Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the J-Pop print explosion in Donia’s room was not it. I closed my eyes against the pattern overload. “Wow, your sister must have been into anime, huh?”
“Donia was an internet star.” Britannia shrugged and nodded at a framed poster over the orange acrylic bed. The girl in the picture looked about fourteen.
“You guys were twins, right?”
“Yeah, not identical. Not that it matters.”
“Right, if she could look any way she wanted, why not a fourteen-year-old anime character with plastic surgery-level features?” I said it out loud, but it was a stream of thought. “She’s really pretty, or was.”
“Saying I’m not?” Britannia snapped, jutting out a hip.
“I didn’t say that. She doesn’t look like you at all. No comparison.” I got a thin smile back, and for Britannia, it was a nod of approval.
“Yeah, well, her audience was only interested in how fast she could get them off, so beauty was what she was going for. Lucrative though.”
The eww factor ratcheted up. Her vivid description wasn’t how I would think of a dead sister, but then this was Britannia. “Show me where you two were.” I gestured to the bed and noticed there was no chair or dressing table. Weird.
“Donia was on the bed, and I was standing here,” Britannia said, walking around to the side of the bed farthest from the door. “I demanded the ring, she said no. I was fighting with her to try to get it off when Wald walked in.”
The cardboard of the tarot cards vibrated in my fingers. It seemed like I’d need something to focus on other than the ring since, of course, I had no idea what I was doing.
I laid out the three cards Agatha had specifically left me, but they didn’t seem right.
Not that I knew what right was. Closest I’d ever been to fortune-telling was breaking open a cookie.
I sorted through the cards, replacing The Lovers with The Fool and Death with The Empress.
That left The Wheel of Fortune. I thumbed through the cards.
Someone whispered, Hero something, and I whipped around, dropping the deck onto the bed.
Britannia looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“You didn’t hear that?” I picked up the scattered cards. They were all face up except one.
“Hear what?” Britannia asked, cocking her head.
“Look, quit the tricks. If this is going to work, I need your help not your fucking attitude.” I turned over the card. It was The Hierophant. It meant nothing to me, but if someone wanted me to use it, I was going to listen.
Britannia toyed with the charm on the long chain around her neck. “You’re basically babbling, but you know I want this as much as you do. So, you’re going to need something more. ”
“Like how about being specific-much?”
“A drop of my blood mixed with yours should connect us enough.” She pulled out a knife from her catsuit pocket. It was similar to the one Victoria had given me, but hers was black with pink stripes. The blade popped out, and she brandished it at me. “Palm, please?”
“Hell no.” I tucked my hands behind my back. I had not signed up for blood rituals.
“Look, it’s easy. You put out your hand and poke a finger. There.” Blood welled up on her fingertip in a little blue bead. “It doesn’t even hurt.”
“Your blood is blue?”
“Seriously? Yes, our true blood is blue. Now hurry before the wound closes.” She offered me her knife, but my fingers had already found the one in my pocket.
“I have my own tools.” I poked my finger with the tip of Victoria’s knife.
It did nothing. I pressed harder. My heart beat on my ribs, blotting out all thoughts except what color was my blood now.
It took four tries before I poked deep enough.
My blood was still red, and I released the breath I’d been holding. “Now what?”
“Really? Never seen a movie or read a book? We rub our fingers together. They get the idea right. To work with artifacts, you need a catalyst, so you need to have a little piece of me to get into my past.”
I extended the blood drop on my finger and waited for her to come to me. She walked over, grabbed my wrist roughly and then ground her finger against mine while blowing a kiss. “There. Now we’re blood sisters.” Her laughter made my skin crawl. I tugged my hand back, and she let me go.
Had I made a terrible mistake? My heart beat faster from the weirdness of the purplish blood smeared across my finger, but I didn’t feel any different. “Great, now what?”
