Byron made a frustrated sound. “Everything’s raw. Give him a chance to deal with it.”
“It’s settled, then,” Opa said, as if nothing had happened. “I’ll take Jeremy, Nathan, and Willow. Byron, you and Ryan stay here and deal with Amelia while you watch out for any unwelcome visitors.”
“When are you leaving?” I asked.
“A couple of days. We need to hurry.”
“But what if they come back while you’re gone?”
He hesitated. “I’m confident they won’t, but I’m sure you three can handle any surprises.”
He and Jeremy left, leaving me with Byron and Ryan.
“How are you feeling now?” Byron asked me.
“Fine, I suppose.”
“No headaches?”
“Nope. They eased off as soon as I ate, um, meat.”
“So you’re fit enough to explain to me what’s been going on?”
I rolled my eyes. How could I cram everything into a couple of sentences? The stuff with Kali hadn’t been exact, I was pretty sure of that. I had a feeling she sent me images, and my own brain only took some of them to work them around in a way I would understand. But she was gone, so I had nobody to ask. I did my best to explain everything to Byron, actually feeling better by the time I was done.
“What were you thinking, messing around with spirit boards?”
“I just… I mean…”
“And why didn’t you explain all of this to me?”
“Nobody cared!” I shouted. Even I flinched at the sound. “Nobody’s looked at me since I let Mémère die!”
He gripped my shoulders tightly, and I noticed Ryan slip from the room. “You didn’t let anyone die. Never say that again. It wasn’t your fault. We’ve tried to protect you. We wanted to keep you innocent, so you wouldn’t be afraid. But her death was a mistake. Our mistake. Not yours. Do you understand me?”
He was practically shaking me. His eyes were fierce, but every word he spoke was a balm to me and exactly what I needed to hear. The tears fell before I realised I was crying, and relief flooded through me as, for once, I was able to believe what he said. My grandmother’s death wasn’t my fault or my responsibility. I didn’t need to prove myself to anyone.
“I thought everyone hated me,” I admitted through hiccups. He held me then, Byron, actually hugging, and I sank against him, holding him tighter. I imagined he was my dad. I imagined he loved me, and everything felt as though we might improve as a family. I wished I had figured it all out sooner, or that I had figured out a way to make the curse end smoothly.
“Nobody hates you.” Byron’s voice was thick with emotion. “And Nathan will find a way to get past his loss. I’ll help him.”
“But he’s leaving!”
“And he’ll come back. In the heat of the moment, we all say things we shouldn’t. There’s no reason for you to hold that against him.”
“What about me? What if I hurt someone?”
“We’ll stop you. Changing so suddenly was a shock to your system. You were ill, and you weren’t expecting it. You were pushed into the change before you were prepared for it. There’s nothing wrong with that, Amelia. And that’s what we’re here for… to help you.”
“What about the other stuff?” I asked, sniffing loudly.
“What other stuff? The so-called war?” he asked wryly.
“Well, that too. But I’m talking about me. The… thing she passed onto me. She said she was haunted by black magic and was trapped when she used it. What if I somehow used it? Accidentally, I mean.”
“We’ll find out more about it. Maybe her power is latent; maybe all she had to do was release it. Do you feel any different?”
I shook my head. I really didn’t. I remembered how Kali’s power had felt. There was nothing similar to that inside me.
“Then there’s no need to worry about it. We can do some research, and try to find out more about this kind of… witch power.”
I laughed. “That sounds odd, coming from you.”
He looked at me seriously. “Everything is going to be fine. You are. He is. We’re all going to be fine. We’re all going to figure out a way we can live together without ripping each other apart. It’s going take some time. And effort. And compromise.” He winked at me, and I giggled.
“I’m up for that challenge.” I meant it. My family had already hit rock bottom. Now the only way left to go was up. I would find out more about our heritage, and I would make sure we didn’t drift any further apart. And when Nathan came back, I would make sure he planned on doing the right thing.
I hadn’t fixed everything yet, but I wasn’t going to stop trying. We had a war to face, but my family depended on me to make sure we came through the other side, still as a family, just like Mémère would have wanted.
###
Thank you for reading Adversity (Cursed #2.5)—for more information check out Claire Farrell’s blog or email the author. Sign up to be notified of new releases.
The final book in the series, Purity (Cursed #3), is due for release in early 2013.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Adversity (Cursed #2.5) Page 16
