“What does that mean?”
I started to laugh. “It means he did a cleaning spell on himself and came out smelling like a skunk.”
After a moment, Zelda joined me. “That’s funny,” she said. “And he is not the only one?”
“No, it’s happening to witches who were there when Thea showed up.”
“All right. I’ll go along with the idea that this is Thea’s doing. What is your deepest fear?”
“I don’t know, Zelda! I have so many!”
“That could be it then,” she said. “Fear itself.”
“What are you, my shrink?”
“I have no idea what that is, so no.”
I threw up my hands. “This isn’t helping.”
“Then go do something else, and leave me here in peace.”
“Fine!” I shouted, stomping out of the room.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning, and I went grocery shopping, steadfastly ignoring the skull in the glass box in my office.
After I’d made dinner, and stared at the TV without really watching it, my phone rang.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, Jasper. Can I come by?”
He sounded all out of sorts.
“Sure,” I said, getting up. “When should I—”
“I’ll be there in half an hour,” Jasper said. He hung up.
“Well,” I said to the empty room.
“What does that mean?” Zelda called from my office.
I walked in to see her. “Jasper is coming over. I’ll leave the door open, so you can listen. I need to drape a scarf or something over your box. I’m sure he’d recognize you, and I’m not ready for that yet.”
“Can’t wait to get rid of me?”
“No, actually, despite your pig headedness this afternoon,” I said stiffly. “But I haven’t figured out how to sneak you back in.”
She made a noise. I wasn’t sure what she was trying to convey, but I was going with not positive. Rather than argue, I went to my room and found a gauzy pink scarf. I draped it over the reliquary, and left the door open to the office. Then I went to my bathroom and primped a little. I was hoping we’d finish what we’d started earlier today. The thought of his mouth on me, his cock pounding into me—it made my nipples tighten and my sex wet. I wanted him in the worst way.
Which wasn’t like me at all, but I didn’t want to look too closely, to question. I was afraid if I did, it would all disappear.
“Is that my worst fear?” I asked my reflection in the mirror. “I’m afraid I’ll lose him?” Jasper was such a piece of being normal. A good looking man, who wanted to be with me, like I saw with so many couples in our coven. I’d been afraid for a long time no one would want me, that I’d always be alone.
“Is that it?” I whispered. I stared at myself. Nothing happened. I didn’t look one bit different.
I cast a spell to move the dirt out of the bathroom.
Nothing happened.
I tried to pull back the shower curtain from around the claw footed tub.
The curtain didn’t move.
I cast a spell to turn off the light.
It was bright as mid-afternoon in my bathroom. The light stayed on.
“Well, hell,” I said. I finished brushing my teeth, and went to wait for Jasper.
Two weeks later
In the two weeks that we’d been seeing each other, Jasper and I hadn’t managed to make it back to bed together. Not once. Not at all. Every time we came close, something happened.
That first night he came over, I could tell that he was upset.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I just came from my mentor,” he said.
“And?” I wasn’t connecting the dots.
He shook his head, sitting down next to me on the sofa. One thing led to another and just as he carried me into my room and put me on the bed, his phone rang.
“Don’t answer it,” I begged.
“It’s my work ringtone,” he said.
Within five minutes, he was out the door. The effects of the curse was making its way around our coven, and his boss needed his help.
Every night since then, he’d come over. In that time, I caught dinner on fire. Twice. The water hose under my sink popped off, and we spent ten minutes splashing around in water.
Then his car broke down on the way to my house. He took it to his mechanic the next day, and there was nothing wrong.
Then he got a flat tire. Then I got a flat tire.
Then my car broke down. Although that was my heater hose popping off, so at least there was a reason.
We weren’t able to have sex, which was what we both wanted to do. We both laughed a lot, and talked, but there wasn’t a lot of involvement when we were both dealing with one crisis after another.
Still, I was enjoying myself. And the promise of wonderful for when we were able to get back to bed—oh, that thought had given me some very detailed dreams.
Finally, he called. “I can’t come by tonight.”
“Oh, no, what happened?” I asked.
“I have to work,” Jasper said.
There was something in his voice, something that… I couldn’t pinpoint it, but he wasn’t being completely straight with me. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wanted to see you.”
“I don’t want your house to burn down if I show up,” he said.
“Well, there is that, but what else could happen?” I asked.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Jasper said, and he ended the call.
“Not coming over?” Zelda asked.
“No, he has to work.”
“They always do,” she said. “No, no, don’t start. I’m glad he’s not coming over. I want to talk to you.”
“About?” I found that I was dispirited. Through the last two weeks and every fucking bad instance of Murphy’s Law, I thought it was just a thing. Something we could laugh over. But I’d heard something different in his voice tonight.
