“I’ll fix this,” Marius says. “I’ll—”
“What?” Vanessa says. “Give her a hug? Buy her a pony?” She rubs her temples and makes a face. “I apologize. That’s three millennia of evil-stepmother frustration talking.” She looks at us. “If a reconciliation would fix this—even just long enough to get your sister and brother back—we’d do it. But Havoc won’t fall for it. She might accept my head on a pike, but I’d rather try a few less fatal options first.”
“Then let’s talk.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ani is still another hour out, and I haven’t told her what’s happening here. I’m struggling to find the words. Or maybe struggling to find a way to explain the inexplicable. To tell her that we’re caught in a power play between immortals.
In some ways, it’d be easier to do in an e-mail where I can lay everything out and not have her cut me off halfway to administer drug tests. But I communicate better in person.
Postponing that conversation also means more time to get a better handle on everything that’s happened. When Ani does arrive, we need to hit the ground running. Havoc has already sent her timeline. The uncursing will be later today at a location to be revealed.
It turns out that Havoc knows her family well, as one would expect after thousands of years. She was right about why Marius wanted the necklace. It was a gift for Vanessa. That necklace killed their daughter. Its continued existence in the world—and the victims it leaves in its wake—remind her of Harmonia’s fate and her own guilt.
I see nothing wrong with her falling for Marius while trapped in a loveless, abusive marriage. The blame for this necklace lies squarely on the guy who made it. Hector wanted to hurt her, and so he has, for millennia. When the necklace surfaced, Marius was willing to move mountains to free Vanessa from the “curse” of its existence.
Vanessa—having no idea what Marius intended—wanted the Necklace of Harmonia for the same reason: to get it out of the world. Only she wasn’t going to bother with the uncursing. Destruction was her only goal.
After speaking to Vanessa and Marius, Connolly and I find the kitchen and put together breakfast to give them time alone. This is their shared grief, as parents, and two thousand years hasn’t dimmed that pain. Their daughter was punished for their supposed sin. I didn’t think it was possible to hate Hector more. I was wrong. However “monstrous” Havoc might be, it’s obvious that Vanessa and Marius had experienced that level of cruelty long before she came along.
Connolly and I are still fussing in the kitchen when they call us back in. Enough grieving. Time to move forward.
Step one is sorting it all out. Who did what?
Marius sent the woman who tried to hire my sisters. He was also the guy on the phone, where he’d intentionally channeled Hector. Setting me on my task was half about pushing the wealthy Connolly family off the board and half about keeping me from being hired by other potential buyers.
Havoc sent the guys who tried to run us off the road. If that stunt had killed us? Oh, well. We were mortal, so we’d die soon enough anyway.
Tracking Connolly’s car meant Havoc knew he’d gone to see Vanessa. Vanessa’s security system had been installed by Marius, and while he’d kept Havoc out of that, she obviously got the specs from his employee and sent a dream shaper to scare me off.
As for my appointment with Erin Concord, it seems obvious that was Havoc. But neither Marius nor Vanessa is entirely certain it was. It could have been her, or it could have been someone pointing the finger at her, should we ever figure out the rest.
That leaves one thing unexplained.
“Who trashed Kennedy’s shop?” Connolly says.
“Still not me,” Vanessa says.
Marius frowns. “Trashed her shop?”
When Vanessa explains, he says, “It sounds like Hector. That’s certainly his style. A bully’s warning, telling you not to get involved. Yet I don’t see a connection between him and you. He doesn’t want the necklace uncursed. His joy comes from seeing it out there, hurting people. Hurting Vess.”
“Presumably it was Havoc, then,” I say, “raising havoc.”
They exchange a look. Then Vanessa says, “Havoc and Hector may share some traits in common—he is her uncle, after all—but they each have their own style of villainy. Hector is a brute. For him, it’s all about control. A modern therapist might blame his twisted leg. His own father did that to him, and while it’s a minor impediment, Hector always felt lesser than his siblings. Not as clever as Athene. Not as popular as Apollo. Not as charismatic as Dionysus. Not as powerful as Ares. Not as athletic as Artemis. Not as quick witted as Hermes. Hephaestus always ran at the back of the pack.”
