Chapter 21
“Black tourmaline in the center… five petals of Siberian lily around it … all right, done.” Shanna stepped away from the grid she’d set up for the spell that should bring Simon back to life. “And then I say the words?”
“That’s what the book instructs you to do,” Gran’s voice came over the phone.
“And you trust this Brenda B. Bustin person?”
“Horrible pen name, great knowledge of ghosts. Go ahead, dear.”
Shanna closed her eyes, clutched her connecting crystal, and whispered the words of the spell.
“Is it working?” she asked once she was done.
“How would I know? You’re the one doing it.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Simon wouldn’t show up here, of course. She’d called his soul back into his body, which would presumably still be at the hospital. But as with every spell, she should feel an effect.
“Maybe you call his company, see if it worked?” Gran suggested.
“And say what? Hey, I had a hunch your boss was dead. Mind checking if he’s breathing for me?” Shanna leaned on the table with her palms. “You’re sure all the ingredients are correct?”
“We checked three times. You did it right.”
If only she trusted in herself as much as Gran did. “But what if—”
The golden heart-shaped locket Simon had bought her for their wedding only a few days ago began to warm up. Shanna lifted it from where it lay, safely tucked under her shirt. Always close to her heart. “Gran, something is happening.”
Gran gasped. “Don’t say he turned up there!”
“No, but …” She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she was certain of it.
Simon’s soul—or at least a part of it—had just been drawn into her locket.
***
“What do you mean, your mom is alive?” Simon asked.
Shanna pushed the paper with her scribble of SWARM in front of him. “This was the clue. You already deciphered most of it. I only needed to add an S. For me. She left me a clue before she forgot me, to tell me where to find her. In Queenstown, at that shop.”
Simon ruffled his hair. “Are you sure?”
“I felt something when we were there. I thought I sensed the shop, but I think I sensed her, instead.” She couldn’t blame him for not believing in her solution straight away. He couldn’t understand the draw she felt in Queenstown.
“But she was supposed to be dead. Didn’t your grandma say so?”
“She said she tried finding her once, and she couldn’t sense her.
That’s why she believed she was dead. But when you think about it, we don’t have any proof.
We don’t have a grave. Nobody ever contacted us about her dying.
” Shanna stood, letting out a short laugh to release her nerves.
“She’s there. I know it. Bella. It’s the name Alfie knew her under. And short for Isabel.”
Simon stared at the scribbles on the letter.
“You think I’m reaching.”
“Well …”
“Go ahead, tell me.” She didn’t know why she was suddenly so defensive of her discovery.
“It might be a reach. For me, it would be. But if you feel it in your heart, if you believe she’s there, then I’ll believe you.” He took her hands in his. “I believe you.”
The words gave her a sudden boost of inspiration and energy.
“We have to go. We don’t have much time.
She’s closing the shop in two days because she’s leaving.
The girl working there didn’t tell me where to.
Once she’s gone, and that girl forgets her, I’ll never find her again.
” She tried going back into the room to pack, but Simon didn’t budge, drawing her back even without the bond.
“I have to leave,” he said in a low voice.
“There’s a tech conference in San Francisco this weekend.
Everett is making a presentation for Aries.
According to the news source, the rumor is that the board of directors will vote for the next CEO on Monday.
If he makes a good enough case for himself at the conference … ”
“They’ll vote for him,” she finished.
“He’ll take everything from me.” Simon’s voice dipped even lower.
You’ll still have me, she wanted to say.
But when was she ever enough? For whom? Not for her school or college friends.
Not for the few boyfriends she’d had. And not for Mom.
She wasn’t enough for Mom to stay—and a few words of apology in a letter didn’t do.
Mom still left her, and Shanna needed to know how she could have done it.
Why some vision was more important than staying with her child and seeing her grow up.
And now Simon would leave her, too. Aries was more important than her. But at least the company was his baby—so could she blame him for wanting to save it?
“Shanna …”
“You know what will happen.”
“I won’t forget you.”
She pressed her mouth into a grim line. “That’s easy to say. But the curse is still there. You can’t will it away because you want to.”
“Then we have to compromise.”
“How? You have to go. You have to be there in time to find evidence against Everett and put him away before he takes your company. And I have to find Mom. Now.”
“She left you.” His tone was accusatory, and even though Shanna knew it wasn’t directed at her but at her mom, it still hurt.
“So my mission is worth less than yours?” she snapped.
“I—uh—”
“You’ll never understand how it feels for everyone to forget you.” She gave a sad shrug. “You can’t, because you’re the great Simon Montague. Not only does everyone know your name; you’re etched into this time, and even afterward, your legacy will remain.”
Frustrated, she walked to the wall and leaned against it.
“But I have nothing. I could decide to walk in a random direction, get lost in the mountains, and in a few days, at best weeks, nobody will remember I ever existed.” She bowed her head.
“I need to find Mom. I need to tell her that for me, she still exists, even if I can’t remember her.
