Secrets are their own form of curse.

Chapter 28

McHenry couldn’t have heard her correctly. “What?”

Roderick shook his head vehemently. “She didn’t attack you.”

McHenry blinked at him. “The dozens of shards of metal that pierced my back tell me otherwise.”

“She didn’t do it consciously. The power is attached to emotion. We were arguing about you and Andrew at the time. Her emotions were tied to you both, and the power manifested. She doesn’t know she did it.”

“You were going to take the blame for it,” Darcinda said.

“Yes. She’s my daughter. I would do anything for her.”

McHenry understood that. He would do anything to protect his nephews. “So why didn’t you just confess and be done with it?”

“I was going to, but…”

“But what?” McHenry asked.

“But then Selina would be alone, without Roderick to absorb her powers,” Darcinda answered.

Damnation. What a mess.

“I never told her about the curse. My sister wasn’t affected by it, so I prayed Selina was safe.”

“What about Andrew and Jamie?” Darcinda asked.

“My sister and I don’t share the same father, so the boys are fine.” McHenry paced a few steps and then turned back to them. “What about the memory spell? If she doesn’t know what happened, who cast it?”

“I did. I felt the power surge the moment it happened. Selina collapsed, and when I grabbed her to keep her from hitting the ground, I knew something had happened to you. So I changed your memories so you wouldn’t connect what happened to Selina. When she woke up, I told her I had contacted you and you had forbidden Andrew to see her anymore. I thought it would be enough to convince her to stay away. But I underestimated the feelings my daughter has for your nephew.”

“But it still doesn’t explain things. What about the spell you cast in the shop? The memory spell and the attack were cast by the same person.”

Darcinda blew out a shaky breath. “Maybe not. The memory spell was a dark purple and the metal shards were surrounded by a lighter purple. I assumed it was one person, but Selina’s powers could be in the same color family as her father.”

“Hells. Is Andrew safe with her?”

“I absorbed her powers when she collapsed, and was preparing to add a secondary spell to be safe when Darcinda stepped in front of her in the courtyard.”

“And what happens if Selina holds JT?” McHenry asked.

Roderick’s eyes widened. “I don’t know.”

McHenry’s stomach twisted. “Roderick, do you think Selina’s magic caused the chain to attack you?”

“No.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

He hesitated.

“How could you not tell us the truth! You’ve put everyone at risk!”

Roderick frowned. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re not cursed.”

McHenry barked out a harsh laugh. “Not cursed?”

“Not that I can see.”

McHenry left them both standing in the courtyard. Not cursed? He marched across the meadow as far as he could before the barrier stopped him. He heard them follow behind him as he looked out at the meadow.

“What aren’t you telling us, McHenry?” Darcinda asked quietly.

He put his hands up and touched the field, holding them there while it sizzled and snapped and electricity surged up his arms.

She reached for him. “Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“Don’t touch me.” He held his hands against the heat until he dropped them and spun around to face them.

“This is my curse. This barrier surrounds my land at home. I haven’t been able to leave my home in over twenty-five years. My grandfather cared about land, so the curse gave it to him. When I turned twenty-two, I became its prisoner, like my father before me.”

Darcinda’s hand clapped over her mouth. The last thing he needed was her pity.

“Your whole grouchy hermit image is a sham. You can’t leave.”

“Damn, and here I thought you were living without the curse while I shouldered the burden,” Roderick said.

“I thought the same thing about you,” McHenry said.

Darcinda threw up her hands. “Because you two are stubborn idiots. You should have actually talked to each other.”

McHenry crossed his arms. “We were forbidden to tell anyone about the curse.”

“To people who don’t know about it, sure. But you both already know, so you weren’t breaking any rules if you discussed it…right?”

“Possibly,” Roderick said.

“How does this help us?” McHenry asked.

“Secrets just help the curse continue. I think we should go see what the journal has to say before it’s time to try the spell again.”

They headed back to the house, and McHenry picked up the journal, flipping the pages to new writing that had indeed appeared. “There’s even more now.”

I couldn’t wait to go back to the Faerie Kingdom. Roderick was surprised at my eagerness since I usually let him handle the customers. But it wasn’t the customers I wanted to see, it was her. The beauty in the stable.

I made my excuses as soon as possible and left Roderick with the stable master, walking quickly through the stables, but she wasn’t there. I had almost given up hope of seeing her until I heard the click of hooves over the cobblestones outside the stables. I walked to the rear of the building and sucked in a breath.

The beauty rode toward me. She rode like she had been born on a horse, and if I hadn’t fallen in love with her when I first met her, I was in love now. Her hair blew around her face and she laughed as she came to a stop by the door.

I grabbed the bridle and she flung her leg over the beast and slid down to the ground. She reached under the horse to loosen the straps to remove the saddle. I helped her with the saddle, and she led the horse over to a trough to drink while she wiped him down.

You’re back.

Yes. I had to know your name.

She smiled. It’s Anna.

McHenry looked up from the book. “I don’t see anything here that says he stole Anna from your grandfather.”

“One thing is bothering me,” Darcinda said.

“Just one thing?” McHenry said.

Darcinda grinned. “Point taken. I just don’t understand why Selina has inherited the curse. This is a love curse, and it was cast on two males. It’s counterintuitive for the spell to have attacked her.”

“How else do you explain it? I felt the energy surge through her. It felt just like the way I experienced it at her age.”

Darcinda shook her head. “I still don’t think it’s related to the original curse.”

Roderick took a step forward. “Original curse? Are you telling me that there’s another curse? Someone cursed my child?”

“I don’t know for sure. You said you recognized the power. Could it be that someone is channeling your power into Selina and, since she doesn’t know how to control it, it attacked McHenry and Andrew?”

“So you’re saying that my daughter is really suffering from my powers?”

“This is not your fault,” McHenry said. “It’s on the shoulders of whoever cast the spell.”

“I’ll destroy whoever did this to her,” Roderick growled.

Darcinda nodded. “To make that happen, we have to get out of here first. And I bet it’s close to the time to try the spell again.”

They headed out of the courtyard into the meadow, but couldn’t walk but a few steps before meeting the barrier again. They stood in a semicircle and nodded to each other. A few minutes later, the earth began to move and Darcinda recited the spell.

Heat bloomed from McHenry’s palm where he clutched the herb bag. He jarred sharply to the left when the earth moved. Then a flash of light sent them flying backward.

He watched Darcinda hit the earth, her fist slamming into the barrier and opening as a flash of sparks surrounded it. The herb bag she’d been holding flew against the barrier and incinerated in a flash of fire and smoke.