by Summa, S. E.
Nothing.
“I have an idea,” Finn said and he grabbed Marceau’s forearms. Marceau reached for his in return. “All right, concentrate. Think of her, of your love for her. This hex has fed on our emotions all these years, right? You said it was the emotional connection between you that caused it to bloom and activate the dormant portion you carried. So, focus on your emotions. Think of how badly you need her back.”
Finn closed his eyes. His brow drew down tight, and he hummed a soft song to himself. One Marceau heard Seraphina hum many times when they worked on translating the grimoire.
Marceau pinched his eyes shut too. He thought of when he first saw her in the ridiculous carriage at the Schermerhorn. He smiled as he remembered how he’d practically chased her all over the building and was brash enough to take the seat beside her during the concert.
What he wouldn’t give to go back to that day at the Arcade and know what he did now. If he’d known the full extent of the curse that day, he could have prevented so much heartache.
Marceau pictured her sitting there. He’d been so nervous. It was easy remembering how stray locks of her crimson hair had come free of her ponytail and blown around her face. She’d looked so natural that day. Jeans and Converse, only a little makeup. Her freckles had shown darker across the bridge of her nose than on her cheeks. Her bright green eyes sparkled with delight at each bite of her favorite lunch. She’d been playful, but wary of him. Tough and yet fragile.
“That’s it,” Khat said with more excitement than usual.
Opening his eyes, he noticed the complex blue pattern of the hex was traveling down his arms toward his wrists. Finn’s arms were still blank.
Marceau needed her back. He’d done so many things he was not proud of. He needed to know he saved a person of such beauty and character. His hands flared bright blue. Tendrils of the hex flowed into Finn’s arms, winding around and around. Finn sucked in a deep breath. Stark black and gray traces of the hex began to form within his skin in response.
Lynette gasped. Her eyes bulged as she looked from Finn to Marceau.
“I-I see it. I can see the hex now.”
“We all can, Lynette, chill. This has happened before,” Khat answered.
Lynette glared and said, “Wait. Why the hell is the hex in your skin, Marceau? I didn’t curse you. And what are you doing to Finn anyway? I don’t like this.” She started to raise her hand from Seraphina’s shoulder.
Khat warned, “You freeze right there. I haven’t pulled the rest of you from the veil yet, Lynette. Don’t push it.” Khat’s voice shook, but it was unclear if it was from anger or from the effort to hold the veil.
Marceau chimed in, “I carry your bloodline. I believe the curse has run through all of our family born after you cast the hex. It lay dormant in my blood until I came here. The love between Seraphina and me activated it.”
“Then why didn’t you just unbind it yourself then?” Lynette asked.
“I never found a way to, or, believe me, I would have.”
“Enough. Focus people, please.” Khat’s face was no longer calm. She had beads of sweat on her forehead and her chin was beginning to tremble.
Finn stared at Khat and said, “We have to hurry, Marc. Focus on Seraphina.” He started humming again.
Marceau thought of the dinner when he first met Finn and Khat. He pictured Seraphina’s shy expression when he handed her the dahlias and remembered her fiery temper when she held her ground with Finn. How quickly she had eased back into laughter once she expressed herself.
They’d spent many afternoons together translating the grimoire. She was so intelligent. Seraphina had meticulously researched and translated each page. They were only partway done. She needed to comeback and finish her research.
Marceau’s hex rose and twisted upward. The smoky tendrils wrapped up like a vine from a fairy tale, but in electric, pulsing blue. Finn’s hex joined his and they wound around each other. Black and blue. Marceau closed his eyes and concentrated even harder. He remembered feeling so cold. His body had lost the ability to regulate itself with the curse in full power, and he thought of the warmth her closeness provided. Recalling emotions he’d experienced the night during the movie, of finally feeling as if he had found somewhere he belonged, tugged at his heart. With friends. With the girl he loved.
“Almost there,” Khat whispered.
Marceau opened his eyes and peeked at the veil. The power from his and Finn’s hex disappeared as if into a fog.
