Chapter 10
There. I said it. Now there’s nothing left to do but see how she responds.
Calvin waited, the anticipation like a physical itch under his skin.
He didn’t think that Diana would be too weirded out by any of this – this curse business. She’d taken everything well so far – remarkably well, really. He could never in a million years have expected things to go as smoothly as they had.
Maybe the mate bond, the connection that even she, being human, could sense between them, had helped smooth the way.
But a curse? It was kind of silly. Calvin himself still wasn’t quite sure he could believe that he might be under a curse, and he was someone who dealt with the extraordinary on a daily basis… so he wouldn’t blame Diana if this was too much for her to take in.
Diana held a finger up to her lips, her expression thoughtful, as she clearly mulled his statement over.
Then, she looked up at him, eyes bright.
“Are you cursed to not be able to ride in my car?” she said with a mischievous smile. “It’s like you have some kind of physical aversion to it. I know it’s a bit old and decrepit, but it’s not that bad.”
Calvin relaxed a little. If she could joke about it, then at least she didn’t think he was crazy. Probably.
“You kid, but you’re closer to the truth than you realize.”
Diana’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Calvin sighed.
“Okay. So, it’s a long story – and I’m not sure I even believe it myself,” he started.
“Give me the short version,” Diana said, all practicality. Calvin could see that she was someone who got things done.
“Okay. So, yesterday, I was hiking a little farther down the mountain, and I decided to cool off by sitting down and putting my feet in a pond.”
He looked up to check how Diana was reacting. So far, so good – her expression was curious, and she seemed to be taking him seriously. That being said, he hadn’t gotten to the weird bit yet.
Encouraged, he went on, “Next thing I know, this glowing woman with silver hair appears out of nowhere, says that I’ve violated the sanctity of her waters, and tells me that I have to pay tribute to her and solve a riddle, otherwise I’ll be cursed.”
Diana gave him a long, thoughtful look. “And is this kind of thing normal in your world?”
“Not at all,” Calvin said. “I thought curses were a myth. But ever since then, everything electrical I’ve touched, I’ve broken.”
Diana’s eyes widened as realization dawned across her face. “My A/C.”
Calvin nodded, counting off on his fingers. “Your A/C, my car, my Fitbit, my phone, your fan…”
“The lights at the diner…” Diana said.
Calvin winced. “Yeah, I’ve still got to find a way to pay for that.”
Diana looked like she wanted to protest, but also like she understood where he was coming from. Calvin was pretty sure that if she were in the same situation, she’d want to pay for the repairs as well.
Calvin studied Diana’s face closely. She didn’t seem like she thought he was crazy, or that she felt all of this was simply a bridge too far for her to accept.
But he really couldn’t blame her if, despite everything, she had to take a moment to consider whether she wanted to be with a man who broke everything he touched.
“Is this a dealbreaker?” he asked, trying to sound light-hearted. “I would understand if it was. Either in terms of me being a guy who thinks he was cursed by a glowing silver lady, or in terms of me being a guy who may never be able to touch an electrical appliance ever again.”
“Hmmmm.” Diana drew the word out longer than was probably strictly necessary… then wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
I guess that answers that, he thought, dazed, as his wyvern did an undignified little twirl.
Pulling back, Diana looked up at him with her beautiful dark eyes. She smiled.
“I think I can somehow find it within myself to move past this. But we definitely need to get this curse lifted – I can’t be in a relationship with someone who’s literally allergic to doing the laundry!”
We will handwash her clothes with the most delicate of soaps, and scrub her floor with the most effective of brushes if need be! the wyvern bellowed. There is no task that we will not find a solution for. She will never have to lift a finger again.
While Calvin would be happy to do so if that was what was necessary, he really hoped that it wouldn’t come down to that. He didn’t want to spend all his time doing housework the old-fashioned way, when he could be enjoying time with Diana and Ash instead.
He looked down at Diana – at her gorgeous smile, her kind eyes.
She knew what he was, and she accepted it.
For the first time since he’d gotten here, he felt like he could finally relax. Though, he supposed, he wouldn’t be truly relaxed until the mystery of the curse was solved.
“I’m amazed that you’re able to just go along with this whole curse thing,” he said. “I’m still struggling with it a bit myself.”
