Page 56 of Wanderer

“Hmm?”

“I’m still here!”

“What?” He struggled into a seated position and reached for his phone. He peeled his eyes open, still looking cute and sleepy, his hair and clothes all rumpled. He bolted upright at the display. “The curse!”

“Check me!” I held my hands out to him. He grasped them, and I felt the tickling sensation of his magic over my skin and deep inside where our bond lay. “Huh!”

“What is it?”

“My magic isn’t being blocked by you at all.” He scanned me. “Remember that cut you got yesterday?”

“Yeah…” It was barely anything. I’d cut myself cooking. With my healing, it would be gone in another day.

“Watch.” I felt the magic wash over the cut on my palm and erase it. I shook as panic took hold.

“Woah, don’t worry,” Gareth said soothingly, rubbing my hand with his. “I still can’t hurt you.” He held fire in his free hand and tried to give it to me, a barrier keeping it in place.

“Sorry!” I felt guilty about my reaction, which was ridiculous, I knew that.

Gareth wrapped his arms around me, resting his head on mine. “Don’t be. It’s going to take you a long time to unlearn those natural reactions to magic. Maybe once Boyce is done, we should do some therapy or something.”

“That’s a good idea. I don’t want to flinch away every time you try to do an innocent spell on me. Being able to heal me is amazing, though.” Neither of us said a word about the nightmares.

We stood together, Gareth holding me tightly as he confirmed what I suspected. “Riley, we did it. The curse is completely gone.”

“It is?” I wanted to break down and cry. Hope was so beautiful it hurt.

“You’re free.”

Rather than head out with Gareth to go get Boyce, I crawled back into bed with him. I took off my boots and pants and just… lay there with him. For once, I got to stay with someone I cared about. There was no time limit.

“It doesn’t feel real,” I admitted quietly.

Gareth’s arms tightened around me. “How about later on we take a drive up to the barrier and show you?”

I backed up, pressing closer to him. “Yeah. I just want to enjoy this right now. Even if it is a dream, it’s the best one I’ve ever had.”

We must have gone back to sleep, because my eyes pinged open when someone rang the doorbell.

“I’ll get it,” Gareth muttered sleepily as he unwound himself from me and left the bedroom. His hair was sticking up, and his clothes were all sleep rumpled.

Picking up my discarded pants, I put them on and followed him out to the entrance. There, Tatsuya was standing with a woman I’d never met before. She bore a striking resemblance to him. The sister, I presumed.

Then my attention was stolen by Hestia. She was in our house. I’d never seen the goddess outside City Hall, aside from at the festival. Sometimes I’d wondered if she lived there. Being dedicated to your town was impressive, but it couldn’t become your entire life.

“Ah, Riley. Congratulations on being curse free!” she said with enthusiasm when she caught sight of me.

“Um, thank you. How did you know about the curse? Is that why you’re here?” I asked.

Hestia looked troubled for a brief moment, before the expression quickly settled into her usual calm demeanor. “Well, it’s clear that you and Gareth are now bonded. I can see the gold strings of fate wrapped tightly around you both.”

“So you knew that our bonding would rid Riley of the curse?” Gareth cut in. I could feel his anger. He wrapped an arm around my waist, keeping me close to him.

She had the audacity to look sheepish. “I did, but I wasn’t allowed to tell you. The bond had to be chosen because it was what you both wanted. Not because it automatically breaks all other magic.”

Gareth frowned, yet remained silent. As answers went, it pretty much shot down any arguments we had. Both of us knew Hestia had to play by rules we couldn’t understand.

“That wasn’t the reason we came here today. Even without seeing the bonding, we all knew that the curse was broken,” Hestia said.