Chapter 26 #2
“You danced in the rain in Wellington.”
“Yes.”
“You swam naked on the beach in Abel Tasman.”
“Yes.”
“You kissed me behind the waterfall in Milton Sound.”
“Yes.” Her smile spread wider with every word.
“You made love to me in a ghost room.”
“Yes!” She looped her arms around his neck. “You remember me.”
Simon’s harsh, pointed look disappeared, his expression clearing into a smile. “I remember everything.”
“And I have heard slightly too much information,” Everett muttered, sneaking toward the door.
Jinx barked loudly, positioning himself in front of the door, and let out an uncharacteristic growl.
Simon took a step to the side, shutting the door and blocking it. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Everett said. “Aren’t we done with this? The police are outside, take me to prison, yadda yadda.”
Simon looked back at Shanna. “Why did you say you needed him?”
“The Witch’s Heart. You remember what I told you about breaking my family curse?”
“You’d need the heart. Which you can’t get because that witch is long gone.”
“But I was wrong!” She quickly explained how she and Gran had reached the new conclusion. “And he’s the one. Everett is the last in line of the witch who cursed Caitriona. Only he can save me—by forgiving me.”
“Excuse me?” Everett shot out.
“Then he’ll do it.” Simon pierced him with that unforgiving, business-only look.
And it had never been as attractive.
“This is bullshit,” Everett said. “First that Guidry woman, now her? Do you have a fetish for weirdness all of a sudden?”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Simon said.
Shanna felt herself blush a little.
“So, what?” Everett said. “You want me to forgive you for …?”
“My ancestor wronging yours.”
“How long ago was that?”
“A few centuries.”
“Jesus.” Everett rubbed his face. “You people hold grudges, don’t you?”
“Do it,” Simon said.
“Hold on, hold on.” Everett gave a slight smirk, eyes passing between the two of them. “I’ll do it—”
“Thank you!” Shanna breathed.
“If you keep quiet about what happened between the two of us,” Everett continued, looking at Simon. “And give me Aries.”
“Done,” Simon said within a heartbeat.
“No!” Shanna stepped in front of him. “You can’t.”
“But you need him.”
“And Aries is your life’s work. You can’t lose it—to him, of all people—because of me.”
“Yes, it is my work.” Simon’s chest rose rapidly. “And therefore, I can decide to give it to whomever I want. Including him, if it’s to save you.”
Shanna gritted her teeth to stop herself from stomping like a disobedient toddler. “Simon, please. Don’t do it.”
Simon pursed his lips.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Everett said.
Simon looked past Shanna’s shoulder at him. “Everett, Aries is—”
“No!” Shanna covered his mouth with her hand. “No, you won’t!”
He shook her off. “Let me help you!”
She couldn’t. The curse, in the end, was her burden to bear.
Her problem to get around, even if she wasn’t directly responsible for it.
It wasn’t Simon’s, to give away his life’s work, his greatest treasure, for.
She didn’t want the curse broken at this cost. Not with Simon having to sacrifice everything. Anything.
“Don’t ask this of him,” she said to Everett.
Everett’s gaze passed between her and Simon.
“I know you care about Aries,” Simon said to him.
“I know it feels yours, as much as mine. But I know—I know—you always cared about me, too. I’d like to think you still do.
Even if I changed, and I have. Remember when we met?
You sensed I wanted to be in that meeting with you and Dad, and you convinced him to let me stay.
Remember when you offered to give me accounting lessons, so that, like you said, I wouldn’t go to college without knowing when somebody is trying to screw me over with textbook pricing?
There was no Aries back then. Just you and me. ”
Everett’s chin shook ever so slightly.
“Remember that night when I was coming back from Vegas,” Simon continued in a more morose tone.
“The night I had the accident. There was something I should have told you. I know I would have, had I ever gotten the chance. I’d gotten married.
To her.” He wrapped his arm around Shanna.
“And I’d share the happy news with you first, because Dad was gone, and Mom was gone, but you were still there, and there was no one I wanted to tell more. ”
Everett took a step back, floundering, almost as if drunk, and collapsed on the chair.
“I’d like to think you would have been happy for me. Even if it changed me. Even if I wasn’t your perfect, cutthroat businessman anymore. I was still Simon. I always will be.”
Simon lowered his head; Shanna gave him a little nudge, and he stepped over to Everett and clutched his shoulders.
“Forgive me for not staying your perfect Simon,” he said. “I forgive you for your actions. Because you’re my friend, and I know you would have never really, actually, tried to hurt me.”
Shanna wrung her hands, not daring to even take a breath in the charged atmosphere.
Tears welled up, but the onslaught of emotions made it hard to figure out which was the one that brought on the crying.
Perhaps she was crying for Simon, for having to go through this, for having his life turned on its head, in no small part because of her.
Perhaps she was crying for that connection—friend-to-friend, child-to-parent—that she could never properly have herself, and that was now slipping through Simon’s fingers, too.
Perhaps she was just crying for herself.
“I forgive you,” Everett’s low voice came. But when he raised his head, he wasn’t looking at Simon. He was looking at her.