“You did it. You pierced the veil.” Khat sat up straighter again. “Seraphina Pearce, I call you forward. Follow my voice. Come back to us.” Her voice cracked. Khat cleared her throat. “Sera, come forward, please.”
They waited a few minutes that seemed like an eternity.
“Do you sense her?” Finn asked Khat.
Khat shook her head. “No, how about you?”
Finn shook his head side to side.
Marceau closed his eyes. He tried to extend his senses outward beyond his skin. He imagined traveling along the power of the curse, trying with all his might to find some sign she was near.
There.
The faintest brush of warmth as if sunshine shone upon the curse. Marceau recognized Seraphina’s energy. Adrenaline pulsed into his chest. “She’s there.”
Finn squinted as he stared at the veil.
“Are you sure?” Lynette asked.
This time, Marceau tried to push his feelings, to extend them beyond himself, to let them swell large enough to fill the entire bedroom.
I need you, Seraphina. Come back to me.
He heard a gasp and peeked at Lynette. Her eyes were huge.
Marceau’s head whipped back to the foot of the bed. A pale, pink wisp appeared from thin air. It snaked its way closer and twisted all the while joining their hexes.
“Seraphina,” Marceau said.
A pulse of red flared through the smoky tendril.
“Call her again,” Finn said.
“Come back to us, Seraphina. Follow our energy through the veil. Cross back into the mortal realm,” Marceau pleaded.
“Ahem, don’t forget me,” Lynette interjected.
“Hush, you,” Khat hissed.
The power of Seraphina’s hex flared bright red. The air at the end of the bed began to glow a faint red too.
Khat leaned forward. “Sera, cross the veil. I’m going to pull what remains of Mirela’s spirit through. Please come with her.”
The red illumination stayed at the foot of the bed, but nothing seemed to change.
“I think I can help.” Lynette reached forward. “Come closer so I can touch the hex.”
Finn and Marceau exchanged a look. Finn nodded and they both took a step bringing the hex within Lynette’s reach.
“It’s so powerful.” Lynette reached out and stroked their intertwining hexes. The force intensified and the colors all sparked at her touch. “Ah, I see how it works now.”
Lynette plucked the end of Seraphina’s hex. It pulsed so brightly that it caused Marceau to squint. Lynette spoke a few words in same Creole French she’d used while weaving the hex as she slowly pulled.
Hope was etched in Finn’s eyes. Marceau knew they mirrored his own. Their arms remained locked over Seraphina as Lynette continued pulling the red tendril of Seraphina’s hex.
Khat’s head shot up and her eyes were brimming with tears. “Guys, I cannot hold this much longer. We call you forth, Seraphina. Please.” She sobbed.
The strand Lynette held flared a red so vibrant it burned Marceau’s eyes. He looked down at Seraphina. A sudden warm rush of air blew his hair back, and Seraphina’s body jumped.
She gasped a deep breath and Marceau’s body shuddered in relief. More adrenaline shot through his veins and straight to his heart. He heard everyone else gasp too. They stood frozen… staring for any sign of awareness.
“It’s back.” Sobbing, deep and unrestrained pulled his eyes from Seraphina for a moment, long enough to s
ee Lynette hold her hands against her chest. “I’m here.”
Seraphina’s voice whispered, “I promise. I promise. I…”
Marceau looked back down in time to watch Seraphina’s eyes flutter open. She stopped whispering and stared up at Finn and Marceau’s clasped arms above her. She twisted and looked above her at Khat, who still held her hands against Seraphina’s face. Finally, she caught sight of Lynette and screamed.
“Y-you.” She recoiled and scooted down on the bed.
“No,” Finn yelled. “She is helping, love. Stay still.”
Seraphina looked bewildered but did as he asked.
“Do you feel any power, Lynette?” Marceau hoped his theory was correct. Did her powers return when her spirit was reunited? What if they had disappeared forever?
“I’m not sure yet,” Lynette spoke softly. She raised her hand and turned it back and forth in front of her.
Khat stared at Lynette’s hands, and her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Cut the crap and release the curse, Lynette. That was the deal we made. I held up my end of the deal, now it’s your turn.”
