Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “How about you worry about you, and I’ll do me.”

  So far, Jake had responded in a way she hadn’t expected. He made their connection personal by standing up to a man he knew nothing about. He put his faith in her, in his feelings for her as she encouraged him with glances and affection throughout the day. But, she suspected he could feel the spirits that circled the amphitheater because he shivered right along with her, while Steven seemed unaffected.

  Maybe encouraging Steven to fulfill his dreams of becoming a renowned composer without her at his side had caused him to choose to leave her? Maybe, through her actions, he believed she hadn’t loved him enough? Made sense. In retrospect, her feelings toward Steven hadn’t spanned half the distance she already felt for Jake. She peered up into Jake’s wide hazel eyes, so full of concern, and hoped she was doing and saying all the right things. “I’m willing to learn how to delve deeper into my relationship with Jake, further than I’ve ever gone.”

  Raking his hair, Jake divided the silky waves into furrows. He stared at her for a moment while she searched for the right way to explain The Curse. “Jake, I need to talk to you, privately—”

  Before she could explain, Steven blurted, “Faith and I were to be married.”

  Jake sucked a breath, his hazel orbs widening as he dropped his arm from around her waist and shoved a hand deep inside his pocket.

  “By your silence, I can tell she hasn’t explained anything to you about her ex. So let me do the honors. I’m the dreaded ex-fiancé who left her groomless on our wedding day. And she’s a—”

  “I know who she is.” Jake deep voice sliced off Steven’s words. “You have no business talking about building trust in any relationship after that fucked up move.”

  Disapproving murmurs from the other couples heightened to outright protests. Several burst to standing and walked out.

  To answer the question brewing behind Jake’s eyes, she reached up and cupped his cold cheek. “I tried to tell you earlier, but we were interrupted. I’m still not sure if you’ll believe me when you hear the entire truth of why Steven changed his mind, not that it did him any good.”

  Jake placed his hand over hers. “I don’t care about your past, only now, and facing our problems together. I know what it’s like not to be taken seriously and the repercussions that can follow.”

  She assumed he hinted at the chief’s disbelieve in Tori’s case, but this was The Curse. “What if—”

  “Faith, stop with the ‘What ifs’. Let’s trust each other.”

  The purr of Jake’s voice reached out and caressed her spine, but she tucked her elbows to her sides and gathered her strength to tell him what he needed to hear to make an educated decision. “Jake, I’m cursed. All the Founding Family members of Whisper Cove are. It’s why I fought so hard against us working as a team because I can see the signs. There’s something happening between us that will be impossible to stop without serious damage.”

  “Like blindness…” Steven pivoted away, as if the flames rising from the fire could erase his betrayal.

  Jake pushed the hair from her eyes, tucking the strays behind her ear. “Nothing is going to happen. Legends have no bearing on our choices or our future. Magic, spells, and spirits don’t exist.”

  At Jake’s resolute statement, gently, she tugged away, spotting the ghost who seemed to follow him standing in the rising mist. She’d put him in danger two-fold by sharing her affliction. That’s why spirits circled. It wasn’t love they honed in on, it was pending death, similar to the way they’d engulfed the church the day of her wedding. She challenged: “As hard to believe as Tori knowing her life was in danger? As remarkable as a surgeon who performed surgery on a location he could not see? As unlikely as a branch on a wire? Yes, I heard the guides talking about how you saved the day.” She twisted away. “Foresight, Jake, isn’t possible, yet it is here in Whisper Cove.”

  “Faith…please, look at me. We’ll figure this out. I will….”

  She didn’t deserve the softness that laced his declaration to fight for them. “No. I-I can’t do this. I never should have agreed to come here with you.”

  Before tears could stream down her face, she focused on her even steps and headed toward the cottage in the distance where the dim light shone. She kept her head held high, knowing damn well she’d betrayed her own heart by letting her fear of death come between her and Jake. Sadly, instead of Jake, she’d been the one to run away from him. Her cowardice had nothing to do with being cursed.

