We rented a room at another bed-and-breakfast. I think the guys liked their non-digitized check-in systems, but I worried that if anyone found us, the somewhat nosy proprietors might interfere and get hurt more than the minimum-wage employees at a chain hotel.
There was a coffeemaker on the bureau, so Embry made me some tea. I took a sip, feeling a chill despite being all bundled up on one of the double beds. My head was killing me, but I tried not to show it, keenly aware of their eyes on me.
“I’m sorry I reacted like that. I’ve seen worse,” I tried to figure out why it hit me so hard, but I knew. Kiara not only gave up the fight and took her own life, she took her unborn child’s.
“Seeing things isn’t the same as living through them,” Gabriel assured me.
“I was Kiara, obviously, and she knew people were after her. She went to a witch who gave her both Kiara’s Cure, and Kiara’s Curse. The witch, Nell, she wasn’t happy about it, but she cursed her. She said there would be unexpected consequences, but Kiara was prepared for that.”
They gave me a moment to compose myself and keep going, but when I didn’t, Embry asked, “What did the curse do?”
“I’m not sure, but she called it a sacrifice. The room filled with smoke and it shot into me. I thought it killed me, but it didn’t.”
“But you did die, right?” Gabriel had the same look in his eyes from when I woke up in his arms.
“Not exactly. I could feel them coming, like Ingrid felt Donovan. They were so powerful and there were so many of them. She didn’t have Gifteds protecting her, so when they got close enough,” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before continuing, “she put the dagger through her own heart.”
Gabriel put his hand on mine like he didn’t really know what to say, but he could see there was more. They also knew that calling it her heart might be accurate, but I was still inside her when she did it.
“Your dagger?” Embry asked the least invasive of all the questions he must have.
“I don’t think so,” I shook my head. I was more concentrated on what was going on inside. “I know it’s a long stretch, but I could bring us to the witch’s place tomorrow in case there’s anything.” I didn’t expect Nell to still be living there, but magic seemed to be something passed down through generations, so her grimoire might be there somewhere. Otherwise I might get another memory, preferably of when Kiara asked for it, so I could know what the smoke did that was so terrible, compared to killing two birds with one dagger.
“First thing in the morning,” Embry said, but they were both looking at me like I might break at any moment.
“I… she was pregnant,” I admitted, wiping the warm tears that fell as I did. I didn’t mean to be this affected, but I couldn’t help it. I kept thinking of Cassie, who lost so many babies, and how broken Kiara was when she did it. “She said it was a boy, but I don’t know how she would know…”
Gabriel gave my hand a squeeze and looked at me like he wanted to wrap me in his arms and take the pain away, but he couldn’t. Embry let in a sharp breath and couldn’t meet my eyes. I knew he was thinking of his son, Jackson, that they never thought they’d be able to have, who died before having a family of his own, like all the sons in my family.
“That was the consequence, wasn’t it?” I asked, but it was mostly rhetorical. Kiara killed her son, so her descendants were cursed to endure heartache after heartache, as a reminder.
“You said she didn’t have a choice,” Gabriel emphasized the ‘she’ to remind me that although I was holding the knife and did it, I was just reliving a memory of something someone else did roughly five centuries ago.
“I don’t know. She didn’t think she did, but I don’t know if she even tried running or fighting or if she just…”
“Gave up,” Gabriel finished for me. I made the mistake of looking into his dark eyes, which were so intense that I nearly got lost in them. “You said it yourself that she didn’t have us,” he reminded me. “I will not let that happen to you. We will fight, we will run, and I will keep you safe.”
“What if you can’t?” I asked quietly, wanting so badly to believe him.
“That isn’t an option,” he said simply, but looking into those eyes, I believed him.
“Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll start again in the morning?” Embry suggested, coming over to take the empty mug from me. He pulled down the bedsheets so I could climb in, then placed them back on top of me, along with the blankets I’d been bundled up in since we arrived.
He put his hand on mine and gave me an apologetic smile, but a calm washed over me. I knew exactly what he was doing, but for once I didn’t mind. The headache disappeared, and I got so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It was scary how quickly his Gift sent me into dreamland, but I prayed I wouldn’t have any.