And I need her …” As her voice broke, Simon came over and wrapped her in a hug.
“I need to know a part of her, somewhere, can still remember me.”
He caressed her hair as she cried into his shoulder. She cried until tears blurred her vision and she began hiccupping. She briefly registered Simon scooping her up and sitting down on the bed, where she continued to weep into his shirt.
Damn Caitriona, and damn the curse. It always found its way through.
“I know I’m selfish,” Simon said after a while, when she’d calmed down.
“You have your priorities. I have mine. At the end of the day, it’s fate.” She wriggled out of his embrace. “What will you do? Do you have anyone you can trust back home?”
“I thought that was Everett.” His voice was filled with cynicism.
“Friends?”
“After three years of them knowing someone else they thought was me? I don’t know how it would feel. For either of us.”
“What about that bodyguard of yours? Stan?”
“He’s still around?”
“As far as I know. Over the past few years, he prevented me from getting to you multiple times. Thought I was a stalker.” She let out a short laugh. “Of course, that wasn’t really you, so I guess he had a point. But his protectiveness might be exactly what you need.”
“He didn’t know about the body switching, though?”
“No. Nobody did.”
Simon bit his lip. “I’ll think about it. He was my hire, not Everett’s, so in theory, he was loyal to me. But who knows.”
“And Chris? Will she go with you?”
“I hadn’t talked to her yet, but I’d like her to.
That way, I can keep an eye on her and try to protect her.
I hope I can find enough evidence about Everett elsewhere so I don’t have to expose her.
I’m not sure how recognizable she’ll be to Everett, or if he’ll even try to bring her up, but I’ll do what I can to not land her in more trouble.
After all …” He shrugged. “I don’t think she ever would have stabbed me. ”
“No. She wouldn’t.” She smoothed his hair back. “That’s very nice of you.”
“Hmm.” He managed a pale smile. “No wonder Everett thinks he can do the job better than I do. I’ve grown soft.”
“You always were soft. It’s just that the others don’t know it.”
He gently held her chin, his blue eyes glittering with earnestness and sincerity. “But you do. You know me.”
She did. She knew him so much that she could almost—almost—believe that the curse wouldn’t get them. Her heart did, but the well-worked pathways of her mind were still cautious. One could only get burned so many times before becoming wary of the flame.
With sudden urgency, Simon grasped her hand. “I won’t leave. Screw Everett. And if everyone already thinks me dead—well, let them have it. We’ll figure something else out. Maybe I’ll be Jason from now on. I’ll start another company. And we’ll go on adventures.”
She laughed. “Don’t be silly. You can’t do that. You have to go get Aries back.”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.” She laid her other hand on top of his. “Just like I have to go get Mom.”
He exhaled and leaned into her, their cheeks brushing, and they stayed like that until time pressed them on.
In the end, they all returned to Queenstown together, if only to the airport.
Simon and Chris had a flight to Auckland to catch, to get back to San Francisco as soon as possible.
Shanna refused to go to The Witchy Swarm with them first, both because she didn’t want to delay them further, and because she wanted some time to steel herself before she met Mom.
“Hey,” Chris said as they were saying goodbye at the airport. “You be good.”
“You too, kid,” Shanna said.
Chris leaped into a hug, inciting a gasp from Shanna, then drew back. “You don’t intend to run after us once the plane is already leaving and cause a scene, right?”
Shanna threw a quick glance at Simon, giving him a wry smile. “No.”
“Good. Because that would be embarrassing.” Chris gave her a nod goodbye and headed for the gate.
Simon shifted on his feet and waved his arms awkwardly before he, too, squeezed her into a hug. He pressed her tightly to him, sinking his fingers into her hair.
“I’ll come back,” he said. “As soon as I’m done. And I’ll make sure I’m done within days. Will you wait for me here?”
She nodded. “The lakeside café we went to? The one with the crazy delicious desserts?”
“Sounds good. I’ll call you.”
She breathed in his scent once more. Amber and sunshine and hope. Perhaps it would be enough to fight against that sliver of doubt, whispering that the curse will always win.
For the first time since Simon was truly, properly back, they’d be separated by a real distance. Not fifteen feet, not a hundred, but an entire ocean. No spell could help—all that would connect them were a few flimsy technological devices.
“They’re calling your flight.”
He exhaled and gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t forget me,” he said with a wink.
She rubbed their noses. “I’ll try not to.”
They separated, and he walked backward, continuing to look at her until he almost tripped over the suitcase of a man rushing across his path.
Shanna giggled and waved goodbye, then rubbed the wrist where her tattoo used to be.
Even though it had been the right thing to do, it felt so strange, knowing Simon could leave.
Letting him leave. Knowing that yank on the wrist will never come again.
But she had to let him go now, so instead, she committed every last bit of the scene to her memory. The sun streaming in from behind him, bringing out golden highlights in his hair. The chatter of a group of three girls close to them. All the promises kept in Simon’s smile.
If everyone else would forget, she wouldn’t.