Page 6 of A Touch Enchanted

All the tension left Wes’s frame as he grinned and shook his head before passing around his fancy whiskey tumblers to the group. The rich amber liquid went down smooth, warming the frost that had settled in my gut since I’d seen those fish. Violet’s face puckered as she took her shot. She’d never had much of a stomach for liquor, but it took the edge off what we’d seen and what we’d be expected to do as a result.

Audrey took a seat on the loveseat between me and Violet. “This is not something we’ve been taking lightly. But if the curse is attacking the beach, it will only be a matter of time before it traps us here. We can’t let tourists be caught unaware.”

According to the legend we’d all grown up on, Zodiac Cove had been formed by the gods and goddesses of the constellations as a gift for their human lovers. Their descendants had been blessed with magic. For years, they lived in peace and comfort until a curse threatened to destroy everything they loved. It attacked them—first mentally, then physically—before trapping them on the island and blocking out the sun. Eventually, it would’ve sunk Zodiac Cove into the sea—if the original twelve descendants hadn’t given up their magic and their memories to stop it.

Because of their sacrifice, there hadn’t been magic on the island in over three hundred years. It had been trapped within twelve birthstones that framed the entrance to a cave where the curse had been contained. Until there were once again twelve descendants on the island. Their presence broke the magic free of the stones and released it to its human hosts, triggered by the night Thora Chase—soon to be Wilder—returned home for the first time in over seven years.

Originally, we believed Ophiuchus had cast the curse in a fit of jealousy. We only recently learned there had been a thirteenth descendant, Ophiuchus’s son, who was inexplicably alive and appeared to be half-man, half-demon. It was still unclear what had happened to him, but Thora strongly believed he created the curse, not Ophiuchus.

Thora and Finn had battled the forked-tongue man-demon, who went by Nirah, aided by a series of strange golden threads that had flowed from the cave. The power contained within those golden threads had been too much for the simple granite structure. The cave exploded, shattering the birthstones that had once trapped our magic, ensuring our fight was now a fight to the death.

The curse had tested Wes and Audrey first, attacking their minds and playing mental games with them. Next, it went for Finn and Thora. This time, the curse had a lethal poison at its disposal. When they did battle with it in the dead zone at the center of the island, they managed to nullify the poison, but we knew the physical attacks would still be brutal going forward. Thankfully, we now had two healers with the power of speed on our side.

Its next step would be to trap us here. That’s where Violet and I would come in. The fish on the beach were only the beginning. Fuck. Finn was right. I should’ve been practicing with her this whole time instead of putting us both in such a defenseless position.

And as much as I hated to admit it, the rest of them were also right about getting the tourists off this island. We could try to stop the curse before it trapped us here, but was that a chance we really wanted to take? Knowing what would come next?

“There has to be another way.” Violet’s bottom lip trembled. “My family …”

“Your family will be taken care of. We’ll find them jobs within our company on the mainland, a place to stay,” Wes said. “You know we take care of our own, Vi. We’d never ask this of the residents without having a backup plan in place.”

She knotted her fingers together. “They’ll never agree to charity.”

“It won’t be charity,” I said, knowing full well the only thing Violet’s parents had an abundance of was pride. She shot me a look like I’d betrayed her. “They’ll be working. Hell, with their work ethic, they’ll be the ones doing us a favor.”

“This isn’t even a discussion, is it?” Violet held Audrey’s gaze, firm and unyielding. “The decision has already been made. It’s up to the rest of us to just go along with it.”

“It won’t be firm until the next town hall meeting,” Wes said. “We hope we can get most of the businesses on board before the mayor catches wind of what’s happening.”

“I know what you want me to do.” Violet pressed his fingers into her temple, rubbing at the headache that was surely beginning to form. “I need to think about it, okay?”

“The fish are just a taste of what’s to come.” Wes’s expression hardened as he turned his gaze toward the wild waves that punished the dark shoreline. “Time is not on our side here.”

Finn leaned over and gave him a look that had him backing off. Unlike Wes and me, Finn knew what it felt like to struggle. The hard decisions that needed to be made. How it wasn’t so easy to just pack up your life and leave your livelihood in the hands of fate. What Violet would have to ask of her parents was something we couldn’t possibly understand.

Audrey asked Violet to go out to the deck with her so they could talk privately. This wasn’t something Audrey wanted to do either. She’d have her hands full trying to convince Selene and Ella to leave. Her grandma was as stubborn as they came and hadn’t been off this island since a sailing accident took the life of her only son.

Thora murmured that she was headed for bed. Before she stood, she whispered something in Finn’s ear, her expression heavy-lidded and full of promise. They’d just gotten engaged. I had no doubt their night was just beginning. He watched his new fiancée walk away, as if physically unable to tear his eyes off her until she left the room. What had happened to keep the two of them apart for seven years had been a crime. Warren Chase deserved to rot in hell.

“So …” Finn turned his attention back to me. “What’s going on with you and Violet? You both looked flustered earlier tonight.”

I pulled on the end of my beard. I should’ve seen this question coming. “Nothing happened. I brought her ice cream, told her we needed to talk, then you showed up.”

“Hmm.” He leaned back on the couch with a smug expression. “You know how thin her walls are, right? I thought she was working out or something before I knew you were there.”

Jesus Christ. I could not catch a fucking break. “What do you want me to say? That I had her pressed against the door with her nipple in my mouth while she ground her pussy against me so hard I was seeing stars? That if you hadn’t knocked, I was about two seconds away from tearing off her shorts and rutting inside her like a goddamn animal?”

“Damn, dude. I didn’t need all that.” Finn rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I just wanted to find out if you’d kissed her or not.”

“What the fuck, D?” Wes held my gaze, the disgust evident in his expression. “I told you that your magic would be more potent. I warned you to get a grip on yourself beforehand.”

“I know.” The muscles in my back tensed. “It’s done. Let it go.”

Maybe I deserved the guilt trip my brother wanted to lay on me, but I couldn’t let go of the belief that it hadn’t just been the magic between Violet and me in her apartment. It had also been nine years of wanting and regret and all the things I could’ve, should’ve done differently back when she told me she was in love with me.

Before tonight, I thought I’d blown it with her forever, that I didn’t have a chance in hell of making her love me like she used to again. Until the moment her eyes cleared, during that brief second when she’d gotten a grip on her magic and continued to urge me on.

She couldn’t have been unaffected. Violet was a Pisces through and through, she was ruled by her emotions and felt everything with an intensity few understood. Though she’d never reveal any of her feelings to me. Her waters ran strong, but they ran deep.

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