda asked.
“It’s the magical barrier surrounding this house,” Roderick said. “We tried to leave earlier, and it blocked us.”
McHenry’s face lost a bit of color. “Except it’s not in the same spot it was an hour ago. It used to surround the entire meadow.”
Darcinda looked around. They were standing in the middle of the meadow. She had to force herself to take a deep breath. How much space would they lose after the next half hour, and the half hour after that? How many more chances would they have to escape?
“Okay. We’re trapped in the house your grandfathers lived in. Why?”
Roderick looked at her like she was addled. “Because of the curse .”
“I know that. But why send you here?”
McHenry stopped pacing. “Right. I don’t understand that either. I always thought if I said the word ‘curse’ out loud, I might be killed or maimed or something equally horrible.”
“Me too,” Roderick said.
“Right, but instead you’re here. There has to be a reason. Curses are supposed to be tied to the wrong done. Tell me what you know about the curse.”
“Our grandfathers fought over a faerie maid. They were cursed to forgo love and drown in their own avarice,” McHenry recited, as if he’d memorized it.
Roderick nodded. “That’s the same thing my father told me.”
“So what were they greedy about?”
“Power and fame,” Roderick said.
McHenry crossed his arms. “Land and respectability.”
Darcinda gaped at them. She couldn’t help herself. “I’ve heard of that before. Every little faerie girl is told the tale of two evil males who didn’t treasure the heart of a maiden because of their pursuit of power and land. But that is a faerie tale.”
McHenry shook his head. “Aren’t most fables based on a nugget of truth?”
“Okay. Well, let’s think about this. The tale is told as a warning to protect our hearts, and to trust those who truly know what to value—love. And this curse has passed through the generations.”
Both males nodded.
“As has the animosity.”
“Aye,” McHenry said.
Darcinda turned to Roderick. They needed the truth or they would never get out of here. “Is that why you attacked McHenry and Andrew, because you couldn’t stand the idea of your daughter being with McHenry’s nephew?”
Roderick’s jaw clenched before he answered. “I didn’t attack them.”
McHenry took a step forward. “We’re trapped in the middle of this bloody curse and you can’t finally tell the damn truth?”
“I didn’t do it!” Roderick growled.
“Well you can’t deny attacking Darcinda. You bound her powers!”
Roderick looked away for a moment, as if making a decision, before turning back to them. “It wasn’t a binding spell. It was an absorption spell.”
“Why would you of all people want to absorb a faerie’s powers?” McHenry asked.
It couldn’t be. Darcinda gasped. “He wasn’t trying to absorb my powers. I stepped in front of Selina at the last second. You were casting the spell on her. But I don’t understand. Selina told me she doesn’t have any powers.”
“She doesn’t know.”
McHenry scowled. “Why would you absorb your daughter’s powers?”
Pain flooded Roderick’s expression “Because she has my curse now.”
“Tell us what you mean,” Darcinda said.
Roderick shook his head.
“If we don’t discuss this, we won’t be able to figure out how to get out of here.”
Roderick blew out a hard breath. “The curse has been passed down from father to son. I didn’t think it would impact Selina.”
“What is it?” Darcinda spoke softly to coax the words out of him.
“According to the curse, my grandfather wanted power and fame. So he was given more than he could handle. Power overwhelms us. It takes us over, and we lose control of it. Like it’s a living, breathing entity. We aren’t conscious of it. When I was younger, emotions would trigger my powers to explode.” He frowned. “I’ve learned to suppress them.”
“And now you’re absorbing Selina’s powers?”
“Yes. I won’t let this destroy her.”
“You can’t plan to do that forever? Isn’t it dangerous for you?” McHenry asked.
“I haven’t thought that far in advance. She turned twenty-two six months ago. I thought she was safe. That the curse would end with me.” He swallowed hard. “I was wrong.”
“Twenty-two?” Darcinda asked.
“It’s when the curse manifested in me,” Roderick said, “and my father before me.”
“Aye,” McHenry said. “It’s how old our grandfathers were when they were cursed.”
“They were both so young.”
“It didn’t spare them,” McHenry said.
“Okay, so when did you figure out about Selina?” Darcinda asked.
Roderick’s expression shut down, and he walked back toward the cabin.
Darcinda and McHenry followed him back. He stopped at the well and lifted a ladle out of the bucket and drank from it before putting it back.
“What aren’t you telling us?” McHenry asked.
