Chapter 29 Rosie
Rosie
The curse has never hurt like this.
Not this all-consuming, soul-crushing, emotion-eating way.
This is different.
I tell myself it’s because of the kiss bond that’s slowly fading, because he was the first and only man I’d given that to, so that must be new.
Or maybe it’s the fact that a ghost resembling a much older version of him is still hovering around my place.
I will say, though Phillip haunts my place, it is much quieter and less obtrusive than before, almost as if he feels some degree of guilt over my heartbreak.
The day after our fight, I found the flask in a box on my front step.
There was a small note in his too-familiar handwriting that read given willingly, and I cried for a full hour after I brought it inside.
Just seeing it there, the quiet understanding that Jack was giving up on trying with me, even though I told him to leave, cut deep.
Four days after Jack and I fight, I wake to the golden strands fading and have to fight everything in me not to run across the street and press my lips to his, if only to keep those golden strands bright and fresh, though I don’t know why I so desperately want to keep that one last tie to the man who betrayed me.
On day five, there’s a knock at the front door of my shop, and even though I don’t feel the tug of the bond that would tell me Jack is nearby, I rush there with hope. When I don’t see his tall, broad frame in my doorway, my heart drops, and I curse my optimistic tendencies.
You don’t even want to see Jack, I remind myself. He hurt you. You wouldn’t have even let him inside.
But dread replaces my optimism, mixing with my disappointment when I see two figures I know to be my sisters at the door.
“Hey, Rosie,” Poppy says after I undo the lock and open the door.
Even though Heartwood Hollow is safe as can be, I started locking it after Jack left for good.
He always insisted I do, telling me I need to focus on keeping myself safe.
I shift to close the door, not in the mood to deal with them and their interrogation, but Violet is quicker than I am as always, sticking her foot in the doorway and stopping it.
“Let us in now or we’ll break in ourselves.
Choice is yours,” Violet says, carrying three bakery boxes sitting atop a pizza.
Poppy is holding a bottle of wine and some sodas, and even though I want to be alone to bask in my misery, I sigh and let them in.
If I closed the door, their own magic could be used to open it, and I don’t think I have it in me to bewitch my locks to overpower their magic and keep them out for good.
With reluctant acceptance, I turn around and head to the back of the store and toward the stairs.
“Lock the door behind you,” I say over my shoulder, and even though I don’t look, I know my sisters look at each other skeptically.
I’m sure they’re confused, considering I never lock my door—none of us do—but nonetheless, I hear the lock click into place as I take the stairs slowly.
When all three of us are settled in my living room, Poppy grabs paper plates and utensils, and Violet lays out all of our many food options on my coffee table.
“Are you going to tell us what happened?” Violet asks, cracking first. She’s always been the least patient of us.
I ignore her, reaching for a slice of pizza and sliding it onto the plate before accepting the large glass of wine Poppy poured, because God forbid we be complete Neanderthals and drink out of paper or plastic.
Poppy has always liked fancy things, even if it was just in small moments.
“Rosie,” she warns, and I sigh.
“There’s nothing to tell,” I say, taking a big bite even though I’m not hungry.
I wash it down with a gulp of wine and keep my eyes on my plate.
If I look in their pitying eyes, I might lose it.
“Nothing. Nothing happened.” Part of me wants to confess everything, to tell them about the family curse and my mission to break it, about kissing Jack and falling for him. About his betrayal.
Though lately, that anger has been tinged with a hint of understanding. While I’m hurt that he tried to sabotage my potion and thus the breaking of my family curse, if he has real feelings—or, at least, what he thinks are real feelings—for me, chances are he thought he was doing all he could do.
I don’t want to give him any credit, though, because the obvious, adult answer would be to fucking talk to me.
But would you have listened? a voice whispers, and I sigh.
This has been my internal battle for the past five days: irritation that he hurt me and took matters into his own hands, followed by the crushing understanding of why he did that.
“Babe,” Violet says, and the way her face goes soft with… pity?
Oh hell no. If there’s one thing I do not want to deal with, it’s pity from my toughest sister, who always sees things in black and white. If she’s pitying me, I must look horrific, and I can’t handle that.
