- THIRTEEN #3
"It's not crazy talk," she snapped, swiping at a tear that had slipped out of eyes that did have a striking similarity to Jade's.
"Declan and I were eighteen when we got together.
We were happy for two years. We were planning to marry when I became pregnant with you and Jade.
Then my sister," she spat the word like it poisoned her tongue, "worked a spell on Declan, forcing him into marriage the night before I gave birth.
The families wouldn't stand for a divorce, you see," she said, her voice going hollow.
"And the law of the land is that the children go with their father.
So they took you. He took you," she said on a sob.
"He took you from me. I got to nurse you each once and you were ripped from me and put into the arms of that ice queen. I had no rights. I had no where to go."
An image flashed into my head of my father's memory back in his dungeon when I forced my way in. Him screaming at Opal for ruining their lives then cradling us to him and sobbing. All of it made sense. All of it rang true.
"So you came here," I said, almost choking on the realization.
"I came here because I was young and petty and bent on revenge."
A horrible thought crossed my head as I stiffened. "Alex," I said, my tone cautious, "what did you ask Baba Yaga?"
"I asked her to curse the rest of his days, to make sure he would never be happy with her."
And he never was. The only problem was, she must have left out the with her when she'd made the request, because all I felt inside my father was rage and hollowness and sadness.
There was not even a sliver of happiness, nowhere inside.
He was one-hundred percent dark. Baba Yaga, through my mother's wishes, created the monster that had raised me, that had tormented me and Jade, that had tortured me.
Unwittingly, by her own account, being young and petty and bent on revenge, she was responsible for most of the bad in my childhood.
"What is he like now?" she asked and I didn't miss the hint of desperation there, the need to know. Not because she hated him, but because she still loved him. Even after all the years.
I took a breath and pointed to my face, my chest, turned and showed her my back before facing her again.
"This was my homecoming present," I said and her face fell.
"Alex, that spell ripped all the happiness from his life.
He was all dark. And he took that out on me and Jade our entire childhoods until we ran away to the human realm. "
"I did this," she said, eyes filling as her hand landed next to the carved word on my chest. "I'm responsible for this."
"You didn't know..."
"I should have known," she insisted, shaking her head, letting the tears flow without swiping at them. "Baba Yaga told me that it wasn't exact, that things could always go wrong. I was so angry, so heartbroken, that I didn't care. I did this through my own selfishness. God, you must hate me."
"I don't even know you," I said, trying to block out the swirling emotions inside her, the overwhelming guilt that made it hard to swallow, the sadness that felt like a black hole in my chest, the need for forgiveness, as strong as the need for water after a week long thirst. Her mind flashed with visions of a younger her with a younger version of my father, a father I never knew, smiling, happy, loving, gentle with her.
I saw a sticky, bloody little me be pressed to her chest only to have an equally sticky and bloody Jade join me.
I saw the door open and the families on both sides charge in and rip us from her, hand us to Opal who had her trademark evil smile on.
I saw her fracture apart after. I saw my own father's devastation.
I saw lives being torn apart in one evil act.
"Jasper..."
I shook my head. "You were young and hurt.
I don't blame you. My father did have a choice, regardless of what the family said.
There is no law saying he couldn't have walked away from my moth...
from Opal. That was his own selfishness and you and I know it.
It was about the reputation and the money.
He could have chosen you. He was young just like you.
He made a shit choice. Just like you. I really don't have time for this right now.
My sister is in the fucking Dark realm. And my...
friend is in Baba fucking Yaga's house having fuck-knows what done to her. "
"Done to her?" she asked, brows drawing together. "No one is doing anything to her. Baba Yaga is a wonderful woman who takes care of women who need it."
"She doesn't need it," I snapped. "She needs me. I take care of her."
Alex's eyes twinkled a little then, a smile making her lips twitch. "A friend, huh? Just a friend? What did you do for her to end up here?"
"She was chasing a Will-o'-the-Wisp," I said, stiffening.
"Even so. She never would have gotten past the shield if she wasn't scorned. What did you do?"
I sighed, shaking my head. "I pushed her away. And I stand by that. It was the right decision."
"The right decision, huh? Out of curiosity, was she given a say in this decision or did you just go all bullheaded Winters on her?
" She paused for a second. "That's what I thought.
I understand that you're stressed and finding Jade is your top priority, but love is never convenient.
It never comes when you are prepared for it.
It always springs up at the worst possible moment.
But that is when you need it most. So pushing it away, Jasper honey, that is just foolish. "
"It's not love," I said, shaking my head at the absurdity of that.
I barely knew her. True, we had been with each other nonstop and got a pretty damn good idea of each other's rhythms. And we had been through more experiences and stress and turmoil than most actual people in love will in a lifetime, but that didn't mean I loved her.
I cared about her safety. I was responsible for her.
I respected her stubbornness, bravery, and loyalty.
I wanted her, yeah. Hell, I even liked her.
But it wasn't love. It was way too soon to even think that word.
"No," Alex said, pursing her lips. "Of course not." She paused, digging her hand into her pocket, producing a small amulet. "I had to start carrying this when I stopped being so jilted by Declan. I wouldn't be able to be on the property without it. It will get you past the wards."
I shook my head at her extended hand. "Don't you need it?"
She snorted. "No. I think I can muster just enough scorn toward him now that I've seen what he has done to our son.
There is very little memory of the love we had in the world.
You and Jade are all there is. And he marked that.
He branded you. He tortured you. Oh, yeah, I got this," she said, her teeth clenched as she shoved the amulet into my hands.
I closed my hand around the amulet, pulsing with power, and took a tentative step over the threshold of the property, waiting for the burning or buzzing, but it never came. Alex smiled at me as I stood fully on the property.
And it was right freaking then that a movement caught my eye and I looked over to find Cece walking around the side of the cottage with a fucking basket slung over her arm, smiling at the bent, wrinkled crone that was none other than Baba fucking Yaga.
"Cece, what the fuck are you doing?" I exploded before I could think better of it.
Cece's smile froze and Baba Yaga's cold gaze found me.
And I had a feeling I was in for a world of shit for being on her land.
And so was my mother.