“And then he couldn’t run at all,” Marius says. “He has a talent—an incredible one. He is the master smith, the creator of wondrous things. But even in that . . .” He shrugs. “A modern shrink would see a need to control. He creates, and he destroys. So he’d absolutely destroy your shop to send a message. Havoc, though, has a different brain. Single-minded ambition and single-minded cruelty.”
“She’s fixated on Daddy,” Vanessa says, “impressing him and pushing away everyone else in his life. If you get in her way, she’ll mow you down. But destroying your shop just because she can?” She shakes her head. “That isn’t Havoc.”
“Which doesn’t mean she isn’t responsible,” Marius says. “But she would, as Vess said, have mowed through to get to a goal. Is there anything in your shop she might have wanted?”
Connolly and I exchange a look.
“There’s a tea caddy,” he says.
Their brows rise.
“Cursed tea caddy,” I say, and I explain.
“So yes,” I say as I finish. “We definitely wondered whether the tea caddy was the cause of the trashing. We also wondered whether the guy who brought it was testing me. But when you dig down, it’s . . .”
I wave my hands. “It’s like I have two jigsaw pieces, and I see enough similarity that I want to connect them, but they don’t fit and I’m left deciding they must belong to separate puzzles.”
Connolly nods. “A stranger demands Kennedy’s curse-working right at the time we’re preparing for the auction. A joker’s jinx, which could be a test for the auction. The man mentions her sisters and claims they sent him, which means he knows something about the magical world. But then he abandons the box and never contacts Kennedy again. Also, it’s a very minor jinx on a very ordinary box, hardly a test at all.”
Marius and Vanessa sit in silence, obviously thinking it through.
“I don’t like coincidences,” Marius says.
“Neither do I,” Vanessa murmurs.
“Would you like to see the box?” I say. “It’s in Aiden’s trunk.”
“Absolutely,” Vanessa says. “Bring it in, please.”
We’re heading outside when Ani texts to say she’s approaching the gates. Marius opens them and then stays inside with Vanessa. Connolly stands a few feet away, offering silent support as I approach Jonathan’s car.
Ani and Jonathan climb out. I’m in Ani’s embrace in two seconds flat. She hugs me, and I take a moment to enjoy her mothering, making sure I’m okay, assuring me we’ll fix this. Then I tell them who they’re about to meet: Ares and Aphrodite.
When I finish, Ani says, carefully, “What have you had to eat since you’ve been here, K?”
I glance at Connolly. “Called it.”
“You did.”
“I haven’t been drugged,” I say.
Another furtive look toward the house. “Just get in the car, Kennedy. Please. Whatever these people have told you—”
“Called that, too.”
Connolly murmurs. “You did.” He walks over. “Kennedy said you’d think she’d been drugged and try to whisk her away.” He stops beside me. “Everything Kennedy says is true, even if I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it myself. It’s preposterous. But when matched with the evidence . . .” He shrugs.
<
br /> “Great,” Ani says. “You’ve both been drugged. Get in the car, you two, and we’ll figure out a detox.”
When we don’t move, she looks at Jonathan. “Help me out here.”
He says nothing, just stands there, frowning slightly, lost in thought.
“Jonathan?” she says.
“I’d like more information,” he says.
“You’re not—” she sputters. “You aren’t actually buying this?”
He turns a look on her. A deceptively bland look I know well.
Ani flushes. “Okay, that was insulting. Sorry. I’m just . . . Gods? Really?”
“Immortals,” he says. “And one could say the same about you. Curse weaving? Really?”