“For whatever stupidity our ancestors did, I forgive you,” Everett repeated. He slumped his shoulders with a deep sigh.
Seconds, feeling like minutes, passed in the tiny room.
Simon turned his gaze to Shanna with the slightest hint of a smile, as if he couldn’t dare to believe yet.
She couldn’t either, even as shivers spread up her hands.
But they weren’t the shivers of magic being enacted or destroyed.
They were only nerves as she waited for the telltale signs of a curse being broken.
Would the real sign be a tingle? A warm wave under her skin? A cold vibration, instead?
The shivers subsided, but nothing else followed.
“Shanna?” Simon said.
“It hasn’t worked.”
“I forgive you,” Everett said. “I swear.” He looked at Simon. “I did want you to be happy.”
She believed him. It just hadn’t worked. Maybe she’d been wrong, and the Witch’s Heart wasn’t a person. Or maybe she was unfixable. A lost cause.
She hitched a breath, somewhere between a gasp and a wail, and ran out of the room.
The light scratching on the floor behind let her know Jinx was following; she thought she passed Stan, but she wasn’t sure.
She only ran—out of the hallway, out of the building, past the parking lot, where she stopped by a fountain on the edge of the park.
She sat down on the raspy, cold rock edge, and finally breathed out.
Jinx cuddled up to her, and she absentmindedly petted him as she tried to calm her heart.
A few days ago, she hadn’t even considered the curse could ever be broken; now, her lungs felt heavy with a loss that should never even be a factor in her life.
She knew how to handle her curse. She knew her friendships were short-termed and her romantic relationships nearly nonexistent. It’s all been relatively easy, even.
Until Simon.
They would never be free. It took so little for a mind to forget. For every ache you wished away, the memory will lose a day.
Cars drove past in the distance. The wind caught between the treetops. The smell of something deliciously fried wafted by for a few moments. Shanna waited, half-expecting to get dissolved into the night.
Soft steps rustled the grass behind. Simon sat next to her on the fountain’s edge.
“Everett has turned himself in and is being taken into custody,” he said quietly. “He’ll confess everything. Aries is free of him.” He closed his eyes and exhaled. “It’s mine again.”
Shanna swallowed, wringing the fabric of her skirt in her fingers. “And the curse stays.”
“I don’t care.”
She let out a short, sad snicker. Maybe there was more Business Simon left in there than Everett thought.
“I don’t care,” he repeated, laying his hand on hers, “because in the end, the curse doesn’t matter.”
“You barely remembered me.”
“But I remembered. Shanna…” He turned his face toward him.
“I would’ve given Aries to Everett in a heartbeat.
He can take my company, he can take my house, hell, he can pin all the scandals of the world on me, if he wants to.
” He knitted his eyebrows. “If giving up everything in my life was the only way out, I would’ve done it.
Well, there’s one thing, one person, I wouldn’t have given up.
Because I know how much she cares about me. ”
She sniffled. “You know it will never work.”
“When will you stop telling yourself that?” He kneeled in front of her.
“So, you’re still cursed. Who cares. We’ll work around it.
Do you think I got to where I am by being lazy?
No, we’ll find ways. We’ll figure it out.
And in case one day I wake up and you’re not there, and my mind starts to slip ever so slightly … ”
He pulled out his phone and laid it down on the fountain’s edge. “Leona, my daily reminders.”
“Here are your reminders for today, Simon,” the smooth, even voice of his digital assistant replied. “Number one. Shanna.”
A recording of Simon’s voice took over. “Shanna is my wife. I’d say I’ll never forget the first time we met, but I did, so instead, I’ll remember this.
I love the way the early morning sun brings out the gold threads in her hair.
I love the trickle of her laughter. I love all the different versions of it, and that I can tell exactly how happy she is from each of them.
I love that she’ll go to a stranger and chat them up like an old friend.
I love that she treats everyone with the kindness of a fairytale princess.
I love that no matter how hard she has it, she never gives up. I love …”
Simon paused the recording, took her hands, and looked into her eyes. “I love you.”
With a cry of relief, Shanna collapsed into him, pressing her forehead to his. “I love you, too.”
“Then stay with me, my beautiful, cursed witch.”
“It’ll be hard sometimes.”
“Not a fraction as hard as letting you go.” He led her hand to his heart. “I had the strangest time in the past few days. My mind slipped, but my heart kept trying to remember. I felt you. I never let you go. And I never will.”
She closed the few inches between them and kissed his lips, breathing him in. During spellwork, she’d always been taught to let bad energy go. So she let it go now. The curse could stay if it wanted to—what could it do against them, anyway? No curse could conquer the forces of nature.
And she’d show it what a force she and Simon were.
“By the way.” He smiled against her lips. “That part about you being my wife…”
“Yes?”
“There is a slight possibility the wedding wasn’t legitimate.”
She couldn’t be bothered with anything else other than laughing at it. “I suppose we should fix that.”
“I suppose we should.” Simon vigorously scratched Jinx behind his ears as the dog wiggled himself between them, panting happily. “What do you say?” He sent a mischievous look to Shanna. “The night is young. Up for Vegas?”