What did Khat see?
Lynette said, “I don’t know. Even if I can tap back into my power, I could just let the past rest, move onward into this new… afterlife.”
Finn was fuming. “This is not one of your games. You claimed you loved me once, before all this. Seraphina has died twice to let me live. She deserves her freedom now and to have a full life.”
Marceau glanced at Seraphina. Her gaze snapped from person to person when they spoke… trying to understand.
Khat’s head was lowered and her hands trembled in her lap. She was either struggling with her temper or trying to recuperate from calling forth the veil, maybe both.
“If you truly believe I’m descended from your sister, Liv, then why wouldn’t you help me? I am in love with her and by some miracle, Seraphina loves me too. She’s suffered all these years, and now when your own relative has found love and could have happiness? Your curse killed her again.” Marceau’s voice shook. “You owe her. You owe it to me, too. You will release her, or I will feed your damned soul to Death myself.”
Lynette’s head snapped up and her gaze locked with his. “You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t test me when it comes to her, Lynette.”
“Oh, fine. I was going to do it anyway. I just wanted you all to squirm a little.”
Marceau had experienced enough games for a lifetime. He held his arm out and let the fury flow into the hex. It flared bright blue. He nodded at Finn. “Hold the key chain in your other hand, Finn, and join your part of the hex with mine again.”
Finn pulled his keys from his pocket and extended his other arm. His hex flared like black flames from his hand.
“Put your hands together,” Lynette said.
Finn laid his hand on top of Marceau’s. Their hexes undulated around in the air surrounding their hands.
“You too,” Mirela said to Seraphina.
“N-no, I can’t die again. I can’t. It is too much to die and come back again and again. This time, I remember. I remember everything. I couldn’t move. She held me and the power… it burned. I-I will not go back into the veil.”
Marceau and Finn stared at each other and then at Seraphina. What the hell had happened within the veil?
“Look at me, Seraphina.” Lynette raised her hands and a deep blue glow welled from deep within. “I am going to release you. All of you. I admit it, okay? I wronged you all those years ago. You were never even in love with Finn, were you? Or you’d have never survived this long. I get it now. I was young and jealous.”
Lynette turned to Finn. “You have no idea the hell my afterlife has been. I’ve wondered so many times what my life could have been if I’d only let you go. I hope by freeing all of you, I can move on myself, too. Besides, I did make a bargain with her.” Lynette gestured her head toward Khat. “And she’s not the forgiving type, is she?”
Lynette raised herself to her knees with effort. She frowned and looked down at her body. It was clear she’d thought the difficulty controlling her body would be cured once her soul was made whole again. Lynette gestured at Marceau and Finn’s hands. “Put your hand on theirs.”
Seraphina raised her hand and sucked in her lip. She tentatively placed her palm on top of Finn’s hand. She was still careful to not touch Marceau.
Red, blue, and black twined together and illuminated the whole room.
Lynette laid her hand on top of Seraphina’s and spoke loudly, “By the power of my blood, I unbind this hex. I release my claim. I free these souls.”
Nothing happened.
“Oh, for the love of…” Khat smacked her hand on top of Lynette’s. She squinted her eyes and a flash of vibrant gold joined the colors flowing from their hands.
“An energy boost. Now say it.” Khat looked exhausted.
“I unbind this curse. I free your souls,” Lynette repeated.
The hexes wound tighter and tighter until they were as thin as a thread. Then the red, black, and blue power pierced Lynette’s hand.
A tugging sensation deep within Marceau’s chest made him gasp. A cold burn traveled from his heart, down his arm, and into her hand. A lightness he’d never known resonated in his body. Marceau had been born into this curse and never realized how its weight affected him.
Seraphina stared at their hands. Once all the power had dissipated, first Khat and then Lynette pulled their hands away.
Lynette made a fist several times. Her brow knit together, and she stared at her hand and glared at Khat. “Mwen pa genyen? Kijan?” She was concentrating. Trying to light her hand again with power, but it wasn’t working.