She shook her head and raised her palms up. My blood dripped down her index finger. She stuck it between her lips like it was a candy cane and pulled it out with a smack. Her forked tongue darted out, catching whatever was stuck to her lips. “You have the ring. Figure it out.”
Fuck me. I wiped the blood off my hand onto my catsuit. Britannia was in full smirk.
“Okay, pretend Donia is on the bed. Do whatever you were doing, but you need to lock the door first,” I said, handing her the bracelet, leaving my fingers colder.
The door flew open, smacking the wall. I stepped back as Wald strode into the room, sucking the rest of the heat from my bones. His sunglasses were off, and his yellow eyes bored holes into my soul.
“What are you doing in here?” he shouted.
I don’t think I’d heard him yell before. My teeth rattled in my head so hard I covered my ears. “Get out. You aren’t supposed to be here,” I yelled back at him, dropping my hands and squaring my shoulders.
“The hell I’m not. We had a plan. You will resolve your own storyline.
I don’t know what you think you’re doing here with Britannia…
” He trailed off, the muscles in his neck twitching as the pieces fell into place.
His eyes softened. “No, Harlan, no. I forbid you. You don’t owe me anything.
Don’t do this.” The growl of the R’s rolled over me salty sweet.
He cared, but he wasn’t ordering me around.
“Stop. I get to make my own choices. Now get out of here.” I shoved him toward the door, but it was like trying to move Stonehenge.
All the press of my hands on his chest did was recall what we’d been doing an hour before, sending blood rushing to my cheeks and the desire for his arms to wrap around me.
Instead, he grabbed my wrists, sending more blood to other places as his golden eyes bored into mine. “Harlan, I don’t want you to sacrifice your past for me. I’ll figure something out. This is not fair to you. This is my fault.” His voice was cracking, and his eyes glistened with intensity.
Britannia shifted behind me, reminding me we were not alone, and I had a mission.
“Fair? Mother of hell, this has been the best bizarre action I’ve seen in my humdrum life.
I have very apparently signed up for the ride, but only if I’m calling the shots—all of them—and if I want to save your not-so-miserable existence, I’m going to have the say.
” I shook him off my wrists. “So, get your butt out into the hall and stay the fuck there until Britannia and I are done.”
He didn’t move, looking down at me with simmering and glassy gorgeous yellow eyes. His bottom lip twitched, then started to turn up on one side.
Fuck Britannia. I launched at him, kissing him, our tongues dancing as if they were snakes in a slither. Britannia’s eww protest was smothered under the blanket of passion surging between us. If I didn’t step back, we were going to screw on the floor.
“Stop,” I said breathlessly, settling both hands on his chest. It broke the kiss, but he didn’t move. His arms wrapped my back, and I looked up at him, silently pleading for him to let me go.
“Harlan, you don’t know how it will turn out for you.
Anything could happen. The timeline will reset, and your past will alter as will mine.
I won’t let you make this bad decision. I can’t.
” His voice cracked again, but his words pierced me.
His hands moved to my shoulders. The firm grip had meaning.
Meaning he thought he could change my mind .
This was my moment. “But it’s not your choice to make.
” I stepped back from him. “You don’t fucking own me.
I get to choose my future, and if it’s not with you, then so be it.
Now get the hell outta here and let me work.
” What he didn’t get was that, if it meant Wald would live, I was more than willing to take almost any risk.
I had lost all the people who mattered. First my mom, then my aunt, and then, though I didn’t want to admit it, Gentry.
I’d literally raised Wald from the dead, and I was invested in making sure that life continued.
If I could break the curse, it would be something I’d done by choice that mattered.
He gripped my shoulders, so I had to look at him. “No. I do not agree. If you do this, we are over. I told you before this is not your problem. I am not yours to fix. If you do this, we’re done. Do not cross this line.” His voice dropped to a whisper, gutting me.
I knew in my soul that I could find him again, or he’d find me, but he needed to be alive and well, and I’d already lost him once.
