Page 9 of Mortal Desires

“And Emilia’s pearls.” Marnie flinched. My eyes went to the pearls on the parasol clutched between Mia’s fingers.

“What about Florencia and Pilar?”

Oh, I didn’t think I could escape. What were the chances, really? I was usually the unlucky one. I felt my cheeks warm when Marnie turned her gaze to me. I felt her eyes tracing my features, my hand trembled over my lap, wondering if I was going to be lucky just one day. Just one night.

I held my breath until Marnie shook her head. My eyes went wide, my brain refused to believe this time I’d be spared. I swallowed the relieved giggle that formed in my throat, disguising it with a sigh as I brought my hand to my chest.

Before I had time to react, Marnie reached over and took my hand in hers, her grip hard as she passed her thumb over the red jewel of Abuela’s ring.

Shit.

I almost forgot about this forsaken ring. I looked at Elisa in panic, ready to explain myself. They should know I wasn’t just stealing things left and right. Silly me, that wasn’t the problem here.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed.

The words coming off Marnie’s lips didn’t register at first. She was sorry for what? For showing the ring to everyone? It wasn’t her fault.

But everything clicked in its horrifying place when Elisa’s head hung down and she said, “And Pilar’s ring.”

Pilar’s ring?

What?

I didn’t have a chance to ask since Marnie already turned her eyes to Florencia, looking her up and down. I glanced down to the ring, heavy in my small hand and the flicker of comprehension finally lit up. She saw the ring in her visions. I was meeting my soulmate tonight too, no lucky Pilar it seems.

My sisters kept talking but my mind was far away. I stared at the red jewel, pulling the chain of events that led me here. My abuela arrived after her death and told me to steal the ring under my father’s nose. The knowing sense that Penny got today, finally asking me to wear it.

The cursed ring that would bring me an unwanted soulmate.

“We are meeting them tonight.” Elisa’s resigned tone reached me.

“And how are we going to keep them alive?” It was the only thing I wanted to know.

Elisa opened her mouth and then closed it again once more until she shook her head. “We are keeping them alive, understand? All of them.”

I wanted to point out we had to keep ourselves alive too. We all knew partners couldn’t be trusted, but I kept my mouth shut.

“Sisters, do you understand? The Morales curse ends tonight,” Elisa called with an edge to her voice that vibrated through the house. Thunder roared outside on a night of clear skies and Abuela’s crystal vase fell, crashing from the shelf behind us, smashing in little pieces on the floor.

I closed my eyes when I heard the noise and when I opened them again Penny was there, looking right at me. She looked as solid as my sisters, her eyes frightened. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but she talked first in a rushed tone that raised all the hairs on the back of my neck.

“Something is going on. Something outside. I can feel it.”

I wanted to ask for more, I wanted to tell her not to leave but she flickered away too quickly. Like she was a glitch, existing and not at the same time.

My sisters argued around me, Flo came back with a broom to clean the glass from the vase that just fell and Marnie sealed her fate as well. She saw that exact broom in Flo’s hand in a vision.

I couldn’t react to Florencia’s news when all I could think about was Penny. Nothing happened to ghosts. They were already dead, already gone and yet my stomach twisted in knots because something didn’t feel right.

It was more than the ring on my finger or the soulmate waiting for me. It was Penny looking solid, it was the lack of ghosts around the manor when today the veil was at its thinnest.

I opened my mouth to tell them, to clue them in on what was happening beyond their eyes when a rapid knock sounded at the door.

All seven of us turned in the direction of the sound. I swallowed dry and balled my hand into a fist.

“Do soulmates knock?” I wondered out loud. “How polite.”

Elisa stood up, and so did the rest of us. No one knocked at our house. We had protective spells, and they worked wonders, especially on All Hallows’ Eve.

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