Page 14 of A Grave Girls' Getaway

Denise rushed over to me.

“Bitches knocked me all the way out to sea,” she said while running her hands over me to check for injuries. “Sorry it took so long to get back. Are you hurt?”

I only stared, hoping that Morgana’s threat was bogus. Maybe she’d only told me the mark was contagious because she wanted me to be too afraid to ask for help getting rid of it, assuming I could find a way to do that.

Denise made a sympathetic sound. “They hit you with another immobility spell, hmm?”

When I didn’t blink or speak, she said, “Guess so. This one’s stronger, if you can’t even blink now.”

God, what a cruel curse, forcing someone to be trapped in their own body while also dooming everyone around them. If I found a way out of this, I’d make those bitches pay.

“Something’s on your forehead,” Denise said, using the hem of her wet robe to wipe it. Then she frowned, rubbing harder.

“Sorry. It’s not coming off.”

No, it’s not because it’s a frigging contagious curse! I wanted to scream, but I could do nothing to warn her, and my helplessness burned more than the scorch of the mark.

Denise sighed and gave up trying to rub it off. “At least we know your paralysis is temporary, although it doesn’t make sense that they’d find you, paralyze you again, and then not kill you. Yes, I threatened to eat them, but they don’t know that I could really change into a dragon and do it.”

Hope perked in me. That’s right, Denise, figure out that there’s more going on here!

“Something’s up, isn’t it?”

I stared at her as emphatically as I could.

“Thought so.” She sounded resigned but not scared. “I’m calling Ian again. He can’t ignore a ringing phone forever.”

She spent the next ten minutes calling Ian and Veritas over and over. I swung back and forth between hope and terror as the time ticked by. Morgana had said anyone who spent more than five minutes in my presence would be cursed, too, but so far, Denise seemed fine. Maybe the witch had lied…

Denise suddenly dropped the phone. “I don’t feel so good…”

Horror pierced me when a line appeared on her forehead. Then another one slowly snaked its way above her brows. Then another. Denise grabbed her forehead while, inwardly, I screamed.

No, no, no!

Denise walked toward the mirror above the bar, touching her forehead as her reflection showed more marks appearing. After a few steps, she staggered and almost fell.

No!I mentally roared again. Please, God, no!

“Shit,” she murmured. “This is…bad, isn’t it?”

Her words slurred, as if she were having trouble speaking. My God, it wasn’t just the “sacrifice” curse that was contagious. The immobilization spell must have been, too!

And I could only watch, tears trickling out of my eyes. Oh, Denise. I’m so, so sorry…

She suddenly grabbed a bottle and a glass from the bar. Both almost fell from her hands, but she held on, and managed to spill some of the dark amber liquid into the glass.

What was she doing? I loved liquor as much as the next person, but this was hardly the time to drink!

She sank to her knees, yet one hand remained raised, holding up the glass. “Ashael,” she rasped out, and then swallowed some of the liquor.

Ashael? The mostly not evil demon who was Veritas’s brother? Sure, if anyone knew about magic, it was demons since their kind invented magic, but didn’t demons require specific symbols drawn with virgin blood plus their true names in order to be summoned? That’s the complicated ritual I’d had to do the one time I’d needed to summon a demon.

“Ashael, it’s Denise,” she went on, slurring her words so much that it was getting harder to understand her. “Come…now.”

With that, Denise swallowed again. Then, the glass fell from her hand, and she collapsed onto the floor.

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