Autumn (21 page)

“It’s much more complicated than a mere
dislike
.”

“I didn’t say dislike. I said
vendetta
.”

“You have a flair for the dramatic. You must get that from your mother,” Ariel observed.

Lou fell silent. Her mother was hardly a flight-of-fancy drama queen. If anything, it had been her father who was apt to exaggerate things—usually for the sake of humor. But for Ariel to make a statement one way or the other implied an existing knowledge of Lou’s father.

Taking Lou’s new quiet repose as an invitation, Ariel continued. “We weren’t trying to be malicious by warning you off the Reynolds boy, Eloise. I assure you, we aren’t as coldhearted as you’d like to think we are.”

“Sure.” Honestly, she didn’t know where this was going, so she bit her tongue against the urge to say anything more.

“You and Cooper are chemistry lab partners, if what Archer tells me is accurate.”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll put it to you in familiar terms. You are hydrogen and he is the match.”

“If you’re trying to tell me Cooper and I have combustible chemistry, I should probably tell you to mind your own business.”

Ariel leaned across the table, extending her hand towards Lou’s. When the older woman touched Lou the itching sensation became a white-hot burn, and a spark visibly cracked between them. She jerked her hand back at the same time Ariel did, shocked by what had happened.

Faint vapors of smoke curled off her skin, but where she expected to feel pain, there was only a cool release. For a moment the itching was quieted. Ariel didn’t look relieved. She stared at the place on Lou’s hand she’d touched as if it were a viper rather than the limb of a human girl.

Archer cast a glance between them, his eyes wide with surprise. “Is that what—?”

With a flick of her wrist, Ariel silenced him. He didn’t ask her any more questions, but he continued to stare at Lou with a cross between fear and wonder. She could almost see her own stunned expression reflected in his eyes.

What the hell was happening to her?

In California she’d just been a normal girl. Then her dad died and everything went to hell. Now she was seeing his ghost, falling for a coyote boy, and was related to the witch who’d cursed him.

“How are you involved?” Lou’s hands trembled in her lap.

“Do you know about Cooper’s brother, Jeremy?”

Lou hesitated but didn’t think answering would give too much away if they
didn’t
know about the curse. “Yes.”

“And what did Cooper tell you about that?”

Raising her eyebrow, Lou gave the older woman a look that asked,
Do I look stupid to you?

“All right.” Ariel lifted her hands in mock surrender. “How about I assume you know what we both
know
you know? How about we stop playing games and just get to the point?”

“And what is it you think I know?”

“I think you know Jeremy Reynolds is wandering around the Poisonfoot woods on four legs instead of two. I think you know Cooper Reynolds will be joining him next summer. And I think you know your family is responsible for that.”

So Ariel
wasn’t
playing games. Lou didn’t know how to respond to the information. Obviously Ariel hadn’t told her anything she didn’t know, but she was having it all confirmed for her by an adult. An adult who seemed
reasonably
sane. Somehow knowing there were people aside from her and Cooper who believed in the curse made it feel more real.

And once it stopped being a thing she shared only with him, she let the weight of it become something she could feel rather than something she was merely imagining. It
was
real. She wasn’t crazy or letting herself be lured in by the charming lies of the town’s bad boy.

By Ariel laying her cards out on the table, Lou was allowed to fully, honestly believe everything Cooper had told her. She’d wanted to, and to an extent she already had believed, but this was the final shove she needed to really
accept
it.

“Okay,” was all Lou said, not adding anything to the conversation but confirming for Ariel that she was in the loop.

“Did your father ever talk to you about his life here before he died?”

Lou didn’t think Ariel was talking about fun childhood memories, so she shook her head.

“So everything you know has come from Cooper?”

“If you’re going to imply he’s lying or something, save your breath.” She also didn’t want to tell Ariel about information she’d gleaned from her father
after
he died.

Ariel looked sideways at Archer while Nigel paced the aisle, not truly a part of the conversation but observing it from the fringes. During the silent interval there was a quiet tap on the glass.

“Hello?” came a voice through the door. “Is anyone in there?”