“Seriously. I’m fine. It’s nothing.” Silence fills the room as I shove a giant bite into my mouth, chewing like my life depends on it.
“Your gold is fading,” Poppy says gently, running a finger over a thread that is weaving along my living room, leading out the door and to Jack’s place.
Something about that gentle observation is what does it.
A single tear falls, breaking the dam and allowing the rest I’d been holding in to fall. I’d done so well today, and now I regret letting my sisters in because I knew they would tap into it.
“Oh, Rosie,” Poppy says, moving toward me and pulling me into her as I cry.
“Did he break up with you?” I shrug, then shake my head, and even though it makes no sense, my sister doesn’t argue.
Violet moves some things before sitting closer to me on the other side of the couch, holding me as well.
We’ve been in this position so many times before, all three of us sitting close, one of us upset, but it’s rarely me in the center, rarely me openly breaking down.
Even during my worst heartbreaks, I’ve always done my best to keep it together, to hold the worst of my meltdowns in until I was alone.
I’m the oldest sister, after all.
The strongest, the one who has to be the soft, safe place for them to fall. Not the one breaking down. Except after weeks of Jack treating me with kindness and giving me the safety I needed to accept help and be vulnerable, my walls are much weaker, crumbling around me.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Violet asks as my cries turn to sniffles.
“Love you, and I believe that something happened, that he hurt you, whatever, but there’s more.
There’s something we’re missing.” I sit up then, using a napkin to wipe at my face, taking in a deep breath to try and center myself.
“There’s always been more,” Poppy says, giving me a knowing look. And with that look and my utter desire to get this off my chest, to confess it to someone other than Percy, I do just that.
“You’re right,” I whisper. “I’ve been keeping something from you, I think.
” That small confession alone lifts a weight off my chest, and I know it’s time.
Their eyes go wide, but there’s no time for questions as I spill everything I’ve been keeping in, not just for the past six weeks, but for years: I tell them about the family curse, which they confirm they were never told about.
I tell them about being fed up with never finding my person, about deciding to take things into my own hands and break the curse.
I tell them about summoning Phillip, and I watch Vi bite back her retort that it was stupid and dangerous, thank God.
I don’t think I could handle her chiding right now.
“God, Rosie,” Poppy says.
“Why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped you,” Vi says.
“I had it covered.” My sisters roll their eyes almost simultaneously.
“You know you don’t have to do everything by yourself, right? You can ask for help.” Poppys words hit far too close to conversations I’ve had with Jack in the past few weeks, so I veer away quickly.
“Can I continue on with my miserable tale before I get a lecture?”
Poppy smiles then nods.
“Go on,” my youngest sister says before I tell them about the flask, about dragging Jack into it, our missions.
About kissing him and the kiss bond, and making out on my couch just because Jack had never done it.
About the night in the field and deciding we could be friends with benefits, knowing that once the curse was broken, I’d find my true love.
When I tell them that, they exchange knowing looks, probably seeing where this is going, where my own blinders blocked my common sense.
I tell them about Phillip’s assurance that when the curse was broken, all previous relationships and heartbreaks would be forgotten.
Then I tell them about thinking Jack was a safe bet and how he turned into anything but.
Finally, through sniffling tears, I tell them about finding him trying to sabotage the potion.
“The moonflowers,” Poppy whispers, her eyes closing. “I thought it was strangely specific, but I’ve gotten stranger requests. I’m so sorry, Rosie.” I shrug, then shake my head.
“It wasn’t your fault. How could you have known when I was keeping everything from you?”
Silence fills the room before Vi breaks it.
“But I don’t get it. Why would he do that?
Why would he try to sabotage the potion that would help Phillip cross over to the other side?
” she asks, then looks around for the friendly ghost who has made himself scarce lately.
My heart falls to the floor with the question and how I have to answer.
“Because…” I take in a deep, uneasy breath. “Because he’s in love with me.”
“What? This is all because he’s in love with you?” Poppy asks, breaking the stunned silence after long moments. I nod in agreement, sniffling and wiping at my nose.
“That makes no sense,” Vi adds.