61. Chapter Sixty-One The Cursed Lovers
Chapter Sixty-One: The Cursed Lovers
Maverick
As the hypnotic haze cleared, my shock did not. Tess appeared just as dazed. Her eyes were red, tears streamed down her blotchy cheeks, and I reached up to wipe them dry. She weakly tried to push me away, but I grabbed her hands and held them in her lap.
“Let me be here for you, Tess.”
She pursed her lips in annoyance. “Who was that?”
“That was Susannah. I broke her heart.”
She nodded, eyes wide in dramatic confirmation. “You sure did. What did you do? Sleep with her mother, daughter, sister and father all at once without her?”
I barked a laugh despite the tense atmosphere. Surely she was joking, and that was my kind of joke. “We couldn’t be together because of the hunters. She didn’t agree. ”
She laughed. “Seriously, that’s it?”
I nodded.
“You didn’t fuck her best friend or her daughter or something?”
“No. She begged me not to leave her, and I agreed to put it off for a little bit longer. Every time I brought it up, she became inconsolable, so… the last time, I just didn’t tell her.” I frowned, searching our intertwined fingers for answers that didn’t exist. The memory still clawed at my chest like a demon dragging you into a volcano in Hell.
I peered up at Tess, beautiful as always, glowing in the dark room. Now I knew why she glowed for me. This gorgeous woman housed the soul that mutilated itself in heartbreak because of me. It was inconceivable. I wasn’t worth that kind of energy. Not for anything.
Susannah was a beautiful woman. She could have found a good husband and lived a full life if she’d never met me.
“Why has this not happened until Tess?” I asked Seraphina.
“Susannah cursed herself but bound your souls. It was her soul’s cross to bear each lifetime, and I guess you simply didn’t cross paths until this time.”
“Oh Susannah,” I mumbled. If only I’d talked to her more. “If I knew she was going to do such stupid shit, I would have found someone to bind her magic.” What I didn’t divulge was how much guilt I felt from not finding her after she came to me through Evelyn in that tavern. It might have been too late even if I tried, but knowing how I spent that evening while Susannah lay naked and bleeding on the forest floor, I couldn’t ever forgive myself for that. I’d have to live with it, and the only way I could do that was to make it up to Tess for the rest of our eternity together. If I could ever get her to agree.
I couldn’t begin to guess whether this revelation would drive her further from me in disgust or not. I hoped that it would convince her that we were meant to be. Not in the traditional ‘soul mates’ kind of way, but the simple truth was we were bound. Sure, it was going to be painful, thanks to Susannah, but I couldn’t leave her. I wouldn’t dream of it.
“Can you break it?” asked Tess. Her voice was so small and faint. Her fear would have been obvious to anyone, and in that moment, I hated how delicious it tasted. I hated who and what I was. Never in my entire existence had I despised myself more.
“No.” Seraphina explained what Tess didn’t understand gently. “Susannah built the curse, so the only one with any chance to break it is a soul-descendant. You.”
“How?”
“That is for you to discover, dear.”
I knew one thing. Tess would not throw her hands in the air and accept our situation. She might never allow herself to settle into comfortably numb again. That’s how I met her, and exactly what I loved about her, and even if it meant our union was always going to be a rocky road, I’d never stop.
She might not appreciate all my obsessive love, but she’d get it, anyway, all the same.