Cooper
.

Lou wanted to shout for him, but when she looked across the table, Ariel was holding a finger to her lips in a
shush
gesture, and her cool glare was enough to keep Lou silent. She didn’t think the Wyatts were going to hurt her—not any worse than Nigel already had—but something told her it would be in her best interest not to call for help.

They waited in a quiet so perfect she could hear the gravel crunch under Cooper’s truck tires when he pulled out of the parking lot behind the library.

She let out a shaky breath.

“Archer, can you continue explaining things to Eloise, please? I need to call your brother and tell him what’s going on.” She squeezed his shoulder and retrieved her cellphone, brushing past Nigel to where she could have some privacy.

Lou glowered at Archer, letting him know she wasn’t going to be anywhere near as polite to him as she’d been with his mother.

“I’m not the bad guy here,” he reminded her.

“How do I know that?”

“You can’t stop the curse, Lou.”

“I can if I’m responsible for it.”

“No. You
can’t
stop it. What do you know about magic?”

The tingling in her fingers became more pronounced when he asked the question. “Nothing,” she admitted.

“Magic isn’t just hocus-pocus and sleight of hand. It’s a manipulation of energy.” He placed his hands on the table with his palms facing up. As he spoke, a spark of blue light formed in one hand, flicking up like a small, cerulean flame.

Lou’s pulse quickened as she watched, totally stunned by what she was seeing. Ghosts and coyotes were one thing, but Archer was creating something from nothing. No matter what else she’d seen, it was still
really
cool. She was having a hard time accepting that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her.

The flame got a little bigger, and with the slightest wiggle of his fingers it changed color from blue, to green, to orange.

“All around us there’s energy. It has a natural flow—the molecules like to function in a certain way. When we use magic, we disrupt the natural flow. The
longer
we disrupt the flow, the more volatile and…intense the magic becomes.”

“Intense how?” She was still staring at the flame in his palm.

“It takes on a mind of its own, in a manner of speaking.” The flame expanded, forming into a ball and hissing angrily. Lou had a feeling Archer was manipulating it to make a point, but it was effective.

“Not that this isn’t, admittedly, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, but what does this have to do with me? And Cooper?”

“A curse is applied magic,” Archer explained. “You basically tag someone as being the focal point for your magic. The longer that curse exists, and the more people you apply it to…well, it can get a bit wild.”

Lou nodded, but she didn’t really grasp the point he was trying to make.

“Normally a curse dies when the main purpose of the curse is fulfilled. But if that doesn’t happen, it will usually die along with the person who cast it.” Archer’s little ball of flame was now the size of a grapefruit, crackling like a bowl of Rice Krispies.

So a normal curse would have died with Morena. But almost two hundred years had passed, and it was still going as strong as ever.

“What if the curse doesn’t die with the person who cast it?”

Archer smiled and nodded, as if she’d finally understood.

“Sometimes a curse is so powerful it embeds itself into the very core of a person’s being. Or a family.”

“Okay.”

“A curse like the one cast on the Reynolds family has burned so long and so deep, it stops just being about the people. That curse is engrained in every part of this town.”

“What does that have to do with you and your mother?”

“Some people have a natural ability to make order of chaos. Like a grounded plug or a lightning rod.” He lifted his empty hand and held it above the ball of flame, touching the orange sphere with one finger. It vanished instantly, leaving only a puff of smoke behind.

“So…”

“You’re fire. He’s dynamite. And I…” he pointed to himself, “…I’m the glass wall that keeps it all from blowing up in our faces.”

“Not you specifically, dear,” Ariel interrupted. “But I think you summarized the points very nicely.”

“What happens if I find a way to end the curse?” Lou asked. “I mean, if it’s attached to me the same way it’s attached to Cooper, what happens if I can figure out how to stop it?” She didn’t want to be so dependent on them for answers, but so far the Wyatts were the only ones willing to give her any insight.

Ariel sat down across from her again and made to reach for her, but Lou didn’t miss the way she paled slightly and withdrew her hand. Ariel was afraid to touch her.

