Chapter 34
34
AVA
I ’ve been back to work for the past few days, moping and generally hating life. I’m back in my dumpy clothes, with no make–up. I look exactly how I feel, which is like crap. Every time I think about Bram, my heart aches in my chest like it’s actually broken in there. I’ve been ignoring calls from my friends. Stellan is the only one I’ve seen, which I know is dangerous, but I don’t want to talk to anyone.
Barty left the office about an hour ago and I’ve been doom scrolling on my phone ever since. I should be working, but I can’t focus on anything. A message pops up from Piper and I swipe it away.
The door to the office swings open.
“I knew you were avoiding me.” Piper glares at me from beneath the hood of her puffy parka. The sun is still up, but the sky is so cloudy and gray it’s hard to tell. Piper’s cheeks are red from the cold, or maybe the wind.
“I’m not avoiding you. I’m talking to you right now.” I turn off the video of some guy inappropriately fondling chicken before he cooks it and toss my phone down.
“I mean this past week.” Piper slides into the chair in front of my desk. Her voice is soft but firm.
I flop back and sink down into my chair. “I’m just having a bad week.”
“What’s going on?”
I shrug. “Nothing. People have bad weeks sometimes.”
“Bram?” Piper asks, her eyes astute. She’s shy around most people, but she’s actually a bulldog when she feels strongly about something.
“Everything isn’t always about a guy.” I huff.
“Is it about a guy this time?” Piper gently smiles. She’s so damn sweet that it’s hard to get mad even when she’s interrogating you.
“We called things off.” I roll my neck. “He ended things. Not that we even really had a thing.”
Piper doesn’t say anything, but after a minute, she gets up and wraps her arms around me in a hug. She clutches me so tight I’m pretty sure it squeezes the tears out of my eyes. That’s why I’m crying, not because of Bram. I sniffle and pull back, swiping at my eyes.
“I’m fine.”
Piper nods. “I want to go see Fitz.”
“What?” I appreciate the abrupt change in topic, but I’m also confused.
“I think you need a distraction, and since the other night, I’ve been thinking about things.”
I groan and rub my eyes. That sounds like a horrible idea. I don’t need to get bitch slapped with a vine. This week has already been bad enough.
Piper stands up and holds out her hand. “I’ve been thinking about what Ashenvale said. I want to talk to Fitz about the curse and the bonds. I have some questions after the other night”
“She’s just gonna tell us we’re idiots. Again,” I say, but I’m already standing and putting on my coat. When Piper gets an idea in her head, she’s like a dog with a bone. It’s easier to go with it and resign myself to having Fitz make fun of me.
The drive over to Fitz’s house is quiet. That’s what I love about Piper. She doesn’t need to talk to fill space, and she can sense when you’re not up for nonsensical chatter. I’d say she has a bit of empathic magic herself, but honestly, I think that’s just Piper’s personality.
Fitz is sitting on her front porch on a rocking chair when we pull up in front of the house. Morty is in the chair next to her, the two of them laughing about something. Fitz has a knife in her hand that she’s sharpening with a stone. Morty is next to her separating beans by their colors.
A few snowflakes drift down from the sky as we exit the car. Fitz and Morty look perfectly content on the porch. They don’t even have coats on.
Fitz sets her knife down and picks up a teacup next to her chair. She lifts it and takes a sip, winces, and then pulls a flask out of her tracksuit pocket. With a mumbled grunt, she pours a heavy dose of brown liquor into her cup. After another taste, she nods with satisfaction and passes the flask over to Morty, who takes a pull directly from the small container.
“What?” Fitz demands, as Piper and I approach her porch.
“I have some questions.” Piper’s eyes are focused on the steps. Fitz stares at her for a long time before answering.
“I might have answers. That doesn’t mean you have a right to them.”
Piper looks distressed, her bare fingers fiddling with the zipper on her coat. Fitz cocks her head and takes some noisy slurps of her drink. She nudges Morty with her pointy elbow. “Do you see this?”
Morty thoughtfully inspects Piper and then nods.
“You have a geas on you.”
I jerk my head around to look at Piper. “What?”
What kind of a curse outside of the ones we were born into does Piper have? It’s a geas, so she isn’t able to even talk about it, but how did I not know that she has one placed on her?
A drip of sweat trails down Piper’s temple before Morty waves his hand in the air.
“Stop, you're going to give the girl an aneurysm.”
Fitz huffs unhappily. “We’ll come back to that later. What do you want?”
“Why did the bonds break the curse?” Piper is breathless and I wonder if she really had just been in pain because of whatever fucking geas she has on her.
The snow is falling more heavily now. The snowflakes fat as they begin accumulating on the sidewalk. They land on my eyelashes and melt before I blink them away. I shiver in my coat, hands shoved in my pockets and my chin burrowed down. I want to go home. I want to forget about coven bullshit for an eternity. What difference does it make why Josephine and Roman’s bond broke the curse? I’m never going to have that. I’m going to die alone.
“You still don’t get it. Don’t you nitwits have the grimoires? I’ve already spoon fed all the answers to you lot.”
“What grimoires?” I act as though I’m clueless.
Fitz rolls her eyes. “You are a horrible liar.” She takes another slurp of her drink, and then turns back to Piper. “I’ve already told you the truth of it. But I suppose my word isn’t good enough. Sometimes you need to look beneath the surface to uncover the truth.”
Fitz picks up her knife and begins sharpening it again. Piper and I stand there like two school kids waiting for their teacher to give them directions.
“Go away. Why are you still here?”
We scramble back to Piper’s car. “Is that what you were hoping for?”
Piper shivers as she starts the car back up. “It might be.”