The shivers subsided, but nothing else followed.
“Shanna?” Simon said.
“It hasn’t worked.”
“I forgive you,” Everett said. “I swear.” He looked at Simon. “I did want you to be happy.”
She believed him. It just hadn’t worked. Maybe she’d been wrong, and the Witch’s Heart wasn’t a person. Or maybe she was unfixable. A lost cause.
She hitched a breath, somewhere between a gasp and a wail, and ran out of the room. The light scratching on the floor behind let her know Jinx was following; she thought she passed Stan, but she wasn’t sure. She only ran—out of the hallway, out of the building, past the parking lot, where she stopped by a fountain on the edge of the park. She sat down on the raspy, cold rock edge, and finally breathed out.
Jinx cuddled up to her, and she absentmindedly petted him as she tried to calm her heart. A few days ago, she hadn’t even considered the curse could ever be broken; now, her lungs felt heavy with a loss that should never even be a factor in her life. She knew how to handle her curse. She knew herfriendships were short-termed and her romantic relationships nearly nonexistent. It’s all been relatively easy, even.
Until Simon.
They would never be free. It took so little for a mind to forget.For every ache you wished away, the memory will lose a day.
Cars drove past in the distance. The wind caught between the treetops. The smell of something deliciously fried wafted by for a few moments. Shanna waited, half-expecting to get dissolved into the night.
Soft steps rustled the grass behind. Simon sat next to her on the fountain’s edge.
“Everett has turned himself in and is being taken into custody,” he said quietly. “He’ll confess everything. Aries is free of him.” He closed his eyes and exhaled. “It’s mine again.”
Shanna swallowed, wringing the fabric of her skirt in her fingers. “And the curse stays.”
“I don’t care.”
She let out a short, sad snicker. Maybe there was more Business Simon left in there than Everett thought.
“I don’t care,” he repeated, laying his hand on hers, “because in the end, the curse doesn’t matter.”
“You barely remembered me.”
“But I remembered. Shanna…” He turned his face toward him. “I would’ve given Aries to Everett in a heartbeat. He can take my company, he can take my house, hell, he can pin all the scandals of the world on me, if he wants to.” He knitted his eyebrows. “If giving up everything in my life was the only way out, I would’ve done it. Well, there’s one thing, one person, I wouldn’t have given up. Because I know how much she cares about me.”
She sniffled. “You know it will never work.”
“When will you stop telling yourself that?” He kneeled in front of her. “So, you’re still cursed. Who cares. We’ll work around it. Do you think I got to where I am by being lazy? No, we’ll findways. We’ll figure it out. And in case one day I wake up and you’re not there, and my mind starts to slip ever so slightly …”
He pulled out his phone and laid it down on the fountain’s edge. “Leona, my daily reminders.”
“Here are your reminders for today, Simon,” the smooth, even voice of his digital assistant replied. “Number one. Shanna.”
A recording of Simon’s voice took over. “Shanna is my wife. I’d say I’ll never forget the first time we met, but I did, so instead, I’ll remember this. I love the way the early morning sun brings out the gold threads in her hair. I love the trickle of her laughter. I love all the different versions of it, and that I can tell exactly how happy she is from each of them. I love that she’ll go to a stranger and chat them up like an old friend. I love that she treats everyone with the kindness of a fairytale princess. I love that no matter how hard she has it, she never gives up. I love …”
Simon paused the recording, took her hands, and looked into her eyes. “I love you.”
With a cry of relief, Shanna collapsed into him, pressing her forehead to his. “I love you, too.”
“Then stay with me, my beautiful, cursed witch.”
“It’ll be hard sometimes.”
“Not a fraction as hard as letting you go.” He led her hand to his heart. “I had the strangest time in the past few days. My mind slipped, but my heart kept trying to remember. I felt you. I never let you go. And I never will.”
She closed the few inches between them and kissed his lips, breathing him in. During spellwork, she’d always been taught to let bad energy go. So she let it go now. The curse could stay if it wanted to—what could it do against them, anyway? No curse could conquer the forces of nature.
And she’d show it what a force she and Simon were.