“I hate to admit that I am wrong, but a good leader does so, no matter how painful,” Zelda said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“This is the curse, Mel,” she said. She’d started calling me Mel. And she’d told me not to worry about getting her back. She didn’t want to go back. I figured I had enough problems, although I knew that the fact the reliquary was missing was a big concern for the coven. Jasper had mentioned it.
I had no idea how I was going to tell him about Zelda. Or my part in busting her out. And keeping her.
“What do you mean?”
“What is your darkest fear?”
“I—”
“Don’t give me that. I know you’ve been considering it. I know I have. What is it? This will be your life—no magic, no man, no happiness, no moving forward—until you face that fear.”
“I hope Thea falls in a bayou,” I muttered. “With gators.”
“Be that as it may, you’re wearing the curse. You’ll do so until you break it. It’s time to face your fear,” Zelda said.
Chapter Ten
Jasper
The past two weeks had been torture. Not only because every piece of bad luck—my momma would have said bad karma—I’d ever gathered had hit, but because I was keeping something from Melasina.
Two weeks ago, I’d gone to see Talia. She’d retired because she’d gone blind. She lived in a house near the library, and she had witches from our coven that came over and helped her. She might be blind, but she was still able and strong. She just couldn’t read, and she didn’t want others to read to her. She’d put herself into retirement.
We would have let her stay as long as she wanted.
A young witch, not yet at her majority, opened the door when I knocked.
“Is she up for visitors?” I asked the girl.
“I’m always up to see you, Jasper Thibodeaux,” I heard from further back in the house.
I smiled, and the witch let me pass. She followed me into the kitchen, where Talia
sat at a small table, sipping a cup of tea.
“I’m going to do the shopping, Miz Dumond,” she said.
“You have the list?” Talia asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” the girl said.
“All right. I’ll see you when you get back. Jasper will be here while you’re gone.”
I waited until I heard the front door slam. “You don’t really need someone here all the time,” I said.
“No, but it makes the coven feel good to help, and it’s a good thing for the younger witches to do. We do some spell work, and some potion mixing.”
“You haven’t really retired,” I said with a smile.
She reached across the table and patted my hand, finding it easily without sight. “No, and I never shall. What brings you to me today?”
“You heard about Thea? Her curse at the annual ball?”
She nodded. “Were you there?”
“I heard it. I was knocked down by the force of it,” I admitted.
“How is it manifesting?”
“It’s different for everyone,” I said. “My magic is backwards. If I cast a spell the opposite thing will happen. Usually in the worst way possible,” I said.
“What else?”
“I have a friend who cannot cast at all.”
“A friend?” Talia asked, smiling. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled, turning her face to me.
“Yes, a friend. That’s all she is. She might be more.”
“I’ll leave you be,” she patted my hand again. “But she’s sure she can’t cast?”
“She’s been trying ever since the ball.”
“And nothing?”
“Nope. Not a thing.”
“What’s your deepest fear?” Talia asked.
“You heard about that?”
“I hear everything, my dear boy.”
“I don’t know,” I stood up, feeling restless. “What do you think?”
“I can’t answer that,” Talia said. “If I do, it will be my idea of your deepest fear. Not yours. No, only you can answer that.”
“What does that mean, face it?” I asked, referring to the curse.
“I suppose it means you have to do the thing that scares you the most. But that’s not the thing that brought you here,” she said, her sightless eyes searching my face.
I felt like she could see me. I sat down, and pulled out my messenger bag. “You’re right as always, Talia. I have some questions about a file.”
“What are they? Who is the file about?”
“Sariah Cormier,” I said.
“That woman,” Talia muttered. “Is she back? I heard that there were graves disturbed. Have you spoken to her daughter?”
“How did you hear that?” I asked, leaning back in my chair. “Lavinia and I kept it quiet. There were graves disturbed, but the bodies were returned, and no harm was done.”
“That’s what you know,” Talia said, her mouth twisting in a sneer. “It just takes one of those creatures to wreak havoc on a coven.”
“Wait,” I said. “What did you mean?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You asked me if she was back,” I said slowly. “That was your handwriting in the notes.”
A strange expression crossed Talia’s face. Then her features settled into the calm, determined look I’d seen on it a thousand times. “I haven’t made any notes about Sariah Cormier.”
“There are notes in this file,” I opened it up to the last two pages. “Notes that give an address, that say, Confined, and then there are two further notes that state the person submitting them is sure they saw her. There was a request to go and see, to see if was her. To see what it was that caused people concern. And those notes, Talia,” I leaned forward, “at the end of each report from a member of our coven, are marked, Dismissed.” I leaned back.
She didn’t speak.
“Also in your handwriting.”
“You don’t know that,” she said. Her voice was steady as she took a sip of her tea.
“Talia, I worked with you for eight years. I know your handwriting as well as I know my own.”
“What is it you think you see, Jasper?”
“Sariah Cormier is alive,” I said.
The corner of her mouth twitched, but Talia didn’t reply.