  SEVEN

  “LET HER GO,” Steven said in a commanding tone.

  “Back off.” Jake balled his fists. The last thing he wanted was to listen to Faith’s ex give him advice about the woman his heart pined for. He watched her silhouette until she disappeared into the darkness. He could tell by her steady pace and upright posture that she, once again, didn’t need him. His stomach twisted all the way into his throat. More than anything, he wished for her to turn and invite him to walk that thin path with her, but she never did. Chest aching, he spun around. Maybe talking to Steven about Faith was the fastest way to understand why she kept pushing him away?

  “It’s for the best. Believe me, I only wish I’d let her go sooner…”

  To get a better look at Steven’s expression, Jake held up his hand and blocked the fire’s roaring glare. At the certainty stark in his brown eyes, Jake stiffened, pissed at how this guy treated such a beautiful woman, and he wasn’t only thinking of her looks. She held beauty deep inside, as he’d learned by spending the day with her. “If you knew she wasn’t right for you, that’s exactly what you should have done, let her go. Not wait until the wedding day.”

  Steven scoffed. “I suppose, in hindsight, everything is clear. Easy. But then, Faith made everything easy. That was her lure.”

  To Jake, ease wasn’t his lure, though she did evoke a peace-filled feeling inside him, one of comfort and home. “We see her in a different light.”

  “Perhaps that’s why my eyesight was taken the day I decided to spare her from the Lover’s Curse.”

  “Spare her? Lover’s Curse?” He jerked his head in Steven’s direction, a deep chill washing over him he couldn’t warm no matter how tight he wrapped his jacket around his torso. “Faith believes she’s afflicted. I’ve heard rumors about the town being haunted. But this talk of spirits and curses isn’t real.”

  “I wish that were true.” Tapping his cane on the smooth earth, Steven came to stand directly in front of Jake. He tossed his head toward the now empty amphitheater that Jake’s reveal had caused. “Since I no longer have an audience, how about I tell you what you need to hear?”

  Though every muscle in his body wanted to reject the notion of turning his attention from Faith to Steven, he had to discover why she kept up her guard. Pinching his gaze, he zeroed his focus on the cane. “We can talk closer to the fire. Coffee?”

  Steven held out his arm. “Do you mind?”

  After a trip to the coffee kiosk, the fire crackling mere feet away, Jake sat beside Steven in the front row. Heat from the fire crawled up Jake’s calves, and he sipped his coffee, letting the bitter-tasting heat soothe the chill that worked through his bones. “I’m listening.”

  Cupping his drink, Steven took a sip, steam coiling into the air. “A belief in something beyond facts can’t be easy for you. You’re a man of medicine…”

  “So I’m reminded once again.” Even though Jake’s inside voice was telling him to conceivably see the world in shades of grey, he answered in a firm tone, “Most legends can be disproved through scientific means.”

  “Most. As a doctor, I’m sure you’ve paid a visit to the morgue…felt the cold chill, an inexplicable static charge during a touch-and-go surgery, perchance heard your name carried on a breeze, or spied a shadow that moved but, when you sought it out, stilled.”

  Chills vibrated down his spine. He clenched his cup to keep from visibly shaking. “A wild imagination, nothing more.”

  “No.�
� Steven shook his head, staring right at him. Through him. “It’s intuition. Intuition your life depends on if you’re to survive The Curse unscathed.”

  At the weight of each word, Jake pulled back and studied the seriousness of Steven’s glare. Though a shiver quaked through him, he held onto facts. “Faith has tried to convince me all day she’s different, cursed, but that’s bullshit.”

  Steven sat taller. “Since I lost my sight, my remaining senses have sharpened. Faith’s voice trembled, and the brush of her jacket raked against her sides as she marched off. She’s afraid once you learn the truth, you’ll leave, like she can speak with the dead. It’s the one thing she shared with me, and I paid the price—”

  That chill coiled around him and the fog thickened. “Such things aren’t real…” Jake let his sentence fall.

