The thing reached for him, but he was nimble and escaped. The portal was nothing more than a hole the size of a small dog now. Samantha had slowed. She looked at him expectantly, silently pleading. He circled the room once. Thick air fought him, but he pulled his wings to his body and surged through the tiny hole.
The raven soared into the open air. It was light and washed away the grime of the inbetween. Below, Samantha finished sewing shut the last of the portal. What was once a gate to purgatory was now just the front door. It was still shattered, but at least it was over.
The demon was trapped in a place between reality and hell. There, it could harm no one.
Ciaran circled over Samantha. He dropped and perched on her extended arm.
“That was quite the display,” an old woman said. Her face was blanched, eyes caught on the doorway.
Samantha let out a nervous laugh. The sound of her voice would erase the demon’s laughter from Ciaran’s mind. He would do whatever it took to make her laugh more, to see the bright joy on her face.
“I went all out this year.” It was a lie, but it was Halloween and people were willing to believe Samantha had spent her life savings on special effects.
Chapter Eighteen
Samantha trudged upstairs and fell face first onto her bed. The week after they’d succeeded in banishing the demon had been spent cleansing the house. Samantha spent seven days scrubbing and scraping, yet so much evil still lurked in the air. While she hadn’t seen the face in the wall since the demon was banished, she couldn’t forget it. She’d burned every sort of cleansing herb she could find, bought every filtering crystal, and even began stripping the wallpaper.
She could still see the mouth and the eyes in her walls. She could hear the screams of the people who’d died, expecting to find their remains in the passages between the walls. While she hadn’t yet found anything, the fear remained.
The guilt remained.
If that hadn’t been stressful enough, she’d heard from Mrs. Buchanan of all people that a house three blocks down had won the haunted house contest. When she went to argue it, no one remembered even stepping inside her house. All memories of what the demon did were gone.
All save for the faces of people thought missing.
It was for the best, but she’d still selfishly hoped the fiasco would win the contest for her. She desperately needed a new car. The junker had left her stranded at the market the other day, refusing to start.
Even Ciaran had been shady the past few days. She’d thought they’d fall together and find their rhythm as the perfect couple. Instead, she’d been trying to get past whatever secrets he still shrouded himself in. He’d slept beside her every night since they’d banished the demon, but she couldn’t help but feel the distance between them drawn by whatever he wasn’t saying. During the day, Ciaran would disappear.
When she confronted him, thinking he too mourned for the lives lost a week ago, he’d only kissed her on the top of her head and told her to wait. It made her think whatever was happening couldn’t be all that bad, but it still didn’t erase the panic screaming deep down.
A car horn blared outside. Samantha dragged herself out of bed to peer out the window. The hounds ran for Ciaran as he stepped out of a small, gleaming turquoise SUV. He waved up at her and put a hand on a hound’s head.
Samantha shoved the window open and leaned outside. “What are you doing with a rental?”
“This isn’t a rental!” He grinned up at her.
Samantha’s stomach flipped, like an Olympic gymnast. “Wait? What? Are you serious?”
She raced down the stairs. With each step, her excitement turned to trepidation. She couldn’t afford regular payments, especially not for a car that new. It was the reason she hadn’t replaced the junker earlier. What had Ciaran been thinking?
Outside, the hounds jumped between them. She’d glamoured them with a spell to look like regular dogs. When the gate had closed and her leash on them had disappeared, the hellhounds remained. They had looked up at her with big eyes and she’d been unable to turn them away. Sometimes she looked at them and wondered if her great grandchildren would get to meet them, if they were immortal.
“Ciaran, darling, I can’t pay for this.” She reached for him, closing her fingers around the lapels of his jacket.
He grinned down at her, revealing a single dimple. Why hadn’t she seen that before? She ran her thumb over it, marveling in the boyish feature he’d managed to hide from her.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing. It’s completely paid off.”
“Wait,” Samantha said as she leaned back, astonished. “How did you…? How could you afford…?”
“Well, when you’ve been alive as long as I have, you learn that stocks and interest are your best friend. I might have lost some investments while I was trapped in the inbetween, but other investments took off. I’m not hurting for money, and neither are you anymore.”
