Page 75 of Curses and Cauldrons

“Yeah, because you're bossy.” I can just see the corners of Josephine’s mouth tip up from the position we’re in.

“I am, but there was more to it than that. I was drawn to you. Then we touched and everything in my life changed. For the first time in a long time, I had hope. That tomorrow might be better than today. That I could find happiness when all I had for so long was isolation.”

Josephine lifts her head, her eyes vulnerable. She hesitates, biting on her bottom lip before she pulls in a deep breath. “This thing between us, if tomorrow we woke up and you couldn’t feel me and your touch hurt, would that be it?”

I cradle her face, letting my thumb drift over her cheek. My heart swells and aches in my chest. “I don’t know what twist of fate brought us together, but I’m so fucking grateful I get to see the real you. That you’ve opened yourself up to me and I get to be part of your life. It didn’t take long before the physical part, the need to feel your skin against mine, wasn’t the most important thing. When I’m not with you, I want to be next to you. To hear your laughter and see the passion you have for your friends and your sister. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know. I’m lost for you, even if I never get to touch you again.”

Josephine presses a kiss to my mouth, her lips wet with a tear.

The thundering sound of footsteps running down the stairs has us breaking apart. Bram bursts into the living room. Hisalready disheveled hair is further messed up as he yanks on his sweatshirt.

“My house is on fire,” Bram barks out, darkness swimming in his eyes.

Josephine and I jump up off the couch. Penelope sits up from her spot near the now-dead fire, bleary-eyed and confused.

The commotion draws the others from their rooms. By the time they reach the living room, Bram is nearly out the door.

“You can’t go alone,” I shout after him, grabbing my shoes and hopping to pull them on while standing.

“Then hurry the fuck up.” The door is open, and cold air is pouring in.

Bram snatches Ambrose’s keys from last night off a table by the door. “I’m taking your car.”

“Whatever you need.” Ambrose only has a pair of sleep pants on. He grabs a fuzzy throw blanket off a chair in the entryway and tosses it over his shoulders. “Call when you figure out what’s going on.”

I nod, swinging on my coat as I chase after my brother.

39

ROMAN

Plumes of smoke darken the sky well before we reach Bram’s place. Like me, he lives in one of the villas on the Grand Mystic Resort. While I consider my place somewhere to keep my clothes and sleep, it’s not a home. I’ve never changed the wall color to suit my own tastes, and I don’t have a ton of personal stuff there.

Bram’s house is different. It’s a haven for him. Not only has he turned it into a place where he can escape the world, but anything of his mother’s that he still has is in that house.

“Fuck.” Bram slams on the gas, and the huge SUV fishtails in the still-snowy streets of Mystic Hollows.

We pass the main lodge and speed down the one-lane road to the villas. The flashing lights of fire trucks and emergency vehicles break through the pristine white of the snowy woods.

After speeding through town, it’s like seeing his burning house breaks my brother. Bram pulls the SUV to a stop, slowly shifting the gear lever into park. He leans forward and stares out the window, watching his home disappear in flames. His magicis so volatile that I feel the darkness seething under his skin. His curse is pulling him under.

The flames reflect in his eyes. Even from inside the car, I feel the heat from the fire. Bram grips the steering wheel and then gets out of the car. I follow behind him, feeling helpless. Even with my ability to use fire magic, I can’t snuff out something this big.

We stay clear of the firefighters, but the mists from their spray float to us on the air.

“Do you feel that?” Bram scans the scene, his head moving slowly from side to side.

“Feel what?” Right now, the odd combination of the fire, mists from the hoses, and cold from the night air overwhelm my senses. As if the Triad are testing us, snow begins falling, just to add one more thing to overstimulate our senses.

“There’s magic,” he murmurs, glaring at the fire.

I focus, searching for any magic, and get a lingering tang in the air. “Someone did this on purpose.”

Bram doesn’t reply. We both face forward and watch his house burn down.

The firefighters work to douse the flames, but the fire is fighting back. We’ve been pushed farther away from the house, and Bram is shivering in just a sweatshirt.

“I’m going to get another coat from my place,” I inform my brother after he refuses to sit in the car. He’s going to stand out here all night until the place is nothing more than ashes. “I’ll be back in five minutes.” I throw my jacket at him and take off down the road to grab another for myself.

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