“Like Archer said, the depth and breadth of this curse is beyond the scope of the normal, everyday negative oath or bad thought. It’s rewritten the energy of the whole town. Our family came here a hundred years ago to keep it in check, and we haven’t been able to leave since.”

“So you’re what…hall monitors for the curse?”

“We’re Watchers. We keep order.”

“And now you’re trying to keep order by keeping me away from Cooper.” The tingling sensation in her hands built to a new intensity as a renewed anger overcame her. She understood they were just doing what they thought was right, but how could anyone believe keeping her away from Cooper was the only way to save the town?

“You don’t understand the power you’re messing with here.” Ariel wasn’t playing around anymore. Her face was cruel and serious. “You are
going
to stay away from that boy.”

“No. I’m not.” Lou got to her feet, rubbing her anxious palms on the back of her jeans and looking at the door. “I’ve listened to what you have to say. I watched your little light show. Now I’m going to go.” When she moved in the direction of the exit, Ariel got to her feet and blocked the path.

“Do you think you have an option here?” Ariel snarled, no longer a sweet Southern mother. Now she was as vicious as the animal Cooper’s brother had become. “I don’t want to make this ugly, but I will. You are going to stay away from Cooper. If I have to threaten you
and
him, I will. This isn’t a game. This isn’t puppy love. You have to stay away from him. It’s not a request.”

“I don’t care.” Lou side-stepped, the light coming from the door mocking her. The longer she was kept from escaping, the angrier she got. The fire ants under her skin had become bees and were well on their way to becoming a full-fledged lightning storm.

“You don’t understand.”

“
I don’t care,
” Lou repeated.

“Your father tried to ignore the curse. He ran away, and it killed him.”

The words were like a slap in the face. “
What?
”

“I told you,” Archer interrupted. “It becomes a part of the family. Part of the town. He left the town.”

“My dad died of cancer.”

“No.” Ariel shook her head. “He died because the energy of the curse was a part of him. He died because he ignored the nature of magic, and it destroyed him from the inside out. If you ignore it, it will consume you and everything you love.”

Lou felt cold. Her pulse throbbed in her ears, and she stared at Ariel, no longer processing the words the woman was saying. She had to be lying. Her father had died of cancer. She’d seen him waste away. She’d been in the oncology wing when the doctors told her mother there was nothing they could do to fight the tumors. Cancer wasn’t magic.

“Get out of my way.”

“You need to listen to me.” Ariel ignored the tremor in Lou’s voice. “I can make this easier for you.”

“
Get out of my way.
” Lou moved to get past Ariel, but the older woman grabbed for her. Ariel’s hand was glowing silvery white, and when she touched Lou’s arm, the world froze in place as if time itself had stopped.

The buzzing sensation in her hands grew to a fever pitch, and Lou heard nothing but a static wail when Ariel touched her. Lou’s efforts to wrench herself free of Ariel were useless because the older woman clung to her, fingernails digging into her skin.

“Let me help you.”

But this wasn’t help. Pain shot through Lou’s body, and she desperately tried to shake Ariel off.

She was reminded, briefly, of being in detention with Archer, when his touch had felt like creeping hands and with each passing second of contact he’d robbed her of something precious.

At the time she’d passed it off as imagination, but too much had happened in the days since for her to be so foolish anymore. It wasn’t a coincidence that Cooper’s memories had been leached from her. That had been the goal all along.

As Ariel held her, she forgot his smell. She forgot the taste of his kisses. The softness of his hair and the rough skin of his palms. Now that she knew these memories were being stolen, she could feel each one being snatched from her like it was a physical thing.

“Don’t do this,” she pleaded.

“You left us no choice.”

The tingling grew stronger within her, like her body was trying to reject what Ariel was doing. Lou focused on the buzzing, not sure what she was expecting, but if any part of her might be able to reverse Ariel’s magic, she was willing to try.

She closed her eyes and pictured the place where her hand met Ariel’s like it was the conduit between a plug and a socket, and she imagined all the hot, uncomfortable energy zinging through her was instead focused at that point.