Samantha didn’t know what to do with the information. She’d spent her entire life making ends meet. Her mother had been frugal and passed it on to her. The idea that she might never have to work again boggled her mind. Surely, purchasing an SUV would have put a dent in his money, but Ciaran assured her it was nothing.
Now, they had not only a reliable vehicle, but one they could fit the hounds in.
“We can take road trips,” Samantha muttered with awe. Slowly, her excitement escalated again until she was jumping up and down. She clapped her hands while Ciaran leaned back and smiled, watching her.
The hounds jumped with her, feeding on her excitement.
“Is this what you’ve been keeping from me? Is this your big secret that you told me I had to wait for?”
Ciaran licked his lips, a glimmer in his eye, and reached into his back pocket. “The SUV was part of it, yes.”
Samantha was about to demand he tell her everything else, to clear the air between them, but then Ciaran dropped to one knee before her. He pulled back the lid of a midnight blue velvet box.
“A hundred years ago, I bought this with the knowledge that I would give it to my soul mate. I didn’t know back then that I would have to wait a century, but it was worth every minute.”
Nestled inside the box was a ring, two gold hands with tiny rings gripping a faceted moonstone. It was an antique he must have hidden in a bank lockbox. The moonstone beckoned her, catching the sunlight and emitting an ethereal, rainbow glow. Yet, Samantha swallowed.
“You were going to give this to Imogen. Weren’t you?”
“I won’t lie. The thought had crossed my mind, but I bought it long before I met her. I didn’t buy it with her in mind. Only love.”
No matter how she fought it, her eyes went back to the ring. She could feel the pull, the bond that brought them together. The threads of fate were wound around them all, from Ciaran to Samantha to the ring. It had been meant for her and her alone. It sat, waiting for her all this time.
“Ring or not,” Ciaran continued. “Will you marry me?”
Samantha’s world tilted before slamming back into place with an exhilarated shriek. She never thought she’d be that kind of woman, the one to scream with excitement. Yet, here she was. Ciaran rose to his feet, confused by her reaction until she threw her arms around his neck.
She hugged him tight before pulling back. “Are you sure you want this? We haven’t discussed the rest of the curse at all yet. I thought you’d want to have that removed before we did anything else.”
He shrugged, tightening his grip on her. “I don’t mind the raven. It was the other part that terrified me. Now that the threat of disappearing into the inbetween is gone, I’m happy. Besides, how else am I going to get over the rough patches on our hikes.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. When she pulled away, Ciaran drew the ring out of the velvet box and slid it onto her finger. It was gloriously witchy, and she loved it.
They went to the market in Samantha’s new SUV. She took a few back roads to tes
t it out and they came home with a cake that they could share on the couch. They saved dishes by eating it right out of the box. Ciaran ended up with frosting on his nose and the hellhounds licked sprinkles off the floor for the rest of the night.
Samantha had to admit, this was never the kind of life she would have imagined. Yet, it was the one that made her the happiest. Surely, her ancestors were rolling over in their graves.
A witch dabbling in hellish forces?
The hounds weren’t all that bad, really. They were amazingly devoted, even if they were the same ones that nearly killed Ciaran. He mused that the hounds might think of them as alphas considering that they’d both survived that attack. Even if they were from hell, they were the best dogs she could have asked for.
They certainly kept Mrs. Buchanan away from the yard. And Samantha didn’t have to worry about intruders while she fixed the wards on the doors. The hounds barely let anyone else past the parlor.
Ciaran pulled her close while they watched a black and white horror movie. Halloween was near. They’d made plans to decorate the front porch. Samantha would wear a witch’s hat as she handed out candy. She’d pull back the glamour on the hounds to reveal their true nature. Ciaran would sit on the railing in his raven form, helping them cut a spooky scene.
Despite everything that happened this year, she knew it would be their favorite holiday for years to come.
“What do you think about an October wedding?” she asked before putting a forkful of cake into her mouth. “Not a Halloween wedding, but maybe a Samhain one next year?”
Ciaran raised a brow. The corner of his mouth quirked. “I think I’d like that a lot. Can we have the hounds walk the rings down the aisle?”
Samantha cackled. “Yes. I love it.”
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The Raven Curse Page 11