I scream to let her know what I see. An ocean. I’m in an ocean.
But it’s not a scream that comes out.
“Hi,” she says to me, casually as though we’re friends, while I’m in absolute torment. “School sucked.”
“Find me,” I chant over and over through chattering teeth.
And then life steals me.
I’m back in the ocean, dying all over again.
Julian appeared at her side.“This is—”
“Fallon,” I finished.
I never understood why it was her my soul was anchored to until this moment. Fallon was the moonchild in Mother’s journal. Her bloodline was the cause of my curse, and she was the same girl Mother set out to kill to break it. This was what had left me trapped in misery for over a hundred years.
From the corner of my eye, Julian gaze hit mine.
“My fiancé,” he claimed. “But I suppose the two of you have already met?”
“Once upon a time,” Fallon said quietly with tears in her eyes.
She walked closer and looked up at me nervously.
Almost as though she wanted to make sure I was real.
I couldn’t stand the burn in my chest, so I looked away.
Her fingers brushed my hand, and relief consumed her. A faint smile blossomed on her lips for a fraction of a second before I pulled away.
I took a step back. “Don’t touch me.”
Hurt consumed her features. “You’re mad at me?”
“I’m indifferent toward you,” I corrected her through a clenched jaw. “And honestly, I want nothing to do with you.”
“Hey,” Julian reached out a hand, stepping closer to her, protective.
“I thought you were already dead,” she explained, coming from around Julian. “I thought there was no hope because I couldn’t help you.”
“You’re the ghost that haunted Fallon,” Julian gathered.
“But you never died,” she concluded, confused.
“I did die,” I told her. “I’ve died again and again for over a hundred years.” I fell back a step. “You were too selfish, wrapped up in your own sorrow to hear what I was saying. And then you gave up on me.”
The five ofus sat around a fire behind Julian’s cabin.
We were only staying for a short while. Soon, we had to leave for Goody Estate, where Zephyr’s father had opened his doors to all of Norse Woods to keep one another safe through the night. There was a reason the Heathens brought me here. There was something they wanted to do before I met the rest of the coven.
I gazed into the embers, the fire heating my face as winter iced the nape of my neck. Across from me, Zephyr sat, and I watched him through the flames.
“Why does he still wear a mask?” I asked Julian to my right.
“He’s still cursed,” he said, steering his attention to Zephyr, who was hovering his palm over the flames. “And before you ask, no, we don’t know why, nor do we have time to figure it out at the moment. Our priority is getting rid of the Shadows.” Julian leaned back and drummed his fingers against his thigh. “Zephyr isn’t thrilled about it.”
“This explains him being an inconceivable shit-sack at times.”