Jonathan shades his eyes, looking around the property. Then he motions us toward a crumbling stone wall where a few chairs have been set in the shade. He’s suggesting we settle in for a chat, which implies we’re going to discuss this rather than flee the premises. When Ani glances back at the car, he says, “Right. Ellie. I should let her out.”
“You brought my cat?” I say.
“I didn’t know how long we’d be gone,” he says.
I shake my head. “No wonder she likes you best.”
“After another car ride, I don’t think she likes anyone.”
He hands me the carrier, and I take it to the chairs. I open it on the ground and then hop onto the low wall. Ellie glares at me.
“Oh, sorry,” I say. “Did you want this spot? Plenty of room for us both.”
She settles on the grass and begins cleaning a paw.
Connolly walks over and looks at the wall.
“Yes, it’s dirty,” I say. “Also crumbling. A picturesque perch, but definitely not clothing friendly.”
“Then it’s a good thing this tux is rented.” He turns and boosts himself up gracefully. “I really should change into my clothing from yesterday.”
“Same,” I say.
“Ani packed you a bag of clothing,” Jonathan says as he sits on a chair.
“Because you mentioned it,” Ani says to him.
“Because you were understandably distracted.” He turns to us. “Back to the discussion of gods. Or, I suppose, immortals. Hasn’t that always been your family history? Not descended from immortals per se, but from people with magical powers who were revered as deities? Powers they passed on through their bloodline? Yes, no one theorized those original magic users could still be around, but the basic idea follows. You said Venus—Vanessa—has the power of dream shaping. The old stories credit other sources for that ability, but that doesn’t preclude her from being the original. What about Marius? What’s his power?”
I hesitate. I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this, from Havoc’s “villain reveals all” speech.
First, the Connolly boys. Your star progeny.
You’re the god of brute strength and dumb luck, Ares.
She’d mocked Marius about battle luck. There’s the physical resemblance, too, the one that made me first wonder whether Marius could be Rian. It would also explain Vanessa’s interest in Connolly, consciously wanting to watch out for her lover’s descendants. But also as a potential lover because he subconsciously reminded her of Marius himself.
Connolly clearly hasn’t figured this out, and I’m not going to tell him now. It derails the conversation and hardly matters in the moment.
I make a noncommittal noise, and Jonathan continues, “We can get to that later.”
“Just as long as we aren’t descended from Hector,” I say with a shudder. I glance at Connolly. “And now that I say that, he’s the most likely suspect, isn’t he? For being a curse weaver. He made the necklace. He’s the craftsman.”
“If he is the first curse weaver, it has nothing to do with you,” Connolly says. “We can’t choose our families.” A quirk of a smile. “As I remind myself almost daily.”
“Right,” I say. “Moving along, then. Whether you believe they’re immortal or not, Ani, that doesn’t change the fact that Havoc has Hope and Rian, and she has the necklace. There’s still a cursed necklace that needs uncursing. If we do that, we get our siblings back.”
“If we fail, our sister stays cursed,” Ani says.
“Trying not to think about that. Except as further incentive to get this right.”
“So we’ve been pulled into a family squabble, essentially. One would think they’d have worked it out after a few millennia.”
Jonathan shrugs. “Or it just gets worse. There are grudges in my extended family that have gone on for generations. People do crazy things out of old pain and pride.”
“For Hector, it’s pride,” Connolly says. “His wife—a mere woman—continues to show him up by flourishing without his care and protection. He won her. Ergo, she belongs to him, and if he can’t have her, he’s going to make her life miserable.”
“An obsessed stalker,” I mutter.
“I can imagine he’d love hearing himself described that way,” Connolly murmurs.
“Remember how he blew up when we suggested the curse was a lover’s lament?”
“The only thing hurt is his pride,” Ani mutters. “He’s a controlling, abusive asshole.”
I nod. “And Vanessa’s options are to stand firm and be civil to her abuser or let him keep her on the run, keep her hiding.”
“I really hate this Hector guy.”
“Yep, Havoc’s a bitch, but she’s a child throwing a tantrum. Hector was the real villain here. He’s out of the picture, though. It’s Havoc we need to deal with.”
