Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
“You did what?” Magnus asked in disbelief as he helped Sven clear up the remnants of Pearl’s graduation party. One that he didn’t get to really enjoy because of who showed up.
It’s your own fault you didn’t enjoy the party, not hers.
Great. It was bad enough his twin brother hired Mercedes, but now his own brain, his logic, was against him.
Sure, the so-called revenge date was a couple of months ago, and he was still kicking himself for not vetting her before he drove into Tallowfield to meet her.
Her profile pic was a cartoon avatar. A cutesy kind and he liked a good mystery.
He was not picky about looks. It was the person inside that mattered, and they’d had so many good talks over messaging.
It was a mistake.
All of it.
It was risky driving into Tallowfield anyways because a lot of the residents were anti-monster, but that’s where she lived.
He’d actually been looking forward to dinner.
When they’d chatted online, he found out they had so much in common.
TV shows, music, she liked similar food to him, and loved a good screwball comedy movie.
Sven would never watch the Vacation movies or others like it with him, but he found out Mercedes adored them. Not many women he encountered did.
Then she walked in, and he was transported back to that moment a thousand years ago when he was cursed by that witch.
“How dare you come here? How dare your kind show your face after binding me here,” the woman shrieked.
Magnus took a step back. He’d thought this woman a volva, a seeress, like the ones who would come to his village.
He was actually surprised she was here, but relieved nonetheless.
He was hoping she could guide him and what remained of his landing party to calmer waters.
The fog in these woods had been dense for days since they’d taken that river inland.
Now, they were definitely lost and had been for a while.
He realized that now. A lot of the men from the long ship were dead, having fallen victim to animals, illness, and weather.
All Magnus wanted to do was get home, or at the very least back to the sea and out of this never-ending forest. He owed it to Sven.
Yet this witch was accusatory and angry with him.
“Volva, I do not mean you any harm.”
She scoffed. “I know your kind. You cursed me here, alone and bound to this forest for decades when you know the sea is my home. I’m so far from the sea,” she screeched.
Magnus was confused. “I did not bind you here.”
“The blood in your veins says otherwise,” she hissed, pointing a long finger at him.
“My blood?” he asked in confusion.
“Now, I will bind you here. Curse you here and I will be free.” Her eyes flashed with red flames as she tossed her wine-colored hair over her shoulders. “I curse you now, binding you here for all eternity, walking as if dead, but never achieving release until love sets you free.”
The words hit him like a stabbing wound to the gut. Pain coursed through him as he dropped to the ground. His skin turned pale, his heartbeat racing like thunder in his ears before it went silent, stopping.
Then he heard Sven screaming, calling his name. Through the haze, the fog of the strange veil that descended on him, she’d struck his brother down too.
The world went dark, and when Magnus woke, the volva was gone and he was bound to the woods in her place, as was Sven.
It was completely his fault, that cursing. It had been his idea to head inward from the sea. He’d been in charge of the landing party. If he hadn’t gotten them lost, the others would’ve survived and the witch wouldn’t have cursed them.
Sven was just trying to avenge him when he rushed into the fray after he was cursed.
Magnus sighed. He had really calmed down since being rattled by the perfect reincarnation of that witch.
Then she showed up at the party. She was Pearl’s friend?
Pearl, who was like a little sister to him.
It didn’t make sense. And why did she have to be friends with Pearl Clague? Sweet, innocent Pearl.
He’d known the Clague family for years. Both the glashtyn side and the witchy/human side. Finbar was one of his best friends, and so by extension, he saw Pearl as a little sister and someone he needed to protect.
How could Pearl be friends with a volva? Especially that one.
“I’m in charge of hiring,” Sven responded, breaking through Magnus’ endless cycle of thoughts as he carried a bag of trash to the bin by their shed. “And she is young and willing to work. Plus, Pearl asked me, and you know I can never say no to her.”
Magnus knew that Sven saw Pearl as a little sister too, which should soften the blow, but it didn’t.
Magnus grunted. “Still, I should’ve been consulted.”
“You’re in the kitchens. She’s going to be in charge of the bedrooms. You shouldn’t really have to interact with her. Besides, she’s not the witch who cursed us. Or rather, cursed you.”
It was a pointed barb, aimed right at him, blaming him for that awful curse that befell them. He felt bad for a moment, but he knew Sven was just manipulating him to get what he wanted. Sven knew the curse was just bad luck, and that Magnus hadn’t done anything. He knew Sven didn’t blame him.
Magnus rolled his eyes and snatched up a linen table cloth, tossing it into a laundry bag. “You can’t deny the resemblance, and you know about reincarnation within families. Endrborinn, but without the hamingja.”
Hamingja had to do with luck and reincarnation within families, but there was nothing lucky about Yrsa coming back.
Sven sighed. “Yes and yes, but that still doesn’t mean anything. Even if she is reincarnated, she’s nothing like her ancestor.”
“How do you know?”
“How do you know she is?” Sven countered.
“I don’t.”
“Look, that volva was crazed after being bound here. Trust me, I get her feelings. After a few centuries, I was a bit squirrelly staying put when we’d been explorers before.”
Magnus crossed his arms and let out a sigh. “True.”
“Mercedes is very sweet.” Sven the eternal optimist.
That’s how their town saw him. Always looking on the bright side of life, whereas Magnus been the womanizer, the joker and the leader.
What people didn’t see was the sadness Sven carried deep within.
He hid it well. Whereas Magnus put all his emotions out there: anger, frustration, all of it, which is why most people in Harmony Glen called him the hotheaded one.
“You’re too nice for your own good,” Magnus said gruffly.
