Page 8 of Castings & Curses

“I suppose that one belongs to you then.”

The Verenimijä shook her head. “No, yes… it’s not mine.” When Jan only snorted, Hanne got up. “I need to…”

“Stay!” Jan’s hand shot forwards to grab her wrist. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Lucille sighed. “Jan’s right. We can’t let you go until we’ve figured out what’s going on here.” As nice as Hanne seemed, the severed head spoke a different language. “Heads don’t just turn up, and if Mikaela doesn’t know anything about this, I want to know why you’re dragging that poor girl across Europe.” Unless Mikaela was involved, she was at risk of losing her head next.

Hanne whimpered, but she sat back down. “I’ve loved her for so long.” With a heavy sigh, she continued, “Mikaela is the reincarnation of the love of my life, Aleksi.”

“I am what?”

Lucille closed her eyes, letting the moment pass. Of course, Fabian and Mikaela would choose to return this very minute with their drinks. Though on a second look, neither of them had a cup in their hands.

She met Fabian’s eyes, and he raised his shoulders in a desperate manner, clearly out of his depth. Lucille sighed, then nodded at Hanne. “We’ll give you some space.”

“Why would we—” Jan complained when she dragged him off the bench. As soon as they were out of earshot, he hissed, “Are we just letting her get away with that?”

“Does she look like she’s on the run?” Lucille asked, clicking her tongue.

Jan snorted. “Uh, duh, she just told us that she’s on the run.”

Lucille rolled her eyes. “But not from us. Yet.” While Hanne and Mikaela had a heated argument in Finnish, she filled in Fabian. “I personally don’t think she’s dangerous. Unless you count her potential obsession with Mikaela. Do you believe it’s real love?”

“Mikaela loves her,” Fabian admitted. “She was planning to propose.”

“Not anymore,” Jan said, a little too gleefully.

Sure enough, Mikaela stormed off. Hanne stared after her, but seemingly decided to give her space and returned to the group instead. Tears stood in her eyes. “That didn’t go very well. Understandably, she’s freaking out.”

Lucille couldn’t hold it against Mikaela. All of them had freaked when Matt’s demon heritage had come to light. And he’d done worse than drink a little bit of blood. Though severing a head came close.

The reminder of Matt and what they’d all gone through with him inspired Lucille to offer Hanne some grace. “You should have told her the truth from the beginning. Is she really your lost love’s reincarnation?” That would put Hanne at more than five hundred years of age, the standard life cycle of a soul.

The Verenimijä nodded. “I waited half a millennium for her.” A forlorn smile appeared on her face. “She’s so much like him.”

“Woah, I thought we were the only ones reincarnated!” Jan exclaimed.

Lucille almost groaned, but fortunately, Fabian saved her from having to correct Jan. “I don’t think we’re that special.” If Lucille knew anything about Fabian, he was still grappling with the fact that they’d all been reborn to fulfil some big prophecy. Even though the prophecy had come to pass and they still lived.

“All souls are being reborn every five hundred years,” she explained for Jan’s benefit, then addressed Hanne again. “It’s a long time to wait. You must’ve loved her… or him a lot.”

“Knowing that he’d be reborn one day was the only glimmer of hope on my horizon.” The fervour that had taken her for a moment quickly ebbed away again. “But that’s too heavy a burden for her to bear.” She looked up at Jan. “I’ll empty my room at the hostel.”

Jan cleared his throat. “That’s nice, but we can’t let you go. Sorry.”

“The head,” Hanne mused. “It was a message from the community for me. I freaked, so I threw it out the window. What it really means is, though, that I should leave Greenvalley immediately.”

“What about Mikaela?” Fabian asked.

“I don’t think she wants anything to do with me after this.” Hanne’s voice grew firmer. “I promise, you won’t find any more heads.” She nodded sharply at them, then turned and walked away.

Jan stormed after her but realised quickly that Lucille and Fabian weren’t following him. “Uhm, guys. Are we just going to let her go?”

“Of course not.” Lucille hugged herself, torn between her duty as one of the town’s magic users and the compassion she felt for Hanne, who’d waited all this time only to have her love slip through her fingers. “We can’t exactly assault her in front of everybody. Any idea what we should do?”

To her surprise, Fabian spoke up. He usually only wanted to stay as far away from monsters as he could. “She’s a vampire who drinks animal blood. That’s not too bad, is it? I believe her.” When both Jan and Lucille stared at him, he elaborated, “She and Mikaela have been together for four years. They’re so much in love that Mikaela wanted to propose. That’s at least four years in which Hanne didn’t rip off her head.”

“But others lost their head,” Jan said, unimpressed.

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