Adversity (19 page)

“
Do you need help?” he asked.

She held
her hand in the air in response. He climbed down the sodden
embankment, trying to avoid the softer parts, but as he gripped her
hand and pulled, she slipped back heavily, pulling him on top of
her. With his entire weight on her body, his mouth barely an inch
from hers, and his gaze unwavering, she felt excitement and hope. A
reason to fight.

Feeling a
burst of bravery, she raised her hand to his face and traced a
muddy streak across his cheek. He didn’t move, save for the
trembling, and she kissed him for long seconds. His lips responded
to hers; his arms held her tight, and she felt as though a dream
had come true.

The
moment ended too quickly. He pulled back, sadness in his eyes, and
he apologised.

“
Don’t say you are sorry,” she whispered, “for I am
not.”

His
breath seemed to catch in his throat, but he lifted off her and
helped her up the embankment, to the grass.

“
I can’t go back like this.” She gestured to the muck caked on
her clothes and skin.

“
The lake,” he said in reply, his voice more quiet than
usual.

Don’t
regret it, she silently pleaded.

At the
lake, they both washed the mud and grime from their skin, and Kali
cleaned her skirts and even her hair as best she could. She felt
his eyes on her, and she turned to catch his gaze. There was heat
in his glance, and it thrilled every cell in her body. She inched
closer to him, and he didn’t move away.

He took
her hand and walked to the shore where she crawled onto his lap for
another kiss. He didn’t refuse her. This time their kiss was
rougher. Full of goodbyes. He pushed her gently onto the grass,
straddled her body, and lifted her skirts. She knew she would never
regret his touch.

Amelia

“
Holy…”

I jolted
upward, my heart pounding in the dark. For once I knew where I was,
who I was, and that what I had experienced was a dream, though I
couldn’t believe all I’d seen was a figment of my own subconscious
imagination. I couldn’t accept that Andriy and Kali had never
existed. I also couldn’t believe they’d been brave enough to make
that one irrevocable mistake. A mistake that could change
everything.

Part of
me applauded them for seeking out happiness, while another part of
me wanted to slap them for being so stupid. They would be
discovered—everything had consequences. The curse was teaching me
that. However, I’d always encouraged Nathan to follow his heart,
and now I was planning on taking his soul mate away from him as
soon as I figured out how.

It was
the middle of the night, and I felt a little hungry. I stumbled
downstairs and picked at leftovers in the fridge.

“
Amelia?”

I jumped
at the sound of Opa’s voice.

“
Yeah, sorry. I was hungry.”

“
Good. You need to eat, little one.”

Tears
came to my eyes at the gentleness of my grandfather’s tone, and I
felt as though I hadn’t heard his voice in a year. I turned to gaze
at him in wonder, and he shrugged.

“
You were right. All along, you were right. I let my own pain
break up the family. But it will get better. I promise
you.”

I shook
my head and took a deep breath to control the shaking in my voice.
“Don’t make promises. Right now, they don’t mean much. Show us
it’ll be better. Show us everything can go back to
normal.”

When he
bowed his head, I knew he couldn’t take things back to the way they
were. “We’ll never have the same lives again,” he said. “I can’t
change what’s happened; I can’t change how I feel. I need Vin to
suffer after what he did to your grandmother. I need to feel as
though I’ve done something for her and that I haven’t forgotten
her. I don’t want to live in a world in which she doesn’t exist,
but I won’t leave it until I’ve repaid a debt of pain. The wolf
will never rest as long as he lives. Please understand how it has
to be.”

“
If you wanted to prove your love, then you’d honour her
memory, Opa. She would
hate
this, and you know it. She would hate to see us
like this, gunning for blood, unable to find peace until we grabbed
ourselves a dose of revenge. This isn’t the way we’re supposed to
be.”

“
It’s the way I have to be,” he said, his eyes sad. “I need to
do what I should have done all those years ago. I would have saved
us a lifetime of pain.”

He left
the room soundlessly, and I slammed the fridge door, my stomach
turning. It was one thing to defend ourselves, but looking for
blood was quite another. I needed to get through to him before he
led the entire family straight into a violent war.

I went
back to bed, but this time I dreaded what visions sleep would bring
me.

***

Kali

In the
days counting down to her wedding, Kali realised she was carrying
Andriy’s child. She had known when they’d made love that the time
was right for her to conceive, but she was so interested in comfort
and any act that would take her pain away—even momentarily—that
she’d purposefully disregarded the possible consequences. She
hadn’t cared what would happen next. She had lived for the moment,
and now the future was planning on making her pay for
it.

The baby
could
be her way out, but the truth was dangerous. No man would
marry her if he knew she was already pregnant at the time of the
wedding, by another man. Her father would lose out on the riches he
hoped to gain from her. Her people would punish, shun, and reject
her everywhere she turned. She could be called before the Kris,
suffer her gypsy blood to be taken from her, and lose her magic,
perhaps even her child. But she could avoid all of that. All she
had to do was run.

She
hadn’t seen Andriy since the day he loved her. She hadn’t gone back
to the village. Her father had beaten her, but some of the camp
women intervened, saying it wasn’t right to make her return so soon
to fortune-telling. The women wanted her to reconcile Drina’s death
with her physical body, lest Drina’s spirit returned, unable to
rest in peace. Kali would have preferred the beating, for that kind
of pain was preferable. At least her father’s beatings had kept her
thoughts away from her broken heart.

She made
her decision that night and crept away in the dead of night. She
had found Andriy before, so she would go to him again to say
goodbye, at the very least.

If her
father or Besnik found her out, they would harm Andriy for taking
something of theirs, and she hesitated.

