Page 18 of The Curse

I noticed that he was calling me by my ancestor’s name. I didn’t think he even realized it.

“Shit, yeah, I forgot about that,” I answered sarcastically. “I’ll meet the coven tomorrow. I promise. That was just too damned hard on me, man. I need to sleep away the rest of the day and night. I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Okay, rest well,” he answered. I felt like shit for lying to him, but I told myself it was necessary.

“Hey, should I get Spellman to come by your place and cast a protective spell on your cottage?” He asked. “Morgan hasn’t ventured into this territory since she ran off most of the coven, but you can never be too careful. Let me get him to drop by this afternoon. We won’t even disturb you.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. If they dropped by, Alastair would know I’d lied to him.

“Hmm, I don’t know, Stair. I don’t even know this Spellman guy. Let me meet him first, okay?” Yeah, I felt like a lying sack of shit that somebody just dug out of the kitty litter.

“All right, but no later than tomorrow. I don’t like leaving you unprotected. I’ll call him tonight and line it up for tomorrow. He’s a nice guy, but a total science nerd. All he does is write spells and mix potions. He never wants to leave his lab.”

I laughed, glad that he was going to drop it for today. “Sounds interesting. We’ll talk in the morning. Thanks for taking me today.”

“Yeah…” He stopped then and stared into my eyes. “You’re Nico, aren’t you?” he said intently. “The reincarnation spell was Corbin’s. He said he would bring you back to him.” Sadness covered his face. “We thought it was just his grief talking. It’s so wrong that you’re here, and he’s gone. It makes his story even more heartbreaking.”

“How well did you know Corbin?”

His eyes flashed. “I knew him well. He was our high witch. I admired him to the point I looked like a puppy dog following its master around. When I think back, it’s embarrassing, but there was nothing romantic between us if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Frowning, I asked, “How did you not recognize me as Nico right away? Morgan recognized me the minute she saw me.”

“I’d been away at the training academy when Corbin met Nico.” He smiled wickedly. “Nico was a Salem boy. Leave it to Corbin to throw caution to the wind and fall in love with a human from Salem. Every male witch in our coven and other surrounding covens were vying for Corbin’s attention, but he went and fell in love with Nico.” He looked at me oddly. “With you.”

“You say Salem boy like that was the dregs of society,” I teased.

“It was. Especially to the Marblehead coven. The thought of bedding down with a Salem boy should have made Corbin’s toes curl, and not in a good way. They were all religious nuts. Bigots in my opinion—not wanting to allow for any customs or religions other than their own. On top of the Salem shit, Nicodemus was a preacher’s son.” He laughed. “Yeah, preacher’s sons and witches usually aren’t compatible.”

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of Nicodemus’ father being an old fire and brimstone preacher. Gross. Just gross. Preachers were hard enough on homosexuality these days. I couldn’t imagine how much pressure Nicodemus faced hundreds of years ago. “Hell, I might not even be compatible with Nicodemus. I was ready to defend his Salem boy status, but I’m not sure about preacher’s son.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Of course, the children of preachers are usually the most out of control.”

Alastair snorted. “Yeah, that goes without saying in the case of Nicodemus. Not only was he—you—sleeping with a male high witch, but he’d obviously gotten a girl knocked up, too.” He shrugged when I frowned at him. “Your ancestors had to come from somewhere, dude. Sorry. Nicodemus was unfaithful to Corbin.”

That comment didn’t settle well with my heart. I frowned as something tugged at my memory, something that caused a wave of sadness to wash over me. Struggling to come up with a defense, I said, “Maybe his parents had other children after Nico died? Another son could be the answer to my ancestors.” No, that wasn’t right. Morgan had told me that Nicodemus had gotten a woman pregnant. Fuck, he had cheated on Corbin.

Ihad cheated on Corbin.

“Nope,” he answered with an exaggerated popping of his lips. “They’d had Nico late in life so were probably too old to conceive another child. Morgan, however, wasn’t willing to take any risks and had them killed shortly after Nico committed suicide.”

“She’s a real peach, isn’t she?” I commented dryly.

“Yeah, she’s a peach all right. She’s also the woman that’s coming for you. We’ve got to come up with something to protect you. Fast.”

That was exactly what I was about to do.

“Trust me, I know. We’ll start on it tomorrow. I promise.” Hell, no. I was starting on it as soon as Alastair left me. I had a feeling my only hope lay at the top of that cliff…where it had all started.

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