“Why’d you want to break it, dear? You newlyweds love to stick together, anyway. Now, if it were the opposite—if you couldn’t get close to each other, I imagine that would present quite a challenge …”
“Gran,” Shanna said softly.
“Although kids these days, you’re creative—I’m sure you’d find a way to do the hanky—”
“Gran!” Shanna shot up. “We’re not …” She colored to the tips of her ears as she glanced at Simon and back at her grandma. “Simon doesn’t remember me.”
Simon had expected Dolores to be as confused as he was regarding the memory issue, but after a moment of silence, she widened her eyes and said, “Ohh. I see.”
Shanna sat back down, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear and avoiding Simon’s gaze.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Dolores said. “I didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”
“Perhaps the years his soul was inside the locket did it. His ghost form, whether contained or not, might not have counted as contact.”
“Wait.” Simon reached out a hand. “What do you mean, happen so quickly? What didn’t count?” He looked from one to the other.
“You didn’t tell him?” Dolores said.
“Why would I? He’s got plenty of problems already. This one wasn’t particularly relevant.”
“Didn’t tell me what?” Simon tried again.
“About the curse,” Dolores said.
“No, she told me—about how she causes accidents all around her.”
“Psssh.” Dolores blew a raspberry. “That one’s nonsense, and you know it.” She directed a pointed look at Shanna. “It’s only happening because you keep believing it will happen.”
“Gran—”
“Besides, that’s not the curse I’m talking about.” Dolores turned her attention back to Simon. “I mean the forgetting curse.”
Simon tilted his head, looking at Shanna. “You’re cursed with … forgettability?”
“Our entire bloodline is,” Dolores said.
“He doesn’t need to know,” Shanna murmured, wringing her hands in her lap.
He was curious, but with Shanna’s growing discomfort with the situation, Simon decided to get them back on track. “Uh, Dolores.” He shot her his best presenter’s smile. “I’m sure we can discuss all that later. How about we focus on the bond for now? Can it be removed?”
Dolores inspected Shanna’s wrist. “A rope design, huh? Could be Hel’s bond.”
“Hell?” What in the world has he been dragged into?
“Hel,” Dolores pronounced more clearly. “As in the goddess of the dead. The bond is not as severe as that, though—it connects two people so they can’t get far away from each other. Legend has it Orpheus put the same bond on Eurydice when he tried to bring her out of the underworld.”
Oh, her.Simon had heard of Hel in a documentary he’d watched about Iceland. “Then why is it named after a Nordic goddess?”
“To mess with people like you.” Even though Dolores’s tone was sharp, her eyes glinted with mischief. “It can be created on a pair that was once connected romantically, if one of the pair dies or comes close to death. The bond appears as a side effect of tampering with said death.”
“That makes sense,” Shanna said.
“How do we break it?” Simon asked.
“Sweet Caitriona, you really are impatient, aren’t you? I’ll have to dig through some books.”
“I have this, if it would help. It’s where I got the first resurrection ritual from.” Shanna brought a book out of her bag—purple cover, with nothing but a golden rhombus on it.