Andriy
made her decision for her. He came for her on the eve of her
wedding. She saw him in the distance, beyond her people’s
campgrounds, and she knew it was him, for she recognised in him
everything that marked him as hers.

She
didn’t hesitate to run to him, pulling him behind a copse of trees
so they wouldn’t be seen.

“
What are you doing here?”

His chin
shook. “I heard your wedding was tomorrow. My wife found out and
rubbed it in my face. She boasted she had sent men to rape you and
make you unclean, in the hopes your people would kill you before
the wedding. She has a black heart. The way she spoke… I can’t live
with her hate.”

“
I’m running away,” she told him, anguished by the pain in his
eyes.

“
Why?”

She took
his hand and pressed it against her stomach, gazing at him
meaningfully. He stared at her, awe in his expression.

“
Truly?”

She
nodded, a giggle of excitement escaping her lips. She never thought
the idea of a child would please her, but Andriy’s child was
something else. The thought of them, combining to make one perfect
being, made her heart soar with happiness.

“
We could run together,” he said. “We could change our names.
Marry. Live free lives. I can’t get your touch out of my mind,
Kali. Everything else has tasted like ash since I tasted you. I
could never be happy without you.”

She
kissed his lips. “We’re meant to be. We’re soul mates, Andriy. I’ll
run anywhere with you.”

They left
in the dark, taking nothing except the wolfhound called Dog. They
made sure to avoid any villages close to gypsy camps. Andriy helped
them survive by working odd jobs in the villages in which they
stopped, and she did the usual palm reading and fortune-telling
while her belly swelled.

Each kick
from the baby inside her filled her with awe. She thought she might
love the baby even more than she idolised his father. She knew it
was a boy; she could sense him clearly. Part of her wished it was
Drina’s son reincarnated.

The
shadows grew ever closer and never let her forget her heritage. The
shadows were brought upon her by her father’s black magic. She
wouldn’t allow them to have her child. Never would she allow
that.

A
thunderstorm tore the sky apart on the night she went into labour.
She and Andriy, accompanied only by Dog, huddled together in the
small room they rented. She still didn’t know what possessed her to
take the animal, but he had served them well so far.

She
dreamt through the pain. Nightmarish visions of her sister covered
in blood, her hands reaching for Kali, begging with her dead eyes.
The dreams didn’t bode well for her, and for the first time, she
wondered if her baby would die, too. Perhaps that would be her
punishment for her sins.

But the
birth went easily, and Kali’s first glimpse of her baby changed
everything for her. Her heart belonged to him. She knew it as soon
as she felt that first whoosh of true love when his eyes had
opened, dark eyes that didn’t waver from hers. Promise and
possibility lay in his eyes. To Kali, he was pure beauty, and her
heart swelled at the strength in his little fingers and the force
behind his kicks.

For six
months, the three of them had the perfect life filled with love,
happiness, and contentment. She had everything she ever wanted. She
stopped looking over her shoulder, and started believing that maybe
she deserved every second of the happiness she had stolen. She
relaxed and learned to love her life.

Until her
father found them.

He came
while Andriy was gone with Dog, and he barged through her door as
though it were made of cotton.

“
I heard you were here. Knew it had to be you. The clan wants
me to take you back with me. Besnik wanted to call you before the
Kris until the bandolier persuaded him otherwise.” He hacked up a
laugh. “He wants
me
to pay him for what you did. And the wise old bandolier has
decided he will not be harsh so long as I do.
I’m
being punished for your
betrayal.
I’m
suffering for your devil antics.”

The baby
in the corner whimpered as the chovihano’s voice rose into a shout.
Knowing the power of her father’s words, Kali positioned herself
between her father and her son, and spoke evenly.

“
Calm down. You’re upsetting him. We’ll pay you back. Leave us
now, and we’ll pay you whatever you feel you’re owed.”

“
Owed? I’m owed a life debt, daughter. I’m not here to take you
back. I’m here to choke the life out of you.”

“
Leave me, coward. I’ll not listen to your ugly words. Sneaking
around when Andriy isn’t here. You made your own promises; I didn’t
help you with that. Suffer with them on your shoulders.” She could
see the murder in his eyes, knew her time would run out soon, but
if she could hold him off for a while, then Andriy would return to
protect their son. All she cared about was her son.

He watched her move protectively, and she saw her mistake.
“Oh, I’m not here to end
his
life,” he said with a hateful sneer. “I’m here to
curse every second of his existence. I want you to die knowing he
carries the burden of your sins on his shoulders. I promise you he
will live a long, agonizing life alone.”

A shudder
ran through her as the room darkened. The baby’s whimpers became
sobs, and Kali could barely keep her eyes on her father.

“
Let him be. He’s no harm to you,” she said. “I’ll give you
anything if you forget he exists.” Her voice shook because she knew
what he would do. He wanted them to suffer, and he had the black
magic to do it.

“
I cast you out.” He spat out the words, and their severity
stilled the blood in her veins. “Your blood will never find peace.
Your descendents will be hounded with the search for happiness and
love. Like you, they’ll forget everything but their obsession, and
it will slip from their grasp every time. They will mourn. They
will suffer. They will never be guardians. They will never protect
a soul.”

His words
hypnotised her, and she felt the power in the tremors of his voice.
The shadows grew closer, clinging to her father, filling him with
power.

“
No!” she screamed. “Leave us be!” She could take the pain, but
she would never allow her child to suffer from it. The shadows
touched her, exploring, cautious in their attempt to see if she
would accept them. She had her son to consider. She would inhale
everything they gave her if it meant she could save him from a life
of pain.