Diana shook her head. “If I hadn’t seen evidence of it firsthand, and if you hadn’t been so careful about making sure you didn’t touch my car – which I really appreciate, by the way – it might be different.
But it’s the most logical solution at this point in time, given what I now know about people having magical powers. ”
“Thank you,” Calvin said. “For believing me. I know it must be difficult.”
“Not as difficult as you might think,” Diana said. Then, she arched an eyebrow. “Is that it, now? Really, truly it? No other secrets?”
Calvin held up his hands. “No more secrets! I swear!”
“Good.” Diana rubbed at her face for a moment, before squaring her shoulders. “Okay. Next item on the agenda: breaking this curse.”
Our mate does not hesitate to run headlong into battle! the wyvern said approvingly.
“You said something about a riddle?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“I hate riddles,” Diana muttered.
Calvin nodded in agreement. “There’s a reason why I went into construction, rather than linguistics.”
And the wyvern is no help whatsoever, he mentally added. Not that it would ever admit that.
Such petty things are beneath a being of my immense cognitive stature, it sneered. I am too cerebral a creature to trouble myself with childish puzzles.
Calvin rolled his eyes internally. I guess that’s one way of saying ‘I have no idea.’
He dug around in his pocket for the scrap of paper that he’d jotted the riddle down on the previous day. Pulling it out, he read:
“I am mother and father, but never birth or nurse. I have a bark, but no bite. I'm rarely still, but I never wander. What am I?”
“Uggggghhhhhh.” The sound seemed to have been ripped from the very depths of Diana’s soul. “Did I mention that I hate riddles? Because I hate riddles.”
She sighed, obviously trying to force a positive attitude through sheer force of will. “What was that again? I’m a parent, but not a nurse?”
“Never birth or nurse,” Calvin said, scratching his head. “I’m completely stumped.”
Diana blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes in frustration.
“Do you want to go back to my place and try to work this out? I never thought I’d say this after that breakfast we ate, but I’m starting to get hungry, and the last thing we need is to find ourselves out in the middle of nowhere at midnight, half-starved and still unable to work out this freaking riddle. ”
“Good thinking,” Calvin said. He had a bottle of water and some trail mix with him, but it wasn’t going to be enough to last them for a long time. And maybe a change of scenery would help them get a new perspective on the riddle.
Suddenly, an idea came to him. “Or… we could go see Kieran.”
“Kieran?” Diana said, tilting her head in curiosity. “He seems to have made quite the impression on you. I don’t know if he’s the riddle-solving type, though.”
Whoops, thought Calvin. I’ll have to be a bit more careful with what I say.
As much as he was happy to share all of his own secrets with Diana, he didn’t want to go around revealing Kieran’s shifter status if it was something that he wanted kept private. It would be easy to accidentally give it away if he went into too much detail about their conversation.
“I had a chat with him about the curse last night when I got to the B&B,” he said carefully.
Diana looked surprised. “You talked to a stranger about getting cursed by a strange woman in the woods?”
“It just kind of slipped out,” Calvin admitted. “But it turned out that Kieran actually knows about these things. When I told him about what had happened by the pond, he said I’d seen a sprite.”
“A sprite?” Diana said. “I… don’t actually know what that is. Besides the soda, I mean, but I don’t think you’re talking about that.”
“Not the soda,” Calvin confirmed. “Sprites are… mythical beings, I guess – kind of like a water fairy. I didn’t know they still existed. This one was not pleased to see me, but Kieran said he knows another sprite nearby that is a lot less confrontational.”
“No wonder you wanted to know how well I knew Kieran,” Diana said thoughtfully. “I can safely say that I did not know that he was friends with water fairies.”
“I was thinking maybe we should go and see Kieran first,” Calvin said. “He said last night that he was going to try following up with his friendly sprite for me, so I was planning on talking to him again anyway.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” Diana nodded. “I think we’re actually pretty close to the B&B. Do you want me to text him and check if he’s around? Since, uh, well, you know. Your phone is a victim of this curse.”
“That’d be great.” Calvin paused as a thought suddenly struck him. “Uh, I mentioned to him last night that I’d found my mate, but I didn’t say who it was. He might work it out if we come in together. Are you okay with that?”
Diana thought it over for a moment, then nodded. “That’s fine by me. So Kieran knows what shifters are as well, does he? He knows much more about these things than I ever would’ve guessed.”