Chapter Thirty-Six What’s past and what’s to come
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
What’s past and what’s to come
“WERE YOU LISTENING TO ALL that?”
Angelica sat at my bedside, using a golden spoon to stir a cup of tea she’d made while Kasem and Jojo had visited.
“I’ve never had two men in love with me before,” she mused, answering my question even as she ignored it. “Not at the same time, at least, and not two brothers.”
“They’re not in love with me.” I don’t know if the denial was for her or for myself. But Kasem and Jojo already hated each other. I didn’t want to cause any more animosity between the two Saint James brothers, especially when a part of me was at war with the feelings both men stirred within me.
But Jojo’s words made me doubt Kasem. It was like, with every inch I gained with one of them, I lost ground with the other.
“But are you in love with them?” Angelica pressed.
I couldn’t meet her gaze. So instead, I changed the subject.
“What did Jojo mean when he said Kasem could have asked you and Vivian for help breaking the curse?”
“Jojo seems to think our society, the ?nhye, exists to help the Saint James family with their problems. But his younger brother is aware that our sisterhood’s oath binds us to one another, not to them.”
She handed me the cup, then poured another for herself and began to drink.
“Have you ever wondered if your migraines were a symptom of your abilities, or a manifestation of them?” she said, as if that simple question answered everything.
“For example, when we exercise, our muscles throb. When we stretch, our joints strain. But being in deep thought doesn’t normally manifest into a migraine.
Migraines are battle cries in the nerves that something is not quite as it should be. Why do you think this is?”
“You’re the doctor, not me,” I answered.
She was sipping from her cup, and the golden spoon rested in my tea. But with each sip Angelica took, the spoon in my cup seemed to tremble. Slowly, slowly, she stirred her own cup and alongside it, as if tethered to Angelica by rope, the spoon in my tea began to stir by itself.
Like a conductor, she flicked her wrist and the cup levitated from its spot on the table and raced toward me.
Startled by the display of what could only be magic, I ducked. And instead of landing in my hands like Angelica had intended it to, the cup smashed into the wall.
“You goose! That was my favorite one,” Angelica snapped. Again she flicked her wrists, and the shattered pieces rose from the ground. She gestured to the trash and the broken fragments descended into the garbage. What remained was a pool of ginger and root tea.
“I am a member of the sisterhood,” Angelica said, speaking in my search for words.
“But my powers are my own. We are ‘hye wo nhye’: That which does not burn cannot be burned,” she translated.
“Just as Theta’s and Sigma’s abilities allow them to peel back the layers of the veil between the living and the dead with their magic, we of the ?nhye have our own affinities.
You don’t have to rush Theta to learn how to break your connection to Kasem’s lifeline. ”
“That’s not the only reason I’m doing it,” I said.
Angelica shook her head, disappointed.
“Foolish. But not surprising. So many want to be accepted by their lot. And so, they come to learn what that true price is.”
There were unending pieces to this paradox that was the curse, and even more secrets hidden within Westfield or lost between its fractured groups.
“It’s not just rushing Theta,” I said. “I want to join ?nhye. I’m not saying I think I could be a bridge between your groups. But Yara founded ?nhye after she left Theta. If we piece together everything we all know, then maybe we can break the curse.”
“You act as if no one has tried before. There have been many before you who’ve held this same belief. And yet the curse has its hold on Westfield.”
“Well, what have you learned from them? What have they tried before? Maybe we can make headway.” I looked at my hands and the burn marks visible beneath the lace gloves. “Maybe if we do, Kasem and I won’t be trapped like this.”
Angelica sighed, her gaze softening as she watched me. “Has Kasem told you that after the stabbing he was in a coma?”
I nodded. “I saw the setup in the estate. You took care of him.”
“I did,” Angelica said. “At night, on the rare moments when he manages to get rest, he suffers from what you would call sleep paralysis. But his suffering is beyond his body. It’s rooted in his soul.
” I recalled the silver flask he always had with him, how he switched between filling it with alcohol and water.
“Do you really think he believes he’ll survive the curse? Be honest, Sianna. Do you?”
I tried to stand, wincing against the pain rippling through my whole body.
“He asked me to help him break the curse. That should be proof enough he wants to live.”
“Swimming against the current doesn’t mean you’ll make it to shore.”
“But it means you believe it’s worth trying.”
Angelica sighed. “You are stubbornly optimistic about that boy. But I understand why. He’s beloved by all of us. Despite his reckless ways.”
She waved a hand and candles flew out from a drawer. With her other hand, she lit a match, igniting the flames and flicking her wrists to turn the light off in the room.
“I would share more, but as you know, we are bound by our oaths.” She took a sip of her tea and then held the cup out to me. “You would need to make a promise of secrecy to the sisterhood to even hear of what I speak.”
My gaze trailed to the teacup. Since I’d come to Westfield, she’d brought up this tea constantly. Now the reason was clear.
“If I drink this,” I said, “would I be a part of the sisterhood?”
“You would be taking the first step toward becoming one of us,” she said. “It’s not a shot like what Theta consecrates with, but we all have our ritual of choice.”
I swallowed, glancing between Angelica and the tea. This was what I’d come here for, to get answers, to find out how to control my powers again. And this would be the next step to getting closer to breaking my bond with Kasem and his curse.
My hands trembled despite myself, and when I drank from the tea, the bitter taste of roots and herbs, ginger and turmeric, burned at the back of my throat. My lips tingled, and the incantation of secrecy coalesced through my nerves.
“You kept it down,” Angelica observed. “Very good. Not all do. And those who cannot are unable to become one of us.”
She took the empty cup back and began.
“I’ve been consulting with spirits within the sisterhood ever since the stabbing and after we brought Kasem back to the estate for treatment.
When he was in a coma, they told me stories of how they’d caught sightings of a young man wandering campus while his body remained tethered to an IV.
I had hoped that if Kasem woke from the coma, that his spirit would return to his body, as all living people’s souls do until death comes for them.
When you arrived on campus, when Kasem finally woke from his sleep, it seemed possible.
But the reality is this: The two of you are a moth and a flame, drawn to each other, and yet fated to perish. ”
Angelica turned to me, a shadow cast over her, her eyes burning.
“Kasem died that day in the alley, Sianna. Your powers brought him back.”