“Goddess of chaos and discord,” Jonathan says.
“Should be no problem, right?” I say. “She’s bound to act rationally.”
Ani starts to respond. Then her gaze cuts to the side, and she does a double take. I follow her gaze to see Vanessa on the front porch, shielding her eyes against the dawn sun.
“Holy shit,” Ani murmurs.
Jonathan squints over and blinks. “Uh, goddess of beauty, I’m guessing?”
“Right?” I say. “I always pictured Aphrodite as a thin twenty-year-old blonde, but this makes more sense.”
Marius appears behind Vanessa and says something to her. She nods and calls, “How’s it going?”
“Fine!” I shout back.
“I think Aiden must be due for his second coffee,” she calls. “If you’d care to bring your sister and her friend in to chat.”
“Coffee with the gods,” Jonathan murmurs. “Dare I hope for pastries, too?”
“The best pastries,” I say.
“After all, they are gods,” Jonathan says.
“Nah, just rich. Really rich. That’s what happens when you have three thousand years to build a stock portfolio.” I glance at Connolly. “Let’s grab the tea caddy and head in.”
Chapter Forty
The first few minutes are awkward. Like introducing superheroes at a cocktail party where they’re dressed as their alter ego. Everyone knows who they are, but we’re going to pretend otherwise.
After those few minutes of initial awkwardness, Ani turns to Marius and says, “I don’t care who you are or how sorry you are, you did a shitty thing, and I’m not sure you can ever make it up to us.”
He dips his chin. “Understood.”
“You should have just told us when you sent that woman to hire us. I’m not saying we’d have taken the job, but we’re professionals who deserve to be treated with respect.”
“I see that now.”
“And you didn’t before?”
Vanessa starts to answer but stops herself. Beside her, Marius fidgets and then straightens and meets Ani’s gaze. “No, I did not. I was too focused on my goal, and I convinced myself that if I treated Hope well and reimbursed her handsomely, it was fine. It was not at all fine.”
“You never wanted me, did you?”
“I would have happily hired you both, but when it came to kidnapping, I thought only taking Hope somehow made it better. When I discovered they took you
as well—unable to get just Hope—I ordered them to leave you in that open shack.”
“I’d have rather you kept me kidnapped. Then I’d have been with my sister.”
“Understood. I do owe you both. In my haste to get this necklace out of the world, I forgot how to be human for a while.”
Ani considers and then nods abruptly. Marius motions for me to bring the tea caddy. The others leave us to it while they talk. We’re setting up the tea caddy when Ellie meows at the window. Marius’s brows shoot up.
“Sorry,” I say. “I brought a cat. Well, Jonathan did, but she’s mine. I’ll just leave her outside.”
“Better not,” he says. “I have dogs, and they’ll be let out soon.”
I open my mouth and then shut it. His brows rise again.
“I was biting back a joke about letting loose the dogs of war,” I say.
He smiles. “Apt enough. They were in the kennel while you guys were outside, but my stable hand will be freeing them. You won’t want your cat out then.”
“True. You’re probably attached to your dogs.”
He laughs. “I am. And to be honest, your cat might be able to inflict some damage on them right now.” His expression turns serious. “They were drugged. I had them in the kennel last night so they wouldn’t bother you when you arrived. I should have let them out after that. Things might have been different if . . .” A sharp shake of his head. “No, if I did, I might have lost them. They’re woozy but fine. Which is more than I can say for . . .”
He waves it off. “Enough of that. Go let your kitty in. That’ll give the dogs some fun later, smelling a cat in their house.”
I open the door for Ellie, and she struts in like she owns the place . . . and then smells the canine residents, hisses and shoots under the nearest chair. I shake my head and return my attention to the tea caddy, which we’ve set up on a table. Both my unweaving kit and Ani’s wait nearby.
Cursed Luck, Book 1 Page 29