“You exiled her, and allowed everyone, her husband, her daughter—to think she was dead.”
“Nonsense. Why would I do that?”
I watched her. Something was off. She was too calm. She’d been prepared for this. Maybe not from me but she knew, at some point, she would be asked about this.
“You tell me,” I said.
“There is nothing to tell. Sariah Cormier was seen attempting to rob a grave. As you yourself saw,” she tapped my hand for a third time. “After we had several graves that were robbed before you caught her. She was your prize, Jasper. Did you share that with her daughter? I’m assuming you spoke with the Cormier girl. Like mother, like daughter, you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” I said. “That’s why I am asking you. What does this mean?” I tapped the file. “Why is there an address attached to this? In Arkansas? Why were these eyewitness reports dismissed? Why was there no follow-up?”
She didn’t speak.
My horror grew. I knew I was right, even as Talia refused to speak.
“I did my job,” Talia said. “That is what I did.” She shrugged, but it was deliberate. Practiced. “You need to do yours.” She pushed back from the table. “Now, I believe I’m tired, Jasper,” she said. She stood, and moved gracefully through the kitchen, turning to the right toward a room. She walked into the room and shut the door.
I left her house unsure of what I’d heard, other than lies.
Was Melasina’s mother alive?
Had she been unfairly accused?
It felt like I had the tip of a ball of yarn, and it was stuck somewhere that I couldn’t see.
For the next two weeks, in between being frustrated with Melasina, I tried to find someone to verify that the address listed in the file was occupied. Or to get a picture. But the witch I sent wasn’t able to gather any further info.
“There’s someone there,” she said, when she came back to New Orleans after four days. “I see the curtains move, but they don’t come out.”
“Not at all?” I asked.
The witch, named Nadia, shook her head. Red curls bounced as her head moved. “No. And I showed up at all hours.”
“Someone’s being careful,” I said.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said truthfully. “Just following a lead I found in an old file.”
“Does it have anything to do with Thea’s curse?”
“Sadly, no,” I said. “How are you affected?”
“I can only do earth spells.”
“Oh,” I said. “All my magic is backwards.”
Nadia smiled at me. “This sucks. You figure out your fear?”
“No,” I said. “I have some ideas, but I haven’t gotten further than that.”
“She sure did a number on us,” Nadia said.
“Well, it was clever to have the curse affect everyone differently,” I said.
“Yeah. I can’t wait to get my shit sorted. Sorry,” she looked up. “Is there anything else you need?”
I shook my head.
“Then I’m going to go home and… well, whatever,” Nadia said. With a wave of her hand, she left.
Every night, I went to Melasina’s. By some unspoken agreement, we didn’t go out. We didn’t meet at a café for coffee. We didn’t go grab a bite for dinner. We met at her house. And every night, something happened. We hadn’t been able to be with one another since the first time. There weren’t even any crazy neighbors with chickens.
It was just life.
Which to me was fate.
Which meant I needed to face my fear.
I called her. “I have to work,” I said. “I’ll call you tom
orrow.” I needed a break. The hope of being with her, of being able to take our relationship further, and then seeing my hopes dashed, was wearing.
Not to mention, I was keeping a secret.
“My fear,” I said out loud.
I spent the rest of the night figuring out which fear was bigger, and how I was going to make this right.
I needed my magic back to normal. I needed to tell the truth.
And I needed Melasina.
We hadn’t spent that much time together, but I knew. This was the woman I was supposed to be with. I’d known it since she’d opened the door and shaken my hand the first time I met her.
The next morning, I was up early, and I called her.
“Hi!” Melasina sounded cheerful.
“I have to go out of town,” I said. “I’ll be a couple of days at the most. Then I want to talk to you when I get back.”
She sighed, and I heard an entire conversation in that sigh. “Jasper, if you don’t want to see me anymore, just tell me. There’s no need for an elaborate thing.”
“That’s not it at all, Mel,” I said.
“Why do you call me that?” she asked.
“What?” I replied.
“Mel, when did you start calling me Mel?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just fits you. Why?”
“I haven’t heard you call me that before. So. You were saying? A couple of days?”
“Yes. I have something I need to check out, and it’s out of town.”
Mel sighed again. “All right. I’ll hopefully see you when you get back.”
“You will,” I promised.
“OK,” she said.
Mel hung up.
OK. That felt bad. But I had to do this. I had to see this through, no matter what happened. If I wanted a future in this coven, as a witch, with Mel—this had to be done.
“Face your fear,” I said. “Face your fear.”
I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door. I had a long drive ahead of me.
Seven hours later, I was on the outskirts of Hot Springs, Arkansas. I had an address outside of the downtown area, by the lake. I’d Googled it, and it was a small, older cottage. I found myself nervous and excited at the thought of what I might find, and nervous about what I might not find.
Wicked Love Page 7
