Page 45 of Cursed Love
Ethan took in the room around them. It was plain to her tastes, but she guessed for a man, it perfectly suited the needs of a bedroom.
She carried the book to the bed and patted the spot next to her. Ethan had always been her quiet brother. He was also her closest confidant and best friend of the batch. Bonding over a piece of their hidden history felt sacred.
She pulled out the folded paper from the front and shut the book. “This letter and the grimoire arrived a few days after my birthday.”
His hand shook as he reached out for the letter. When it touched his skin, his eyes widened with surprise. “It really is from Mom.” Ethan’s stunned eyes met hers. “She held me as she wrote it.”
“You saw it?”
Ethan nodded and unfolded the paper. She slipped her hand in his, needing the comfort as much as he did. They sat in silence while he read each word their mother wrote.
A few minutes later, he caressed the thin, now-folded paper and sighed. She remained silent as he raised his fingers to his face and wiped away a few loose tears. Their mother’s letter had affected him as strongly as it had her. He had never gotten to know the woman either.
“I always thought I was imagining it,” Ethan whispered sometime later. “As I got older and no one else spoke of weird things, I kept it to myself.”
“At least it was a gradual thing for you. It was entirely sudden for me and then the attacks began.”
“Yeah, but it made me feel so alone,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
Brandy recalled the fear and loneliness she had lived with before Ryan guided her through it all. She could not imagine what Ethan must have gone through all his years with no understanding of his powers. Her heart squeezed at the mere thought.
Chapter 17
Walking out onto the deck, Ryan focused his energy on the area around the cabin. Peter had run off to the northwest and would return with whatever information had caused him to bail.
Turning his back on the forest, Ryan muttered the incantation to the ward on the cabin. It was one of many he was using. This one would make the cabin look like any other area of the forest. It also ensured no curious hikers would explore it.
Leaving Brandy and Ethan behind, he jogged out one hundred yards. He used a revealing charm to verify the ward had not been tampered with. Relief flooded him when there was no damage to the shimmering sheet of magic. Satisfied with what he found, he hid it and moved on to the next ward.
He did this four more times. Each ward was at a different distance from the cabin. Approaching the farthest ward, he spotted droplets of blood on the disturbed leaves. The next charm confirmed someone had been out there. Lucky for them, the person had not known what they’d stumbled across.
The defensive spell he set in place in case of tampering would have electrocuted the person. The shocks would have knocked them out. The spell was meant for a supernatural person, as a human would not have neared the area without being influenced.
After thinking of a variety of spells he could use to drive a person away, he opted on a defensive spell. This time, the intruder would see their worst fear and flee the area.
Silence surrounded him as he checked the perimeter of the farthest ward, searching for the owner of the blood. Ryan’s breath slowed as he spotted the tent from a few days ago. It barely stood. Its walls were tattered, and blood was smeared across the fabric. Studying the rest of the area, he determined it was safe to approach the tent. The woods around him were still. In the distance, birds sang and a squirrel ran up a tree about ten yards out.
Nearing the mess, he smelled more blood before spotting the foot sticking out of a blanket. The tension in Ryan’s body ramped up. With a wave of his hand, he saw into the tent. A man lay on his back, his eyes glossy, the horror he had experienced still frozen on his face. His throat had been ripped out, and blood soaked the earth through the slashed tent floor. The woman who accompanied the man when Ryan had come across them was nowhere in the destruction.
“Was she here during the attack?” Ryan muttered to himself.
It would not take long before another hiker came upon the body and called the rangers. A day, two at max, before two families would be destroyed with the loss of their loved one. The report would read bear attack, but he knew better. A bear had not taken the man’s life. If the woman was still alive, and it was a big if, she was now a plaything for her worst nightmare.
He circled the campsite but did not find any more blood or the woman. Ryan cleared any evidence of his presence before finishing his rounds, itching with the need to return to Brandy. He sighed with relief when there were no other signs of victims of the intruder.
The man’s death would stay with him for a long time. Something was out there looking for them, for Brandy. The man and woman had been innocent bystanders. He blamed himself for suggesting they come out here, inadvertently putting them and others in danger.
“We’ve got a big problem,” Peter growled as he caught up to him.
Ryan agreed. “Yeah. We need to move.”
“What did you find?” Peter asked, as he slipped one leg into the jeans he had discarded by the cabin.
“The campers at the western point? He’s dead, and she’s gone. Someone hit the farthest ward as well,” Ryan told him.
Peter zipped his jeans and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “It’s worse than a poor couple being killed.”
The hair on Ryan’s body stood to attention. “Tell me.”