He clenched his fists before turning to them. “I dreaded her last birthday. Made myself half sick worrying about what would happen to her. When the powers didn’t manifest, I thanked the Fates over and over again. I had always kept her close to the castle to protect her.
“When my fears were calmed, I let her go stay with my sister in the Burrow. Selina was ecstatic. She had begged for years, and I always denied her.”
“And she met Andrew,” Darcinda said.
“Yes. She came home to see me. She was a jumble of nerves, and I thought something bad had happened. She told me about Andrew. I was shocked
that she had fallen in love. She’s too young and sheltered. I automatically went on the offensive and asked her about him. And that’s when she told me who Andrew’s uncle was.”
He rested his clenched fist against his chest. “I panicked. She couldn’t be with him. I didn’t know what the curse would do to her. So I forbade her to be with him. Told her to never speak to him again.”
He dropped his fist away from his chest. “I have never seen her so upset. She screamed at me. Told me I couldn’t keep her away from him.”
Nerves danced under Darcinda’s skin. Holy Fates, please don’t let it be true. “It was Selina.”
Roderick’s face lost color.
McHenry looked back and forth between them. “What was Selina?”
“Selina’s powers manifested during the fight. She was the one who attacked you.”
Secrets are their own form of curse.
Chapter 28
McHenry couldn’t have heard her correctly. “What?”
Roderick shook his head vehemently. “She didn’t attack you.”
McHenry blinked at him. “The dozens of shards of metal that pierced my back tell me otherwise.”
“She didn’t do it consciously. The power is attached to emotion. We were arguing about you and Andrew at the time. Her emotions were tied to you both, and the power manifested. She doesn’t know she did it.”
“You were going to take the blame for it,” Darcinda said.
“Yes. She’s my daughter. I would do anything for her.”
McHenry understood that. He would do anything to protect his nephews. “So why didn’t you just confess and be done with it?”
“I was going to, but…”
“But what?” McHenry asked.
“But then Selina would be alone, without Roderick to absorb her powers,” Darcinda answered.
Damnation. What a mess.
“I never told her about the curse. My sister wasn’t affected by it, so I prayed Selina was safe.”
“What about Andrew and Jamie?” Darcinda asked.
“My sister and I don’t share the same father, so the boys are fine.” McHenry paced a few steps and then turned back to them. “What about the memory spell? If she doesn’t know what happened, who cast it?”
“I did. I felt the power surge the moment it happened. Selina collapsed, and when I grabbed her to keep her from hitting the ground, I knew something had happened to you. So I changed your memories so you wouldn’t connect what happened to Selina. When she woke up, I told her I had contacted you and you had forbidden Andrew to see her anymore. I thought it would be enough to convince her to stay away. But I underestimated the feelings my daughter has for your nephew.”
“But it still doesn’t explain things. What about the spell you cast in the shop? The memory spell and the attack were cast by the same person.”
Darcinda blew out a shaky breath. “Maybe not. The memory spell was a dark purple and the metal shards were surrounded by a lighter purple. I assumed it was one person, but Selina’s powers could be in the same color family as her father.”
“Hells. Is Andrew safe with her?”
“I absorbed her powers when she collapsed, and was preparing to add a secondary spell to be safe when Darcinda stepped in front of her in the courtyard.”
“And what happens if Selina holds JT?” McHenry asked.
Roderick’s eyes widened. “I don’t know.”
McHenry’s stomach twisted. “Roderick, do you think Selina’s magic caused the chain to attack you?”
“No.”
“But you don’t know for sure.”
He hesitated.
“How could you not tell us the truth! You’ve put everyone at risk!”
Roderick frowned. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re not cursed.”
McHenry barked out a harsh laugh. “Not cursed?”
“Not that I can see.”
McHenry left them both standing in the courtyard. Not cursed? He marched across the meadow as far as he could before the barrier stopped him. He heard them follow behind him as he looked out at the meadow.
“What aren’t you telling us, McHenry?” Darcinda asked quietly.
He put his hands up and touched the field, holding them there while it sizzled and snapped and electricity surged up his arms.
She reached for him. “Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Don’t touch me.” He held his hands against the heat until he dropped them and spun around to face them.
“This is my curse. This barrier surrounds my land at home. I haven’t been able to leave my home in over twenty-five years. My grandfather cared about land, so the curse gave it to him. When I turned twenty-two, I became its prisoner, like my father before me.”
