Page 65 of A Touch Charmed

“I see what you’re trying to do and you’re wasting your time.” I stared at my cuticles, boredom dripping from my voice. As long as I put my trust in Thora, none of this stuff could touch me. I was so much more than where I’d come from.

More images flooded my mind. An endless stream of faces and bodies in various states of undress. All the women I’d slept with while Thora was gone. Shame burned the back of my throat as they flicked past me. I couldn’t remember most of their names.

They deserved better than that. And so did I. I understood that now.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“She doesn’t think I’m wasting my time.” The smoke curled around my ear. “I showed her everything you’ve done for the last seven years and she hates you for it.”

The smoke lied. Maybe I would’ve believed it a few days ago, a few hours ago even, but I’d faced some hard truths on my way up here. I was willing to fight for Thora, I was willing to take responsibility for fucking it up seven years ago, and I was ready to move forward. When I believed in us, my past couldn’t touch me. Neither could the curse.

It plunged harder into my mind, rifling through my memories, desperate to pull out something it could use against me. Finally, it paused. I could’ve sworn I heard it chuckle in my ear. The next thing I knew, I was thrown back into that night when I’d walked away from Thora and ruined the best thing that had ever happened to me.

Wes nudged me with his shoulder. “Are you sure you want another?”

“Yep.” I popped the top on my tenth beer. I could still feel my fingers and toes, so I wasn’t near drunk enough yet. “If I pass out, drag me up to the hotel.”

“If you pass out, I’m leaving your ass here,” Wes said. “Are you going to tell me what happened? Or are you just going to keep mainlining alcohol until you forget who you are?”

“Forgetting who I am is just one of the perks of getting drunk.”

I’d said some unforgivable shit to Thora. I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see me again. The look on her face when I yelled at her would be forever seared in my brain. It should’ve been a happy day. She’d just accomplished something she’d worked so hard for, something that would help set her apart from her father once and for all, and I threw it in her face because I was an asshole. The ring I didn’t deserve to give her burned a hole in my pocket.

Wes looked around at the people mashing their bodies together on the beach, dancing or just plain making out. He lowered his voice. “Did she say no?”

He knew about my plans to propose, of course. Knew how long I’d worked and sweated and saved. I was supposed to send Thora back to college with my ring. I’d managed to fuck that right up, though. Even if we worked shit out before she left, I couldn’t do it now. I needed a few weeks for this argument to blow over and that was time I didn’t have. Especially when she wasn’t coming home for winter break.

I took a long pull from my bottle. “Didn’t ask.”

I fumbled with my phone, checking to see if I’d missed a text from Thora for the hundredth time that night. Who the hell was I? This sitting around and feeling sorry for myself bullshit wasn’t me. I clenched my phone in a tight fist and stood. The world spun way too fast around me. I lost my footing, bumping into Olivia, who spilled her drink and laughed.

She gripped me in a way that had my stomach rolling. “So sorry, Finn. Didn’t see you there.” She rubbed her thumb over my upper arm. “Wild night, huh?”

I took a step away from her, stumbled, and overcorrected the other way, bumping into her again. “Fuck. I’m too drunk for this standing shit.”

She gave me an indulgent smile and bent over to pick something up off the ground, but my vision was too blurry to make out what it was. “Better if you sit then. See you later.”

Wes let out a long-winded sigh when I plopped back down next to him and held out his hand. “Give me your phone. I’ll text Thora to come and get your pathetic ass. Because I’m sure as shit not going to be your nursemaid.”

I patted my pockets and searched the sand at my feet. My phone was gone. My eyelids began to get heavy and my head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. “Call her in the morning. I’m not making it off this beach tonight.”

“Finn!” The tears in Thora’s voice snapped me back to reality.

The smoke released me and my body tensed, prepared for a physical fight, but it had disappeared. Either because it had burned out its energy, or it had hit the mark it had been aiming for, I couldn’t be sure either way. There was no sign of it nearby. No crackling leaves or wisps of dark vapor in the air. The dead zone was completely silent.

I scrubbed a hand over my face as the memory of that night at the bonfire played hell on my emotions all over again. I’d gone over it so many times in my head, I was certain I’d become numb to it, but nope. Still hurt like a motherfucker to relive it.

Funny how my breakup with Thora could wound me more than every shitty experience from my childhood combined. It took the curse a minute, probably because it didn’t understand the significance of that night. How could it, when it didn’t understand love? But it eventually found what mattered most to me. The memory where my greatest fears and failures lived.

“Fuck.” The weight of what just happened sank into me. It found cracks in my relationship with Thora and slithered its way in. I pulled her against me, needing to feel her solid warmth against my body. Her healing magic flowed into me as she held a hand over my thundering heart. “What were you trying to tell me before the smoke took over?”

She pushed the words out in a rush, her eyes darting around for the next attack. “The man with the forked tongue is Ophiuchus’s son. He’s the thirteenth descendant.”

Chapter 19

Thora

“Holyshit.Didthelegend bother to get anything right?” Finn began to pace, burning off the last edges of his power. He rubbed a hand over his head. “Is that why he broke your wrist? You tried to find out more?”

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