Sven shrugged with indifference. “You know, maybe some good karma will help us out in the end. Release us from this curse.”
“Only true love does that,” Magnus reminded. “Like some kind of demented reversed Sleeping Beauty thing.”
“Are you hoping one day your prince will come?” Sven teased in a singsong voice.
Magnus growled at Sven, who was grinning, his red eyes twinkling.
“Hrisungr.”
“Be nice. You know our mother was married. Try to put good vibes into the universe and you will be paid back in kind,” Sven stated.
“It’s kind of hard to find true love when women were terrified of you for the first several hundred years of your eternity.”
Though not all women. Sure, it was difficult at first, but over his centuries there had been some special booty calls. Of course, love was a completely different matter, and no woman wanted to settle down with a ghoul. Especially in the early days.
Sven chuckled. “Things have changed since the great revelation. We were able to buy this house…”
“A former funeral home.”
“So? Former is the key. Besides, I still think it’s kind of ironic that two ghouls own a former funeral home and are turning it into a bed-and-breakfast.”
“You would,” Magnus grunted, but then smiled because he did see the humor in it too. Both of them had died on this property before Harmony Glen was Harmony Glen.”
“Ghouls running a dead-and-breakfast is smart business. Room with a Tomb will do amazing.”
“I do hope so.”
After all this time, he’d accepted his fate. They were cursed but woke up and were sort of undead after that. White skin, red eyes.
It was terrifying waking up to realize you were sort of dead.
Trapped between the mortal plane and the undead one.
It had taken a while to get used to it, and having to isolate from scared mortals was hard.
Especially with the language barriers over the years.
Even when they did learn Haudenosaunee and could communicate with the native inhabitants, he and Sven weren’t trusted right away.
The Europeans thought they were zombies.
Okay, most people did.
At least they weren’t trying to snack on brains.
People had been scared of them, so for a long time they were isolated.
Even though technically they could be considered founding fathers of Harmony Glen, during those foundation years they were often haunting the cemetery.
Driven by fear, the way most monsters had been before the great revelation.
Magnus and Sven had lived in a cave in what was now known as the conservation area. When the great revelation happened, they were finally able to come out of hiding and become a part of the community instead of a whispered legend.
A ghost story.
Unlike other monsters, he and Sven were tied to Harmony Glen. They could travel for short distances, but if they were gone too long, they started to rot. Which is what happened to him when the truck broke down in Tallowfield, and Margaid his best friend’s girlfriend, gave him a lift back home.
Maybe I’m judging Mercedes too harshly.
Sven seemed to have forgiven and forgotten the past. Maybe he could too?
“Okay, but she better stay out of the kitchen,” Magnus remarked, finishing the gathering of all the tablecloths. “It’s getting late, want to deal with the tables tomorrow?”
Sven nodded. “Yeah, we can. I should get some sleep because we have a lot to do with our grand opening looming.”
“When does the witch start?” Magnus asked through gritted teeth.
“In three days, and I have to prep and train her.”
Magnus hefted the bag of dirty linens over his shoulder and dragged it into the basement of their dead-and-breakfast. They’d turned the old embalming room into their laundry room.
Sven may be good with people but, besides cooking, Magnus had a knack for fixing appliances and had salvaged two industrial washers and dryers that were older and broken down.
He bought them from Mona who ran The Clothes Spin laundromat.
She’d insisted on it. When Mona made up her mind about something, most people listened.
With help from Finn to secure parts, Magnus had them fixed, and now they had big enough machines to handle the loads of linen this place would generate.
Magnus found it unusually calming in the basement of the former funeral home.
It sort of reminded him of their old cave. He could putter around down here.
That’s why when they’d chosen sections of the massive Victorian home to be their apartments, Magnus chose the basement, much to Sven’s horror. Sven chose the attic and the large watch tower at the top. They’d spent enough centuries in close quarters, it was nice to have their own autonomy.
Once the wash was on, Magnus floated down the hall to his apartment and sat in his favorite recliner. Closing his eyes, all he could think about was her.
If his heart still beat, it would be racing. He was so excited for this date. He and Mercedes had so much in common. He glanced down at his phone, to the messages.
Mer: Our initials are like the candy.
Mag: Hard shelled?
Mer: Delicious. LOL
Mag: That’s so cheesy.
Mer: Can’t help it. I guess it’s like our taste in movies. Everyone in my family hates my love of screwball comedies.
Mag: Your cheese is adorable. My brother hates them too. Hates that I quote a certain hockey-playing golfer. All. The. Time.
Mer: That’s the best movie. He’s too uptight.
Mag: What movie do you over-quote?
Mer: Too many. I shout “squirrel” a lot in tense situations, especially around Christmas. At Halloween, I’m a bit Abby Normal.
Mag: LOL. Would you like to meet? Maybe we can spend an evening quoting our favorite movies?
Mer: YES! When and where?
As he looked up to see her enter the restaurant, the smile plastered on his face slowly slipped away when he recognized that face. All he could think of was the moment he was cursed.
Not so much for him, but for Sven, and he wondered if this was some kind of cruel trick.
He cursed under his breath. He hated thinking of their first date over and over again.
Especially since he’d been so stoked, thinking he’d found the one.
It wasn’t just that she reminded him so much of that witch.
It was the fact that he found her so attractive.
He’d connected with her before they met and he missed their text conversations.
He missed her.
It was going to be hard to share a workplace with Mercedes, but Sven was right. His domain was the kitchen, and she’d be cleaning the bedrooms. They really didn’t have to interact much at all.
And that’s the way he planned to keep it.