Darcinda’s hand clapped over her mouth. The last thing he needed was her pity.
“Your whole grouchy hermit image is a sham. You can’t leave.”
“Damn, and here I thought you were living without the curse while I shouldered the burden,” Roderick said.
“I thought the same thing about you,” McHenry said.
Darcinda threw up her hands. “Because you two are stubborn idiots. You should have actually talked to each other.”
McHenry crossed his arms. “We were forbidden to tell anyone about the curse.”
“To people who don’t know about it, sure. But you both already know, so you weren’t breaking any rules if you discussed it…right?”
“Possibly,” Roderick said.
“How does this help us?” McHenry asked.
“Secrets just help the curse continue. I think we should go see what the journal has to say before it’s time to try the spell again.”
They headed back to the house, and McHenry picked up the journal, flipping the pages to new writing that had indeed appeared. “There’s even more now.”
I couldn’t wait to go back to the Faerie Kingdom. Roderick was surprised at my eagerness since I usually let him handle the customers. But it wasn’t the customers I wanted to see, it was her. The beauty in the stable.
I made my excuses as soon as possible and left Roderick with the stable master, walking quickly through the stables, but she wasn’t there. I had almost given up hope of seeing her until I heard the click of hooves over the cobblestones outside the stables. I walked to the rear of the building and sucked in a breath.
The beauty rode toward me. She rode like she had been born on a horse, and if I hadn’t fallen in love with her when I first met her, I was in love now. Her hair blew around her face and she laughed as she came to a stop by the door.
I grabbed the bridle and she flung her leg over the beast and slid down to the ground. She reached under the horse to loosen the straps to remove the saddle. I helped her with the saddle, and she led the horse over to a trough to drink while she wiped him down.
You’re back.
Yes. I had to know your name.
She smiled. It’s Anna.
McHenry looked up from the book. “I don’t see anything here that says he stole Anna from your grandfather.”
“One thing is bothering me,” Darcinda said.
“Just one thing?” McHenry said.
Darcinda grinned. “Point taken. I just don’t understand why Selina has inherited the curse. This is a love curse, and it was cast on two males. It’s counterintuitive for the spell to have attacked her.”
“How else do you explain it? I felt the energy surge through her. It felt just like the way I experienced it at her age.”
Darcinda shook her head. “I still don’t think it’s related to the original curse.”
Roderick took a step forward. “Original curse? Are you telling me that there’s another curse? Someone cursed my child?”
“I don’t know for sure. You said you recognized the power. Could it be that someone is channeling your power into Selina and, since she doesn’t know how to control it, it attacked McHenry and Andrew?”
“So you’re saying that my daughter is really
suffering from my powers?”
“This is not your fault,” McHenry said. “It’s on the shoulders of whoever cast the spell.”
“I’ll destroy whoever did this to her,” Roderick growled.
Darcinda nodded. “To make that happen, we have to get out of here first. And I bet it’s close to the time to try the spell again.”
They headed out of the courtyard into the meadow, but couldn’t walk but a few steps before meeting the barrier again. They stood in a semicircle and nodded to each other. A few minutes later, the earth began to move and Darcinda recited the spell.
Heat bloomed from McHenry’s palm where he clutched the herb bag. He jarred sharply to the left when the earth moved. Then a flash of light sent them flying backward.
He watched Darcinda hit the earth, her fist slamming into the barrier and opening as a flash of sparks surrounded it. The herb bag she’d been holding flew against the barrier and incinerated in a flash of fire and smoke.
Someone had to end up with the short straw.
Chapter 29
Darcinda sat across from Roderick and McHenry at the cabin’s small table. The three of them stared at the two remaining magic bags in the middle of the table.
“Can we make a new bag?” Roderick asked.
Darcinda shook her head. “No. Even with the herbs you found here, there are several missing ingredients.”
“So one of us will be stuck here,” McHenry said.
Darcinda’s heart thudded. Before she could answer, Roderick spoke.
“I’ll stay. If I remain here, it could mean the curse would stay with me, right? If your version is true, someone has pushed my powers into Selina. If I’m not there, she’s safe, as is everyone else.”
McHenry leaned forward. “You have to go back and take care of your daughter and figure out who cast the spell. Selina won’t be safe until you figure out who that is. I’ll stay.”
“No!” Darcinda had to swallow before she could say more. “You can’t stay here.”
“Well you sure in the hells aren’t stayin’ here,” McHenry growled.