Finn, Seraphina, and Marceau pulled their hands away. Each turning their hands over and examining them.
“I don’t see anything, but I’m no curseweaver. What you see?” Finn asked hopeful someone had an answer.
Marceau studied his own hands and then Finn’s, and finally Seraphina’s. Their eyes met and she smiled. A soft blush spread over her cheeks. Marceau’s heart had stuttered for a moment before he looked back at his own hands and turning them over once more, just to be sure. “No traces of the hex remain. I simply see my hands.”
“And on me? On Finn?” Seraphina asked.
“No curse at all.”
“Of course, there isn’t.” Lynette pulled on the headboard for balance and stood. “I believe I’m done here. Marceau, I’ll be keeping the car. I earned it fair and square. I have quite a long drive ahead of me.”
Marceau asked. “Where will you go now, Lynette? Since you’re free of Max’s hold?”
“Why to get Babette, of course. He has no control over her anyway. She only stayed for me.”
Finn held out his arm to assist her.
“I am fine. I’ll see myself out,” Lynette snapped, and she left the room.
Khat rolled her eyes. “I hope that’s the last I ever see of her.”
Marceau had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before he saw Lynette again. Max would scour the ends of the earth to find her. Perhaps he could try to barter for her freedom too when he bargained with Death.
Seraphina rose to her knees in front of him. She held a hesitant hand inches from his cheek. “Is it safe?”
“Yes.” Marceau nodded. “It is.”
She took a breath, but her hand did not move. “I’m scared.”
Warmth emanated from her hand, but it was the normal kind, nothing supernatural.
“Touch me, Seraphina.” Marceau stared into her green eyes and whispered, “Please.”
Seraphina lightly, tentatively caressed his cheek and they both held their breath. She bit her lip. “Do you feel anything?”
Marceau couldn’t speak. He nodded yes and swallowed.
Her face fell in defeat.
Marceau grabbed Seraphina and pulled her to his chest. “I feel you, Seraphina. I finally feel the touch of the woman I love.”
Seraphina laughed. “Oh…”
Marceau cut off her response with his lips. He kissed her roughly. Clutching her body against his, he cherished the feel of her mouth against his. He ran his tongue over her soft lips. Seraphina parted her mouth for him. Marceau groaned, deepening the kiss and tasting her for the first time. Reigning in his desperation for her, Marceau softened the kiss, savoring each tiny movement of her mouth upon his. Reluctantly, he pulled back and softly kissed her chin. He traced his lips across hers and they parted. He smiled, realizing her breathing was as erratic as his own. Seraphina smiled shyly. Marceau’s heart felt too large for his chest.
“Uh, ahem.” Finn cleared his throat.
Marceau pulled back farther, but could not look away from Seraphina’s flushed face. Her lips were brighter pink. Her cheeks were covered with beautiful blush he knew so well.
Seraphina turned and said, “Um. Sorry.”
“Don’t be silly. What a kiss.” Khat bounced up and skipped to the end of the bed. She grabbed Finn’s hand. “We are going.” She tugged on him.
“Wh-” Finn started.
Khat waved her finger at him. “Shush. They need to be alone and if you don’t kiss me exactly like that in the next thirty seconds, I may curse you myself.”
“As you wish, my bossy little djinn.” Finn picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Khat burst into excited laughter. Finn turned and muttered, “I’ll, uh, see you two later. I guess.”
“Less talking. More kissing,” Khat demanded and she kicked her feet as Finn carried her out. She reached back and slammed Seraphina’s door shut after they passed through. Her musical laughter echoed down the hallway.
Marceau laughed and buried his face in Seraphina’s neck nuzzling her hair back with his nose. He left a trail of kisses up her neck and she shuddered. He smiled against her skin and small chills raised.
“Again,” Seraphina whispered.
Kissing up and onto her jaw, Marceau leaned in and then stopped just above her lips. “I love you, Seraphina.”
Marceau closed the distance, unable to stop kissing her. His hands cupped the back of her head. He loved the soft tickle of her hair running across his hand.