  Staring into the fire, he thought about when he’d returned home from the hospital and tried to close his eyes only to see Faith’s face, her beautiful face, but also something more: her discomfort in having to work with him. Then he’d had the dream…one moment of ecstasy when he’d slipped the ring he carried onto Faith’s finger, the next, he rolled the ring between his thumb and forefinger and tried to make out the fuzzy image of a woman in a hospital bed who lay unconscious and breathing from a ventilator. He shook at the nightmare’s vision and visibly shivered.

  That’s why he’d gone to the hospital to check on Tori, only to find her squeezing her husband’s hand. Then he’d sought out Patti and convinced her he needed Faith’s address STAT. Patti had proceeded to recommend he take Faith a loaded cup of coffee but suggested giving her another option—if he actually wanted to get farther than the porch. Feeling desperate, and recalling Steven was a life coach, he asked, “I need a way to prove to Faith something in the environment is causing psychosis. That’s all.”

  “Ah…back to the doctor and his facts.” Steven retrieved a scarf from his jacket pocket and single-handedly looped the flannel material around his neck. “Have any of your patients complained of headaches?” He leaned closer. “Heard voices?”

  Jake snapped his attention to Steven so quickly a pain shot through his neck. “Go on…tell me what you know.”

  “You’ll find those patients are not Founding Family members. They’re outsiders. Like I once was. Like you are.”

  Stretching upward, Jake took a mouthful of coffee and swallowed. He had yet to be afflicted with head pain, voices, and visions. All his life, he’d been an outsider looking to make connections as a way to feel safe. But, he glared at the man who knew too much about the sleepy town. “I’m sure there’s something organic triggering the phenomenon, like I said. Because I’m not from Whisper Cove and I don’t hear voices.”

  “Which implies you have founding blood running through your veins, and means you’re already locked to the Lover’s Curse with or without Faith’s link to Whisper Cove.” A breath later, Steven asked, “Do you love her?”

  Spewing his coffee, he cupped his mouth, coughing. But the guy had a point. Did he love Faith? Could he, when he’d only met her two days prior? Did his parents, the family he’d barely known originate from the coastal town? Not that it mattered right now. However, that moment he’d seen Faith in the hallway standing with the chief, she’d stirred something primal within him, a sixth sense. After spending today together, he realized how fast he’d grown to care for her, as if a force pushed them together.

  He pictured her inside the cabin where he couldn’t comfort her, which made his chest clench, beginning deep inside right where his heart lay. A place that had never been touched by anyone so deeply, not even Lexi. And more, his protectiveness raged, as did the thought of building a life with Faith, no matter how many secrets she carried. In spite of her beliefs, fact or fiction, he was definitely falling for her.

  Maybe even loved her, if that were possible.

  Quickly, he corralled his emotions. “It’s getting late.”

  “Yes, darkness is settling upon you now, but stay. Please, stay.” Steven took another long gulp. “Let me explain…I loved music. Composing was my life. My love—”

  “Composing?” He eyed the cane.

  “Before The Curse, before I lost my sight, I composed for the San Francisco Opera. Then I met Faith at a little coffee shop on Market Street. I should have been honest with my feelings from the beginning. But, I wasn’t. In the end”—he chugged the remainder of his coffee and wiped his mouth on his scarf—“I did indeed leave her, but sadly, she blames herself for my misfortune.”

  “Misfortune?” His brows jumped up and his coffee sloshed out the cup’s lip and dribbled across his thumb. He’d seen her dance today. He wanted her to dance again, laugh, to open up instead of run away. “Go on…”

  “The day I left Faith, our wedding day, I lost what I truly loved.” Crumpling the cup, Steven exhaled. He tossed the squashed cup into the fire. “Without the composer, the opera does not exist. Nor vice versa.”

  “So, you did love her.” Jake set his cooled cup down and massaged his head, noticing Steven twist in the direction Faith had gone. Maybe it was better Jake and Faith parted now. Faith obviously had unfinished business with this guy. But, the thought that she could still love Steven made his stomach turn. “If you loved her, and she you, if she was willing to risk her life, and you yours”—though Jake still wasn’t convinced a curse existed or that he could truly move past his feelings toward Faith, he added—“you should tell her.”