I’m not a fatalist, but maybe I’d just become one.
What we had lit on fire was worth fighting for.
He was wrong. I didn’t want to fix him. I wanted him alive.
I pushed him back. “Please, don’t make this harder than it already is.
You have to trust me.” Tears started dripping down my cheeks.
In my head, like I trust you, silently echoed.
His eyes narrowed, and he grimaced. “It’s not about trust.” I wanted to kiss him again and fix it. But before I cracked, he turned his back on me and walked out. He stomped away, ripping my heart out with every fading thump. I had to hold hope this would work out. It was up to me.
I sucked in a breath. “Okay, ready.” I turned around and faced Britannia. Her arms were crossed. She didn’t move for a second, studying me, then she shrugged, went to the door, and locked it. As she passed me on the way to the bed, she dangled the bracelet like a fish lure.
“This didn’t exist in the past, so you have to hold on to it, then give it to me.” She nodded at the bracelet.
“Will you be able to see me?” I reached out for the bracelet, the beads instantly warming in my palm.
“What? Do you think I’ve done this before?” She cocked her head and gave me her signature tight-lipped smile-sneer. “But remember you only have nine seconds.”
Great, we had one chance not to screw this up and no manual, and my partner in potential success held me in the highest contempt. It sounded far too much like my life, which meant everything could go wrong.
I turned away from Britannia and focused on the card spreads on the bed. They lay like a promise of something beyond my understanding. To do this, I had to let go of expectations and focus on what was right before me. I was ready as I was ever going to be.
I twisted the ring. The metal heated, and the stone faintly glowed.
Then the lights went out, plunging us into total darkness.
“Britannia?” I called.
There was no answer. Did the timer start now? I had no idea. I should have asked if the room was pitch black when Wald killed his sister. Funny, seeing in the dark hadn’t occurred to me. The ring was still on my finger, but it wasn’t glowing. Did that mean the clock was already ticking?
Holding my hands out in front of me, I stumbled in the general direction of the door, but tripped on the carpet and smacked into the wall.
My heart raced as I edged along it, looking for the door.
Adrenaline ripped through me as my fingers met the cold metal of the door handle.
I wrapped the bracelet over the metal knob.
As it left my wrist, the handle twisted. Blood rushed to my ears.
Wald was already here.
I wedged my foot in front of the door and prayed to gods I didn’t believe in. Then the lights went on, blinding me for a precious second.
Two girls were on the bed. One looked like the poster on the wall: Caledonia.
“Holy crap, it worked!” I whooped.
“What worked? Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in here?” Britannia asked, picking up a lamp and walking toward me threateningly.
Britannia stared at me like I was a Grigores. Her pink satin tracksuit shimmered like lip gloss.
Pink.
I looked down at the ring she was staring at. Mother of hell, I’d forgotten about time. Hang on, this wasn’t right. The time should be fixed now. I glanced at the beaded bracelet on my wrist then at the door. Crap. I raced to the door handle, tugging the bracelet off, but the door swung open.
Wald towered in full, otherworldly form.
His eyes weren’t yellow, they were amber-brown and blazing from thick lashes.
He brandished a wickedly sharp knife about as long as my forearm that would make the ancient Vikings proud.
The hilt had serpents entwining on it. That was no knife. It was a short sword.
I stumbled back in a combination of awe and fear, then thought better of it. This was the only chance. I lunged at Wald, pushing him into the hall. He growled a predatory warning as my hand connected with his chest.
His sword slid into my skin, piercing my side. Shock was followed by burning pain as the hall went dark .
Pain that transcended description burned my world as something hard slid out of me, and a gush from my side turned my fingers slick.
Blood.
I was bleeding. Maybe fucking dying. This wasn’t part of the plan. One, two, three, I counted, but it was nine seconds before the lights went on again. The mind-numbing searing pain and my scream as I crumpled into a pool of blood were the last things I remembered.