  “No.” Steven tapped his cane and stood. He angled his feet toward the cabin. “You might think me a monster, but I’m not. I was only honest with myself, however, too late, and wanted more for her. More than me traveling the world and being gone for months at a time, leaving her behind. I wanted to see her happy. I still do.”

  A quiver of indecision ripped through him. He speared his hair, thinking what the hell he was doing dishing on the woman of his dreams when he needed to fight for her. All his life, those he’d loved had been taken from him. His mother. His aunt. His say in those matters had held little weight. Yet, there was a pattern that suddenly emerged. Every time he’d silenced his gut feeling, he’d been reprimanded by pain and loss. In his ex’s, aunt’s, and Tori’s cases, he’d let them down by not backing his feelings with actions. He no longer wanted to repeat that pattern. “I’m going to be there for Faith. No matter what. All your talk of omens and spirits is not enough to scare me away.”

  Sneering, Steven lifted his chin. “You misunderstand. And this is what you need to realize. I loved the opera. That’s what The Curse stole from me, what I loved, and that was not Faith. I’m to live for the rest of my life blind. The life I imagined is destroyed. But Faith,”—he half-smiled and added a clucking sound—“she deserves someone like you.”

  At the negative tone, Jake pushed to standing. He darted his gaze to the glow emanating from their cottage porch—a beacon that led him to Faith. “I’m going out on a limb, because I’m not your neurologist or psychiatrist, but your symptoms are most likely caused by emotional trauma and are guilt induced.”

  Jake patted his wallet, certain inside lay a card from a specialist who owed him a favor. “I’m sure there’s a good medical explanation for your condition, if you’re willing to have an open mind.”

  “And vice versa. Because what will you lose, Dr. Mitchell? How will you perform surgeries without your hands, your mind?”

  What is this guy talking about? Jake inhaled then held that breath, contemplating his answer.

  “Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky few who survive The Curse.” Steven tightened his scarf around his neck, stood, and popped up his jacket’s collar. “But, let me ask you…if you love Faith, are you ready to see misfortune, even death, strike her down?”

  Might as well have been a sledgehammer that socked him in the gut. No, higher. Right over his heart. Like that nightmare, the thought of Faith suffering sent him reeling backward. Someplace inside him he avoided, someplace hidden that suddenly burst, made his answer hover on the
tip of his tongue. Yes—with every molecule that made up the latticework of his being and the spaces between, more in-depth than what could be defined through scientific means—he sensed a change as his feelings for Faith amplified.

  “Your silence tells me you’re conflicted. That will get one of you hurt or killed.” Steven stood.

  “Hold up…” Jake searched his wallet, pulled out the card, pushed it into Steven’s hand, and wrapped the guy’s fingers around the embossed lettering. “On this card is the name of an excellent specialist. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”

  “You don’t believe in luck, Doctor.” Steven fingered the card then walked in the direction of where the other couples congregated, their distant singing rising into the night air.

  Without hesitation, Jake strode toward the cabin where mist gathered at his feet and rose up in his wake. He shivered as the night air swallowed him, lifted his cell from his pocket, and punched in the only number at Full Sail he knew by memory. When the chief’s voice mail kicked in, Jake spoke in terse sentences. “Chief. This is Dr. Mitchell. I’m taking a stand here, yes, risking passing probation, but if you have faith in me and my skills, I’m the one who decides who I work with. If Faith prefers pediatrics, I want her transferred back, if she agrees on that decision. For the good of the hospital, I hope you see that a person’s feelings at times outweigh your vision, and protocol.”

  He ended the call and felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He quickened his pace even more. Whether he’d have a job to return to come Monday morning, he couldn’t be sure, but at least he’d taken a stand. And on that narrow dirt path, fog crowding in on him, leaves crunching underfoot, he opened his mind to accepting his feelings for Faith. Now, he needed to convince her, whether cursed or not, she was worth loving.